Friday, January 15, 2010

Pasta Free Spaghetti

I've been saying that I was going to write this post since Tuesday when I made some spaghetti squash for dinner. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to it but here we go.

Have you ever had spaghetti squash? If not, you should definitely try it because it is delicious. One of my friends was over and he is a pretty picky eater. So I told a little "white lie" and failed to mention the SQUASH part of the spaghetti. The funny thing about it is that he didn't even notice and after he finished eating it he didn't even believe that it wasn't pasta. Which just supports my developing theory of who needs grains?

If you're interested here is the method I used to cook the spaghetti squash. There are a several other methods.....if you google it then lots of different recipes will pop up.

Spaghetti Squash:

Ingredients
-1 big spaghetti squash
-pasta sauce (whatever kind you like best)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Wash the spaghetti squash.
3. Poke holes all around the squash with a sharp knife or skewer. (very important step if you don't want the squash to explode)
4. Place the squash in a baking pan and bake for an hour or until the squash is soft. *test the squash by squeezing with an oven mitt. It should give easily.
5. Let the squash cool for about 10 minutes. Cut in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy portion (this part was hard because it stringy part and seeds got caught in the "meat" of the squash).
6. Scrape the meat of the squash, it should look like noodles. Serve with pasta sauce.

Tip: I recommend using a meat sauce. The next time I make it I will serve it with a tomato sauce that has ground turkey in it.

I will definitely be making spaghetti squash a part of my regular meal plan. The good thing is that my mom said she plans on growing spaghetti squash in her garden this year.

3 comments:

runrgrl2007 said...

I have always wanted to try spaghetti squash but have been scared...I will be giving this one a try this week? We are going to have to talk more about this "primasl living thing".

Dena said...

I'll try to and report back. Can you use it in place of any spaghetti in a recipe?

Tam said...

@Amy - Yes, you should try it. I was scared too but it is a lot easier than I thought it would be.

@Dena - From my understanding you can use it with any sauce combination. I'm a meat eater so I prefer a meat sauce but I saw a recipe using a simple garlic/olive oil sauce that sounded delicious. I look forward to your report.