#Spaghettisquash is trending in Emily’s kitchen. If Nature was a contestant on Chopped, she’d get an A+ for presentation, taste, and creativity. Look at this thing! A golden delicious gourd.
At the grocery store, this guy can look and feel a bit daunting. It’s pretty heavy and to the touch feels like it’s armed with a layer of Kevlar. But once you figure out how to get the squash spaghetti out (which is surprisingly simple), you just toss it into a pan with some grapeseed oil and chopped <fill in the blank>, and dinner is served! Best of all, if you bring home a squash that’s big enough, you’ll have enough for dinner tonight, while setting aside the other half for a new flavor variety tomorrow.
Tonight, it was grape tomatoes, basil and snow peas, with a splash of balsamic vinegar.
What you’ll need:
1 medium spaghetti squash
1 package of grape tomatoes chopped
1/4 lb of snow peas chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
Fresh basil leaves
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
Directions:
Softening the squash: I used to chop the raw squash into two halves and microwave them face down in a dish filled with water. But that’s when we had our trusty monster Chinese cooking meat cleaver. This time I tried out a new method, which worked like a charm and made it easy to get my paws on the good stuff.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. With a knife, stab the squash several times around to allow steam to escape. Stick the squash in the oven on a baking sheet for 1 hour. Allow the squash to cool for 10-15 minutes before cutting in half (lengthwise) and scooping out the seeds. Use a fork to rake the squash strands away from the skin and place into a bowl.
In a medium pan, sautee the snow peas, tomatoes and basil in the grapeseed oil for ~5 minutes (you can use garlic too — it’s just banned from our kitchen bc sven hates it), then add the squash. Add the balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Toss everything together.
I like my squash a little crunchy, but if you like it softer, just cover the pan and cook a little longer.
Why don’t you share with the class what you did with the remainder of the spaghetti squash?
ooh yah. i stir-fried the second half of the squash and used it as the filling for 4 mini pies i made with our Breville pie maker! made the dough with whole wheat flour + butter, and added mozzarella before I started the cookin’. makes for a convenient veggie pie lunch.