How to Make Spaghetti Squash

My son and I went to the pumpkin patch last weekend. We had so much fun looking at the barn animals, going through the corn maze and picking out our pumpkins. While we were there I came across a large yellow squash. The lady that worked there told me that it was spaghetti squash. I have heard of it before but had no idea how to cook it or what to make out of it. I decided to give it a try. I did some research and found out that its a popular substitute for pasta noddles (hence the name), in pretty much any dish. There are less carbohydrates and more nutrition that traditional noddles as well. It was really easy to make and I felt much better eating squash noodles than regular pasta noodles. 

Ingredients:

1 large spaghetti squash

water

Yields roughly 5-6 servings noodles, depending on size of squash

Time: 1 hour

Recipe:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. While the oven is preheating, wash, cut and scrape out squash. To cut, remove the top potion with the stem and then cut lengthwise down. This will be difficult and will require some brute strength. 

Using a large spoon scrape out the insides of the squash, much like you would with a pumpkin. 

Pour about 1/2 of water on cookie sheet and place the squash, rind up on sheet. Bake on middle rack of oven for about 45 minutes.

 To remove noodles, take fork and scrape width wise across the inside of the squash. The squash should be soft but have the texture of al dente noodles. You can scrape till you get close to the rind.

Now that you have these noodles, what to do with them? Like I said, you can replace them for any recipe that calls for pasta noodles. Instead of cooking them in boiling water, simply saute them with olive oil until they are hot and the consistency that you want.

My husband and I made some for dinner the other night. I just threw all the left over ingredients I had in my fridge from the week. This included sauteed onions, mushrooms, and garlic, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, and garnished with grated fontina cheese and green onions. I didn't want anything to go to waste so I just threw it all in. 

Much to my surprise it turned out really well. My husband brought the leftovers to work for lunch the next day and said it was delicious. My favorite part about it was that I felt good eating it. I didn't feel my usual pasta remorse as I normally do after I scarf down a bowl of fettuccine alfredo.