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Spaghetti squash is my new favorite side dish thanks to this Click to visit this external linkrecipe and inspiration at My Good House. I always thought spaghetti squash was some obscure food I’d probably only eat by chance, say, as a side at a restaurant. That thinking was pretty off-kilter. I found the squash to have both a great flavor and interesting texture. The fact that it’s within reach budget-wise really helps. The fact that it’s a healthy food pushes it far into the win column.

From Click to visit this external linkWikipedia on Spaghetti Squash (snipped):

The spaghetti squash (also called vegetable spaghetti [or] noodle squash) is an oblong seed-bearing variety of Click to visit this external linkwinter squash. The fruit can range either from ivory to yellow or orange in color or green with white streaks. When raw, the flesh is solid and similar to other raw squash; when cooked, the flesh falls away from the fruit in ribbons or strands like Click to visit this external linkspaghetti. Spaghetti squash contains many nutrients including folic acid, potassium, vitamin A, and beta carotene. It is also a food low in calories, averaging 75 calories in 8 cooked ounces.

Here are the steps I followed along with recipe inspiration taken from My Good House and snippets found at Recipezaar.com:

1. Wash the squash.
2. Cut the squash (carefully) lengthwise. Cut again into quarters if you’d like. (Tip: score the squash all the way around before cutting.)
3. Place the open squash pieces face down in a large pot or pressure cooker and add 1 cup of water.
4. Cook the squash on medium heat (a slow rolling boil) in a pot for about 20 minutes or pressure cook on medium heat (bring to pressure then reduce to a slow rock) for about 10 minutes. The desired doneness is “fork tender”, soft, but not mushy. Optionally, cook a whole uncut squash in the oven on 350 for 1 hour.
5. Allow the squash pieces to cool enough to handle by hand.
6. While the squash cools, add 1 tablespoon butter and 2 tablespoons oil to a pan. Place on low to medium heat.
7. Cut up 1 zucchini and 1 green onion (white and green sections) and place into the pan. Add the equivalent of 1 clove of garlic (I use the ever-so-convenient minced garlic in a jar). Saute in butter and oil until the zucchini is fork tender.
8. Add 1 can of Hunt’s Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes and heat through.
9. Scrape out the seeds of the squash with a fork or spoon.
10. With a fork, drag along the insides of the squash, pulling the spaghetti-like pieces out. (This is a good time to taste the squash before adding other flavors!)
11. In a bowl, toss the squash with the sauce.
12. Serve warm with shredded Swiss cheese or refrigerate overnight and serve warm or cold the next day with shredded cheese.

Things I’d do differently

1. Next time I make this dish, I’ll pay more attention to my pressure cooker cooking time. I got distracted by other things and may not have let the pot come to full pressure before reducing the temperature. I may, in fact, cook the squash whole with a touch of water in a crock pot for a couple of hours.
2. I removed the seeds after cooking the dish. They tended to mix in with some of the actual spaghetti strands making it a bit more challenging to remove them all. Fortunately, the seeds are large, flat and cooked softly enough that we didn’t mind an occasional seed in the final dish. Still, next time I will remove the seeds before cooking.
3. Next time I’ll add some julienned carrots for additional sweetness. The tomatoes added a zippy sweet tangy flavor that could be enhanced by the natural sweetness of carrots. I may also consider adding some peppers.
4. Not mentioned in the steps above, I actually microwaved the squash (before cutting) for 1 minute as recommended on the sticker that was on the fruit. I’m not so sure that served any noticeable purpose, so this is a step I’ll likely leave out next time.
5. I cut my squash into halves. Next time I’ll quarter it so cooling won’t take as long. I nearly burned my hands a couple of times on hot squash halves.
6. The dish was great when served immediately. However, the dish served the next day, after all the flavors had a chance to meld, was fantastic! I will continue to make this as a day-after dish.
7. And lastly, presentation being a very important aspect of any meal, I will likely pyramid the spaghetti on individual plates and surround it with the sauce. To go a step further, I’ll plan on adding the diced tomatoes around the base of the plate and topping them with the sauteed zucchini. This will keep the look of the zucchini and squash very clean.