Doing the low-carb thing. Also avoiding wheat type foods. I heard about the wonders of spaghetti squash for those of us who are addicted to pasta. I tried boiling it for 20 minutes but the result wasn’t all that palatable. And kinda mushy.
What’s your best way of preparing spaghetti squash to make it the most pasta like?
There is no way to make it pasta-like. You have bought into the lies spread by the Spaghetti Squash Growers Co-Op to get people to buy it. Shaghetti squash is a nasty product best used as buckshot in a Punkin Chunkin contest. And I say that as a lover of squash.
According to a cookbook I’ve got, you cook spaghetti squash by either microwaving on high for 5 to 6 minutes per pound or bake it at 375 F for about an hour to 90 minutes for a “medium” squash, whatever they mean by medium. I’ve only made it a couple of times, but it turns out quite decent that way. I still prefer pasta though.
C’mon. Spaghetti squash is called spaghetti squash because it looks like spaghetti, not because it tastes like spaghetti. It doesn’t. It tastes like squash. And that, IMHO, is not all that good. But if you’re into squash . . .
Bake your spaghetti squash whole. (Say, 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.) Let it cool, whack it in half – this can be hard to do, so be careful – and pull out the pulp with a fork or spoon. The pulp comes out in strings – hence the name “spaghetti squash.”
Melt some butter in a saute pan, brown up some minced garlic, throw the spaghetti squash in and saute it. Throw some fresh herbs in at this end (thyme is good).
INW, it tastes best when sauteed in butter and garlic. But then, pretty much anything short of styrofoam peanuts can be made palatable by sauteeing it in butter and garlic. Don’t get me wrong: Spaghetti squash isn’t bad. It’s just not very good.
If you want good squash that’s both easier and taste better, buy an acorn squash or two, cut them in half, take the goop out, throw a knob of butter and some brown sugar or maple syrup in the middle of each one and bake. (Again, 350F for about 20 minutes.) One step cooking instead of two, and a tastier squash to boot.
Point of clarification: Spaghetti squash (like all squash) has goop in the center and then the flesh of it. So I should actually have said that after baking it and whacking it in half, you have to take the goop out (and throw it away), then when you remove the meat of it with a fork, it will come away in spaghetti-like strings.
I’d hate for my misuse of the term “pulp” to be read as advocating you eat the goop. Do not eat the goop!
One tip I’ve found…when you oven roast it as Jodi has suggested (which IMO is the best way to prepare spag squash) cut it in half…it will drastically cut the cooking time down and you will get some extra sweetness out of the squash via carmelization
After cooking it in the oven and separating it, melt some butter in a pan, put the squash in, add a lot of grated Parmesan, and let the whole thing fry up. Good for Atkins, and tastes great.
Ok, when I bought the squash it came with a sticker on it suggesting three ways to cook it; boiling, baking and microwaving.
As I said, the boiling didn’t turn out well. So I tried baking it this time. The directions said to cut the squash in half and scoop out the goop first, then bake it at 350 for 45 minutes, cut-side down. That seemed to turn out better. Scraping it out with fork got me some fairly decent “pasta.” Still not quite firm & chewy enough, but closer. I tried it with some spaghetti sauce and it was still kinda watery.
Would raising the temp to 375, as suggested above, help? Or just cook it a bit faster? How about cooking it cut-side up?
Does pan frying it after baking (and scraping of course) make it firmer? I was afraid additional cooking might make it mushy. I really don’t mind the taste of the squash that much, I’m mostly after a firmer pasta-like quality.
I like the butter, garlic and Parmesan ideas. Will have to try it today. What do you think about olive oil instead of butter?
Definitely go for baking or microwaving, not boiling. It’s not going to have exactly the same texture as pasta, no matter how you cook it, so just enjoy it for what it is.
I don’t especially like it combined with tomato sauce. It’s better with oily/buttery sauces like the ones suggested. It’s also good with pesto, if you like that.
I love pesto and probably make the best pesto in this hemisphere. 
A word about the Goop:
Although it’s a disgusting procedure, squeeze the seeds out from the goop, rinse remaining goop off in a colander, spread the seeds out on a cookie sheet, spray lightly with olive oil spray and dust with salt (I like to use salt that I’ve run through the blender - it becomes very fine and powdery). Pop into a 350 degree oven for about 12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Nutty goodness!
If you really have lots of time to devote to this, I have another step you can add to your chop in half - bake - scoop out goo - fry in garlic and butter.
I actually skip the frying and go straight to baking, which means there’s a lot less fat in the final product. (Are Atkins dieters concerned about fat?)
There are lots of nice things to add to the spaghetti-like bits. Slices of sun-dried tomato are divine, but you could add anything you like: I got the recipe from a vegan so it included bits of fried tofu, nutritional yeast, red peppers, and so on, but you could probably add bits of meat or anything else you’d like. (They have to be cut up quite small). Think texture (you should have something a bit crunchy to offset the mushiness of the squash) and flavour (something spicy and something sweet), shredded carrots contribute greatly to each of these. And don’t forget the seasoning, it will permeate everything. Plenty of salt, pepper, onion & garlic (either powder, or diced and fried) and cayenne pepper should about do it, and I would keep in mind that brown sugar/maple syrup are spectacular additions to any squash if I wanted to experiment.
Now, the next step: mix that all up good (don’t forget the garlic!), scoop it back into the shell of the squash, top with bread crumbs and grated cheese and throw it back in the oven until the bread crumbs get crispy.
No one will be fooled that it’s spaghetti, but it’s really very good.
cowgirl, that all sounds good but remember I’m going low carb, so the tofu, brown suger/maple syrup, bread crumbs and carrots are all no-go.
singular1, so squash seeds come out pretty much like baked pumpkin seeds? I’ll have to check & see if they’re ok to eat, but I always liked making my own baked pumpkin seeds after the Halloween pumpkin carving.
I also had some success. I tried frying the shredded squash with butter & garlic & Parmesan. Turned out pretty darned well actually. Next I’m going to try some pesto.
yup, levdrakon, it’s exactly the same as pumpkin seeds. That’s how I ran across it - I noticed they looked the same as pumpkin seeds while cleaning a spagetti squash and decided to experiment.