What a delicious veggie to have growing in the garden, and baking in the oven – Spaghetti Squash.
My love for spaghetti squash started several years ago. At the time of first blogging about them I was struggling to get my hands on both the seeds and the mature fruit, they are now more readily available than ever in New Zealand.
While you can eat them ‘young’, the more traditional way of eating spaghetti squash is to wait until they are fully grown and that’s when their flesh provides stringy noodle-like strands once cooked, similar to short-cut spaghetti.
Grown in the summer months, mature fruit (yes, although we eat them as a savoury vegetable of course) can be stored for winter hence often referred to as a winter squash. They also make a mighty fine Spaghetti Squash Relish!
If eaten as a juvenile squash, it is green fleshed and firm, best suited for boiling until soft (just how I devour my Kumi Kumi) – a ‘melt in the mouth’ moment for sure. Young spaghetti squash flesh is unlikely to ‘strand’ however as this takes place once the skin has begin to thicken, turn yellow and mature. Simply slice into chunks (skin on, seeds in) and simmer in salted boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and serve with lashings of butter, freshly ground salt and pepper.
When baking mature spaghetti squash it’s a good idea to cut it in half first. Inside you can scoop out the seeds and membrane with a spoon, saving the seeds of course! Once cooked, separate strands with a fork (it resembles short spaghetti), top with your favourite filling and return to the oven to heat through, or refrigerate until ready to use.
The filling ideas are endless and only limited by your imagination. Sauteed mushrooms, chilli beans and cheese are a good start! Return it to the oven until piping hot and melted. Scoop out straight from the shell. Yum! Season with a nob of butter and pretty much anything (think mixed spice, garlic, spring onions, red capsicum, and copious amounts of mozzarella), and you have a delicious pasta alternative.
There are stories that if you attempt to microwave it whole it will probably explode. Just saying, to avoid any kitchen disasters, you may wish to stab it several times with deep ‘steam holes’ to prevent this happening before attempting to microwave it whole…or play safe and chop it up first.
Baked Spaghetti Squash
Ingredients
- spaghetti squash, whole
- olive oil
- salt
- ground pepper
- herbs (optional)
- feta (optional)
Method
- Preheat oven to 200°C.
- Cut spaghetti squash in half, scoop out the seeds and discard.
- Drizzle flesh with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. Cover the top with foil and bake for approximately 30-40 minutes until the flesh is soft.
- At this point in time you can either ‘fluff’ the flesh with a fork to produce the strands and eat as is, season further with herbs, freshly ground pepper and crumbled feta (or your chosen filling), return it to the oven to heat through.
