Spaghetti squash is value eating. I can stuff my face for under 100 calories.
There’s only 31 calories per cup of squash and you get a lot of bang for your buck.
In this season of cookies, candy, booze, and treats at every turn, filling up on vegetables and not Red Velvet Cupcakes is how I avoid the Freshman 15. Or the Holiday Season 15.
If you’ve never had spaghetti squash, I won’t say it tastes just like real spaghetti or angel hair pasta. It’s a vegetable and not a processed grain. But it’s close enough for me, and I prefer it.
I’m not a big pasta person because it leaves me feeling heavy and blah, but every now and then I get a craving for something warm and noodley. Naturally gluten-free spaghetti squash to the rescue.
The noodles have some light texture and a bit of soft crunch in some bites.
Not crunchy overall, but bites of texture here and there, which is probably why I prefer them to regular pasta noodles. Textureless foods bore me.
Because of how flavor-neutral I find it, I combine it with so many other foods as a blank canvas, and can take it savory to spicy to sweet. I’ve listed my favorite ways to use it below. But first you’ve got to make it.
Spaghetti squash are the oval, smooth-skinned, yellow squash in the upper lefthand corner below. I took this photo at Whole Foods with my iPhone. I wanted to buy one of everything.
To prepare it, you could hack into a super hard, thick, uncooperative squash, and then add oil so that it doesn’t dry out; or you can do what I do, which is roast it whole.
The squash is its own self-contained steamer unit. Nature is so smart. The flesh steams and stays moist without having to add oil, and when it’s done, slice through it very easily, and scrape out the spaghetti-like flesh with a fork.
I usually roast two medium-large spaghetti squash at a time. They’re about 3 pounds each and I put two on a baking sheet and roast for about 80 to 90 minutes at 375F. If I’m only roasting one, about 45 to 60 minutes. Two does make lots, but as long as I’m roasting, I like to batch-cook. It keeps for about 5 days in a sealed container in the fridge, and I nuke the leftovers.
In addition to spaghetti squash, I make delicata squash, and my current obsession is kabocha squash, below.
Recently I bought 40 pounds of kabocha (11 squash). I bought in bulk because they’re hard to find, and once I sourced these prized possessions, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to run out until June. Not really, but they do keep for about 6 months indoors, and I go through one every three days or so.
The flesh is sweet and bright orange like a sweet potato, but flakier, drier, and probably a bit healthier than sweet potatoes. I love the texture, taste, and you can eat the skin too, which turns crispy and chewy.
I eat kabocha wedges with a drizzle of coconut oil and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast and stevia; or sometimes with cinnamon, or a drizzle of Brown Sugar Balsamic Reduction or some Cabernet Cranberry and Blueberry Sauce. I could eat it every day and not get sick of it.
Tis the season for excessive cookie, chocolate, candy, and booze consumption.
It’s nice to have something that’s healthy and comforting that I love (almost) as much as those things.
12 Healthy Recipe Ideas for Spaghetti Squash Noodles – Or use your favorite roasted and cubed squash
1. My favorite way is simply drizzling a bit of coconut oil on squash, sprinkling with nutritional yeast and a pinch of stevia. I’ll toss it with some other steamed veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, Brussel’s sprouts, or whatever I have. The dish has a slightly (vegan) cheezy, nutty flavor from the nutritial yeast, combined with so much texture and flavor from the veggies and noodles, all lightly scented with coconut oil, and there’s a bit of sweetness for a salty-and-sweet profile. I never get sick of it and it’s loaded with nutrition, it’s warm and filling, and it’s value eating at its finest.
Tip: I get my shelf-stable items like coconut oil , nutritional yeast, and stevia from iHerb.com. Code AVE630 at checkout saves you $10 off your order. I love iHerb for everything like probiotics, bulk cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, liquid vanilla stevia drops, bulk white stevia powder, medicinal fancy-grade honey, chia seeds, face cleanser, and more. 40% off retail prices, free shipping on most orders, and orders arrive fast, in like 2 to 3 days, max.
2. Brown some butter in a skillet and toss the noodles in. Add salt, pepper, or your favorite seasoning blend. Or you can add the butter with cinnamon-and-sugar (or stevia) for ‘dessert noodles’. Simple buttery noodles remind me of my grandma. She used to serve angel hair pasta like this.
3. Add Peanut Sauce to the noodles, making a version of Peanut Noodles with Vegetables and Peanut Sauce. Can be served warm or cold.
5. Toss noodles with your favorite bite-size frozen or fresh veggies or legumes – corn, peas, diced carrots, edamame, beans like in this Apple Glazed Vegetable & Edamame Stir Fry. Or add your favorite sauce or salad dressing for a vegetable-noodle salad.
6. To a skillet, steam some peapods, bok choy, mushrooms, bean sprouts, baby corn, or similar like in this Caribbean Citrus & Veggie Stir Fry. Add noodles with an Asian-style sweet-and-sour sauce for stir fry noodles.
7. Toss the noodles in instead of, or in addition to the brown rice, in this Orange Ginger Tempeh and Brown Rice Salad with Orange Balsamic Vinaigrette
8. Or try them in Pumpkin Spiced Brown Rice Tempeh and Cranberry Salad
9. Pair the noodles with your favorite fish or chicken dish like this Pan Seared Caribbean Citrus Mahi Mahi with Brown Rice Noodles
10. Or toss them in with your favorite stir fry like Szechuan Shrimp Stir Fry with Fried Rice
11. Use noodles instead of greens as the base layer for Corn Chip-Crusted Southwestern Salmon Cakes with Creamy Lemon Chili Sauce
12. Pair them with your favorite tofu dish like Hot and Sour Broiled Tofu (vegan, GF)
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How To Roast Spaghetti Squash
Ingredients
- 2 medium/large spaghetti squash, about 3 pounds each, washed and patted dry (I like to roast a pair for planned leftovers for the week; roast only 1 if preferred)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Place squash in front of you so the ends are pointing to the left and right. Using a heavy, large knife, hack into the squash in 3 or 4 spots so your knife just pierces the surface by about 1/4-inch deep, and it should leave approximately 2-inch long knife marks. These are places for steam to escape, like you’d pierce a potato before baking. You’re not actually slicing the squash, but just creating steam escapes. I find this is safer than piercing the squash with the tip of my knife. Turn the squash over and repeat, for a total of about 8 slits. Repeat for second squash.
- Place squash on baking sheet (I line my with a Silpat) and bake for about 45 to 60 minutes for 1 squash, or about 80 to 90 minutes for two. When done, squash should have quite a bit of give when pushed on, and slicing through it will be easy. Allow squash to cool on baking tray until it’s cool enough to handle.
- Tip – Wearing a pair of rubber kitchen gloves is a lifesaver here. Using a large serrated knife, slice squash vertically from tip to end.
- Run your knife around the center strip of seeds and filaments to loosen it. Remove it and discard it.
- With a fork, loosen the strands of squash in a raking motion. They will peel up easily. I try to rake up as many noodles as possible, going as far down to the skin as I can. Place noodles in an airtight container. Discard skins.
- Serve as desired, including using some of recipe ideas provided in the blog post. Noodles will keep airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Reheating 1 serving for about 1 minute in a microwave-safe bowl covered with plastic wrap is the fastest and easiest method.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Have you tried spaghetti squash? Winter squash fan? Fave ways to prepare them?
I adore butternut squash but I’ve yet to formally meet spaghetti squash. This looks like a perfect ice breaker!
Love this savory post, Averie! And can you believe I’ve never had spaghetti squash yet? I’ve been meaning to try it but I just never got around to it.
Okay, once the holidays are over and the new year hits, I am trying spaghetti squash! My skinny jeans demand it!
And knowing how you eat, it would be great to put underneath a piece of fish or meat, use it instead of quinoa in one of your side salad/bowl creations, I think you’ll love it!
Such a great post! I know you don’t do savory recipes very often, but this one is so fantastic. Great job, more people need to eat spaghetti squash!
And I seem to remember you having a post about it a couple months ago – glad you’re a fan too :)
When I’m not eating cookies, I LOVE spaghetti squash. I like mine with LOTS of garlic and tomato sauce. I think it would be fantastic with peanut sauce too.
Love this simple spaghetti squash guide and recommended recipes, Averie! All look SO creative and delicious!
We LOVE spaghetti squash so I am always looking for new ways to serve. Your shrimp stir fry and seared mahi mahi look out of this world…definitely going on my “to make” list. Yum! Thank you Averie!
Forgot to mention…your photography is always SO beautiful! :)
You’re so kind and thank you!
Can’t wait to try this! I’ve never had spaghetti squash before. When I get my noodles cravings, I typically go for Shirataki noodles, but squash has much more nutritional value.
I really love squash and all your ideas sound delicious! I definitely need to stock up because I feel like I’ve been living off butter and sugar with all of the holiday baking! Thanks for healthy recipe ideas!
I seem to crave more veggies during the holidays, when I stuff myself with desserts, too, so this is perfect! I like the idea of serving roasted squash with broiled tofu.
squash and tofu just make you feel good inside! (and healthy!)
Spaghetti squash is my favorite! Thanks for posting all the recipe ideas to use it in!
We are too alike! I swear I go through a squash every 3 days and if I could I would by 40 pounds all at once too. I do stock up when they are on sale. My favorite way to eat them is with pumpkin pie spice and olive or coconut oil (eating some now!). I use spaghetti squash a lot too. It is great as a base for so many things. I love tossing it with asian sauces. So good!
Great post, Averie! Oh and as mush as I would love to live off cookies, need some veggies too!
pumpkin pie spice and olive or coconut oil = yes! Mostly coc oil for me. Gosh, love it!
And you’re half my age but yeah, I cannot metabolize a diet of sugar, chocolate, and cookies and still fit in my clothes…not to mention, I crave my veggies!
Love all the healthy squashy ideas!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for posting this! We love squash and sweets. PERFECT!
Glad it’s a hit for you!
I went to save this in my zip list, and it tells me I’ve saved Creamy Baked Double Cheese and Sweet Onion Dip. The image of the recipe appears to be muffins, the ingredients call for ice cream and juice, but yet when I click on “See full instructions on…” it takes me to this Spaghetti Squash page!
How bizarre is that? I wish I wasn’t making it up, I tried this several times but it still listed the same way.
I’ve sent your email to my contact at Ziplist. It’s probably something going on over there and will LYK what she says! Thanks for LMK it was a little wonky – and when I do it, I get the exact same results you do…weird!
My contact at ZL just wrote back and did some hocus pocus and it’s working fine now so you can go ahead and re-save it :) Sorry about that!
Thank you so much for helping to get this fixed!
And thx for bringing it to my attention! Random glitches happen and I always like to know when something needs a little TLC :)
I love spaghetti squash but often don’t want to deal with it at home. Thanks for all the great tips and recipe ideas – you make it sound so easy! :)
Amen to everything you said about squash! I’m pinning this. I’m always amazed at your kind of interesting love to food combinations – all these sweets + raw clean vegetables. LOL. It’s really interesting.:)
Well what I eat in real life vs. what I blog about and earn my living with, are quite different. Yes, I eat some of everything I blog about and do have a big sweet tooth, but also donate lots of food that I make since I cannot sit down to five 8×8 pans of bars in 5 days timespan, which is what you may see on my blog in 5 days timespan. My real life is pretty clean, nearly vegan, and nearly GF, aside from my cookie or bite or two of cake :) I wish I had supersonic metabolism, but I don’t. ha! Thanks for pinning!
Well, I imagine you wouldn’t look the way you look if you ate your “work” a lot.:)
LOL true :)