Spaghetti Squash -A Best Kept Secret
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My #1 recommendation to a fellow carb lover, to someone looking to lose weight or get healthy, and to everyone else who comes in contact with me will be spaghetti squash. I still have trouble believing I can fake the idea of eating a plate of pasta with a vegetable. But this little Italian is here to tell you it’s true.
How can a vegetable take the place of pasta?? When you cook and cut into this bad boy, the insides are scraped out into thin strands, almost like angel hair pasta. When served with red sauce, pesto, or simply olive oil, it’s a game changer. The taste is very close.
Spaghetti squash is low calorie (~40kcal/cup), low carb(~10g/cup), and low glycemic. It’s a great source of vitamin C, B vitamins, and manganese.
How to cook it:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Cut the squash in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. (This takes a little muscle)
Drizzle the two halves with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and place face down in a shallow baking dish or even a cookie sheet.
Cook in the oven at 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes.
Once removed from the oven, let it cool for a few minutes. I speed this process up by throwing it in the fridge for a few.
Scrape the meat of the squash out with a fork.
This veggie is so versatile- there are so many things you can do from here!
A go-to for me is using it as the base under chicken parmesan(And using the shell as a plate) :
I also will sauté it with some garlic, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives for a more Mediterranean dish:
I will sauté it with a mixture of ground turkey and a variety of beans for a filling, Mexican feel:
(Sorry for the low quality pics, I usually have already started to eat it before I remember to take a picture!)
Utilize the internet for some other recipes using spaghetti squash or come up with your own! Try to switch it out for some of your favorite pasta dishes and see how you like it!
Keep me posted
xo
