Spaghetti Squash Stir Fry

Here’s one more November-y recipe before I dive into the treats of December (or at least the plans for some. It looks like it’s going to be a busy month.) It’s even a fairly healthy recipe, relatively low in calories and stuffed with vegetables. It’s a spicy stir fry with spaghetti squash at its center. Really.

I found myself intrigued by several recipes I came across on the internet for spaghetti squash Chow Mein.  I was all set to gather ingredients, when I thought: why have Chow Mein when I could have Kung Pao? And so I tapped into this chicken stir fry recipe for a spicier sauce, replacing ingredients based on what I had on hand, and coming up with a rather satisfying supper.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this dish. It turns out that spaghetti squash is a really good player in stir fry. It keeps its shape, rather than turning to mush in the wok, but has a delicate texture on the tongue, not feeling stringy or extra fibrous. Its flavor is gently sweet, but mild, so that takes on the flavors of the sauce surrounding it.

In addition to the fragrant, spicy sauce (which you can vary in spiciness as desired), I threw in some other vegetables, but nothing too fancy. I think bell peppers would be a good addition, as would thinly-sliced bok choy. Whatever goes in this dish, the spaghetti squash is really the surprising star. Cooked spaghetti squash in a hot wok with a spicy sauce. Who knew? Well, now we all do!

Spicy Spaghetti Squash Stir Fry

While I like this method of roasting spaghetti squash to get the tender, noodle-like strands, use whatever method you like. Also, feel free to cook the squash ahead of time to streamline your dinner-time prep.

1 medium spaghetti squash (about 2 ½ - 3 pounds)

½ cup Shaoxing wine or dry sherry

¼ cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons honey

¼ cup rice vinegar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons dark sesame oil

3 tablespoons canola or peanut oil

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped celery

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger

4-6 dried red chile peppers

1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, sliced or chopped

1 cup chopped green onion

½ cup peanuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Pierce the skin of the spaghetti squash. Place the squash on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan. Roast at 350 F for 20 minutes. Remove the squash from the oven and let cool until easy to handle. (The squash should now be easier to cut.) Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and seed membranes.

2. Return the squash to the oven and roast another 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the flesh of the squash can be scraped out to form strands. Cool the squash until easy to handle and scrape the flesh into a bowl. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, combine the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, honey, and rice vinegar. Whisk in the cornstarch until the mixture is very smooth. Add the sesame oil. Set this sauce mixture aside.

4. Pour the canola or peanut oil into a wok or large skillet. Heat on high heat until very hot. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes or until the onion is browned. Stir in the garlic, ginger and chiles. Cook about 30 seconds more, being careful not to burn the chiles.

5. Add the cooked spaghetti squash and water chestnuts. Cook and stir until the squash has begun to brown. Stir in the green onions and cook about 1 minute more.

6. Pour the sauce mixture into the pan and stir. Bring to a boil and cook until slightly thickened. (It should boil quickly.) Stir in the peanuts. Remove from the heat. Serve with rice.

Makes about 4 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Root Vegetable and Cabbage Stir Fry with Ginger and Lemon, Spicy Cabbage and Noodle Stir Fry, Spicy Chicken Stir Fry

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

I’m always looking for recipes to help me prove that spaghetti squash is not just fake spaghetti. Well, not always, but certainly when the stuff is in season and I get a few in my CSA box. Almost two years ago, this search led me to a Greek-flavored spaghetti squash salad that I was feeling pretty smug about, until I realized it reminded me of pasta salad.

This year I found a take on something more like a general vegetable treatment: gratin. You’ve seen other vegetables treated this way, layered with cheese (or béchamel sauce or cream), topped with breadcrumbs and baked. The original version was made with walnuts, bacon and mozzarella cheese, but I went with cheddar cheese and omitted the walnuts. I left the bacon right where it was. Everything’s better with bacon.

Speaking of the bacon, this recipe only calls for two slices of thick-cut bacon. You’ll want more. I know you will. And that would probably work just fine. I found the two slices, chopped, cooked and layered into the casserole, to be enough. You do what you feel you must in the name of bacon.

Let’s face it, spaghetti squash is a bit on the bland side, so I liked the sharp cheddar and bacon, both of which are strongly flavored and add a lot to this dish. I also spiced things up with a bit of Aleppo pepper, which I’ve really only just discovered, and with which I am quite enamored. You could use black pepper or another ground or crushed chile pepper that you like, or omit it if you don’t want the extra heat.

Overall, this is a nice, tasty and easy way to enjoy spaghetti squash. There’s much more work involved in preparing the squash than there is in assembling and baking the casserole. (I still like to use the method of baking the whole squash a bit, then cutting it when it’s slightly softened, which is much easier than hacking into a raw squash.) You could do all the assembly as much as a day ahead, then just heat it up to serve and you’ll have a nice vegetable dish without anyone seeing you sweat.

While this is first and foremost a vegetable dish (with cheese and bacon) and a great treatment for spaghetti squash, I just can’t help but wonder how good it would be with noodles instead.


Spaghetti Squash Casserole with Bacon and Cheddar
Adapted from this recipe at Chocolate and Zucchini

I used two squash for this recipe for a total of about 4 1/2 pounds.

4-5 pounds whole spaghetti squash
2 slices thick-cut bacon
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon Aleppo pepper (or chile or black pepper of your choice)
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup fresh whole wheat breadcrumbs

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Pierce the squash skin all over with a sharp knife. Place the whole squash on a baking sheet or in a large baking dish. Bake at 375 F for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand until cool enough to handle.

2. Cut the squash in half. Scoop out the seeds. Return the squash to the baking pan or dish and return to a 375 F oven. Bake another 20-30 minutes or until the squash flesh is tender and can easily be separated into strands. Let stand until cool enough to handle.

3. While the squash is baking and cooling, cut the bacon into small strips. Cook the bacon in a pan over medium heat until browned. Drain on a paper towel. Set aside.

4. When the squash has cooled a bit, scrape the flesh from the shell-like skin with a fork. It will separate into strands. Place these strands in a large bowl. Stir in the salt and pepper.

5. Lightly grease, oil or spray with nonstick cooking spray a 2 quart (2 liter) baking dish. Place about half of the squash mixture into the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with half the cheese and half the bacon.

6. Layer the remaining squash over the bacon and top that with the remaining cheese and bacon. Cover it all with the breadcrumbs in an even layer.

7. Bake at 375 F for about 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the breadcrumbs are browned and toasted.

Makes about 4 main-dish servings or 6-8 side-dish servings.

Other recipes like this one: Spaghetti Squash Salad with Greek Flavors, Spicy Potato and Tomato Gratin with Caramelized Onions, Broccoli Cheese Casserole with Mustard Rye Croutons

One year ago: Cranberry Vinaigrette

Two years ago: Roasted Vegetables

To Thine Own Self Be True

“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
–Polonius to Laertes Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3

One bite of something like “mock” crab, a soy dog, or textured vegetable protein masquerading as a beef burger, and you quickly learn the meaning of the word ersatz, or in many cases the phrase big fat phony. That doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that these imposters have no value of their own. If you live in Minnesota which is not known for its seafood (shockingly!), fake crab might have to do. If you’re vegetarian or are just cutting back on meat, you might miss sausage- or patty-shaped sandwiches. I find many veggie burgers to be pretty tasty (especially homemade ones like these, which actually contain real vegetables). I have insufficient experience, however, to comment on tofu dogs. The point is most of these foods won’t be so disappointing if you don’t try to convince yourself that you’re eating something you are not. Self-delusion is a pathetic thing.

And then there’s spaghetti squash, so called because its cooked flesh doesn’t turn into a soft pulp like other winter squash. It separates into strands which are vaguely spaghetti-like in shape, but that is where the similarity to pasta ends. Spaghetti squash doesn’t taste anything at all like spaghetti. It does, however, (and here’s where I write myself into a big hole), taste pretty good with standard pasta accompaniments. You can bake it as described below and toss it with a tomato sauce, garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese, or pesto. It has a more neutral flavor than other squashes like butternut or pumpkin and keeps a little bit of bite to it. The strands hold these sauces and flavors and it’s all pretty good….But it’s still not spaghetti.

And so with my last spaghetti squash of the season, I decided to try to find something different, something that didn’t look like a fake pasta dish. I came across an old recipe from Cooking Light magazine for a Greek-style spaghetti squash salad. The recipe called for tomatoes and cucumbers. Those are definitely not in season (and those in the supermarket right now give further meaning to the word ersatz), so I pared it down to what I had on hand. Since that included kalamata olives, feta cheese, red onions, and the ingredients for a red wine vinaigrette, this turned out quite well.

This salad is light, and just a bit crisp. I was enjoying it, proud that I had made something that didn’t require dishonesty or masquerading ingredients. This wasn’t squash pretending to be spaghetti. Then I realized there was something familiar about it. It reminded me of …ahem…pasta salad.

Oh well. The squash is true enough to itself in this salad. It’s not my fault it happens to go well with so many things that also go well with noodles. There are probably many other foods to which that applies as well….I just can’t think of any right now.



Spaghetti Squash Salad with Greek Flavors Recipe
inspired by a recipe in Cooking Light Magazine

1 (2 ½ -3 pound or about 1.25-1.5 kg) spaghetti squash
¾ teaspoon (3 ml) coarse (kosher) salt, divided
1 ounce (about 30 g or 1/3 cup) chopped pitted kalamata olives
½ cup (about 125 ml) finely chopped red onion
2 ounces (about 50 g) crumbled feta cheese
1 tablespoon (15 ml) chopped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon (5 ml) dried oregano
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons (25 ml) red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons (25 ml) olive oil
¼ teaspoon (1 ml) sugar
pinch black pepper

1. To prepare the squash: Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Pierce the skin of the squash liberally with a knife. (Be sure to do this or the squash can explode in the oven.) Place the pierced squash in a baking dish. Bake at 350 F for about 1 hour. Set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and their membranes. Using a fork, find the “grain” of the strands of squash flesh and scrape the flesh into a large bowl. Discard the skin.




2. To make the salad: Toss the squash with ½ teaspoon salt. Add the olives, onion and feta cheese to the bowl with the squash and combine.

3. Finely chop the garlic. On the cutting board, add the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt to the garlic. Continue to chop, then make a paste by pressing and scraping the salt and garlic together with the flat side of the knife. Place the paste in a small bowl or in a jar with a tight-fitting lid.



4. Add the vinegar, olive oil, sugar and black pepper to the garlic paste. Whisk vigorously, or shake vigorously if using a jar, until the mixture is very well combined. Pour over the squash mixture and toss to coat. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Makes at least 6 salad servings. Will keep in the refrigerator for several days.