Spaghetti Squash Recipes

Question: I’m looking for some good spaghetti squash recipes. Do you have any ideas?

Answer: I love squash. Butternut, acorn, and delicata are my favorite varieties, but spaghetti squash is fun too because you can use it in almost any pasta recipe in place of the noodles (great way to make a pasta dish low-calorie).  Here’s how to cook it.  And here are some ideas for how to serve it:

1. Baked, then drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt, pepper, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and chopped fresh Italian parsley.  This is a simple preparation but so good.
2. Tossed with homemade pesto (or your favorite purchased pesto).  My go-to pesto recipe is 2 packed cups fresh herbs (basil, parsely, mint, cilantro, arugula, or baby spinach), 1/2 cup walnuts, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, 2 cloves garlic, 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup vegetable broth or water, salt & pepper to taste.  Blend this all in a food processor until smooth, then toss with hot spaghetti squash.  Freeze the rest in small Tupperware containers or in an ice cube tray.
3. Greek Style Salad with Spaghetti Squash.  If you like Greek flavors, you’ll love this recipe.  And you can alter it depending on what you have lying around.
4. Spaghetti Squash Gratins.  These are kind of like little lasagnas – hearty and cheesy, but without all the calories.  I like to use part-skim ricotta rather than the fat-free it suggests here (so it’s creamier) and I use dried herbs when I don’t have fresh.
5. Spaghetti Squash with Lemon and Capers.  I added more veggies and only half the butter in this recipe, and it was still delicious.  Don’t worry about using julienned tomatoes — canned diced tomatoes would be fine.

**image above taken from http://thequickanddirtydirty.com/2010/06/22/spaghetti-squash/