Spaghetti Squash

This was an expensive meal because all the ingredients were fresh or "premium" like olives and parmesan.  The entire batch cost around $10 to make, and it will supply about 5-6 meals.  This is "meals on a budget, veggie diva edition," or something.  This is what I make when given a bit of inspiration with a new ingredient and liberty to diverge from the strict budget!

First, spaghetti squash.  They are similar to other large squashes in that they are this lumbering huge round thing that is nearly impossible to cut cleanly and safely.  The best thing to do is immediately bury your knife in it point first:

Then work your knife, while all the pointy sharp bits are securely ensconced in squash, down through half the squash:

Part way there...

Now turn the squash and repeat on the other side:

If it doesn't fall apart at this point with gentle prodding, twist the knife a little:

One note:  I've seen people attempt this with a flimsy almost-dull knife.  It makes my heart race when someone stabs a over-large hard-squash with a filet knife and then proceeds to bang it against the countertop like it's an overlarge mallet.  I can't help but envision the tender blade intended for much more delicate tasks finally giving up the ghost, shattering into a thousand pieces, and cutting the cook into a few hundred.  You need a large, stout, sharp knife, and focus and gentle strength for this one.

Anyway, scoop out the interior seeds and pulp.  I'd say toast the seeds like you would with a pumpkin, but the husks will be unpleasantly tough.  I'm as yet undecided on the value of tossing these goodies into your soupstock freezer bin, further experimentation is needed.

Now you're home-free.  Rub that sucker down with some olive oil, wrap it in aluminum foil, and bake it at 350 F for an hour or two.  Be glad you still have all your knives!

One note:  My mother likes to cook her spaghetti squash in a crock pot.  This is a great idea for a number of reasons:  (1) crock pots seal in moisture and thus eliminate the need for the aluminum foil (extra cost and waste), (2) you can start the spaghetti squash in the morning and come home to only 10-15 minutes of prep rather than coming home an hour or two before dinner, (3) if your climate it quite warm, a crock pot only heats itself, while your oven heats the entire room, and (4) it's cheaper to run a crock pot at low all day than an electric oven at 350 for a few hours.

Another note:  real spaghetti gets soggy if it sits in sauce and is reheated, and gets crunchy if it sits without sauce and is reheated.  Spaghetti squash CAN overcook (like pasta spaghetti), but it seems you have to be actively trying to get it to the mush side of the equation, unlike pasta spaghetti.  Additionally, while the texture and flavor of spaghetti squash is close enough to pasta spaghetti to allow it to substitute for it easily, the texture and flavor are far enough removed from pasta spaghetti that no one who tastes it will have that unpleasant, "I was expecting X and got X-1" response but instead, "I was expecting X and got Y, which is different but also great" response.  I find the "expecting X and getting X-1" response a major draw-back of vegetarian and vegan animal-protein substitutes.

*Gets on soapbox*  If you're going to sell me a sausage, sell me a sausage.  Don't sell me tofu seasoned like a sausage and call it a sausage, call it "sausage-seasoned tofu."  I've eaten sausage and I've eaten tofu, and believe it or not, but I can tell the difference.  You can, too.  Likewise, don't sell me beef or turkey bacon and call it bacon. I've (regrettably) eaten more than my fair share of bacon over the years, and your smoked beef or processed turkey product is not bacon.  Now, beef bacon and turkey bacon are both wonderful products that I actually prefer to pork bacon most of the time, but pretending like they are true pork bacon is just wrong.  I got this in true living color once when I tried to make "vegan sausage," and wound up with sausage-seasoned black bean cakes.  I would've been really happy had the recipe been advertised as "sausage-seasoned black bean cakes," but the notion that I was supposed to pretend like those cakes were sausage was too sad to be humorous.  *Gets off soapbox*

Anyway, spaghetti squash is not spaghetti pasta.  It's tasty and unique and wonderful in it's own way, and pairs nicely with everything spaghetti pasta pairs with that I've tried so far.  It's a dietary "free-bee" because it's a low-calorie, low-carb vegetable while real pasta can really put some fat on your bones, so enjoy the crunch and extra flavor you would have trouble convincing spaghetti pasta to pick up.  Now on to the actual recipe that I made....

Ingredients:

4-5 lb spaghetti squash

3 small zuchinni

1.5 small onion

3 bell peppers (on sale for $1 each, red, orange, and yellow, mmm such a good deal this week)

3/4 can artichoke hearts (opened for a friend's party, so use them or lose them)

4 Tbsp kalamata olives

4 tsp capers

Protocol:

Cook squash, peel out strands with a fork.  Saute onion in a tbsp of olive oil, add in garlic, herbs, etc., and then add zuchinni and peppers.  Stir in spaghetti squash, olives, capers, artichoke hearts, etc... (I thought sun dried tomatoes would make an excellent addition.)  Serve with sauce of choice, although marinara is pretty much amazing, and enjoy!