I love how Instagram can be so inspiring when it comes to cooking! Every time I look at my feed I am immersed in so many delicious photos of carefully created dishes by so many talented individuals. Seeing all this gets my own creative juices going and venturing out to trying things I had never before.
Now I’m not talking about being so adventurous and eat crunchy crickets (don’t think I can do it, not yet at least), but before Instagram, I never cooked spaghetti squash. We usually stuck with the other squash (butternut, acorn, pumpkin, etc.) not realizing what I was missing out on. Squash isn’t big in Italy, at least where we are from. If it didn’t grow on my grandparents’ farm, they didn’t eat it. My mom started buying squash probably no earlier than 10 years ago and even then it was reserved for butternut squash soup and eaten on Thanksgiving.
I was first introduced to baked spaghetti squash from Tori of Fraiche Nutrition. Isn’t she amazing? I aspire to be like her, her knowledge of food and making it look so easy and beautiful really inspires me with my food blog. Over the year I really pushed myself to showcase my love for food and it’s individuals like her that help along the way. She had made a Caprese version with roasted tomatoes and mozzarella, really simple and delicious.
Last year I made a stir fry version where I sautéed veggies and took the spaghetti squash out of it’s shell and finished it off in the pan. However, on weeknights, it’s so easy to roast the squash in half, sautee whatever veggies you want and then let it all bake together in the shell. It means less clean up at the end which I always love, because I hate cleaning up after making a meal, don’t you?
Baked Spaghetti Squash
Ingredients
- 2 spaghetti squash
- 1 carrot
- 1 zucchini
- 1/2 a white onion
- 2 teaspoons of organic ground garlic
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- a touch of freshly ground pepper
- shredded mozzarella cheese (optional)
Directions
- Preheat oven at 400 degrees (I put it on roast).
- Cut the spaghetti squash in half, length wise.
- Scoop out the seeds and add a touch salt and a drizzle of EVOO.
- Place side down on a pan lined with parchment paper and roast for about 20-30 minutes (depends on the size). At 20 minutes if you can pierce your fork through the skin it is ready.
- Set the squash aside and let cool.
- Chop all the veggies in small pieces and place in a medium size pan over medium heat and sautee for several minutes (onions should be translucent approx. 7 minutes)
- Mix 1 teaspoon of salt, one teaspoon of garlic powder and a dash of pepper in the pan and combine with sautéed veggies.
- With a fork, gently scrape the squash and you will see it will come a part like strands of angel spaghetti. Make sure not to go too hard or too far as the shell will break apart.
- Combine the scraped squash with the sautéed veggies in a bowl and add the remaining salt and garlic powder. Taste to make sure, if you need more salt add a little more.
- With a spoon, scoop the mixture back into the shells (add shredded mozzarella on top if you like) and let it roast at 450 degrees for about 15 minutes.
Enjoy!
Antonietta xo
Find me on: Web