The Red Kitchen Project

And I thought they smelled good...on the outside!

(Disclaimer: Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford did not actually climb inside my spaghetti squash. I was able to find two tiny-but-realistic body doubles who agreed to do it on the cheaps. Take that, Lucasfilms.)

Okay, folks. Today’s post is about one of my favorite things to eat when dieting, and least favorite to prepare. While it’s incredibly useful as a pasta stand-in for many otherwise calorie-heavy dishes, one fact remains: spaghetti squash is a real pain in the tauntaun to mess with when you’re in need of quick dinner options.

Luckily, however, it freezes beautifully both in a dish or on its own, so whenever I buy one at the store, I’m likely to buy a couple of its friends next to it as well, and do some batch-style cooking.

For example, last weekend I cooked a couple of these bad boys for making freezer-friendly casseroles. Thanks go to my sister, Emily, for scoring me a ton of small-sized, freezer-friendly, lidded Pyrex casserole dishes for Christmas. Because my sons are both still small, I hate preparing casseroles in giant 9×13 dishes and then feeling like it’ll never all get eaten before getting old in the fridge.

This way, I can split up the resources, freeze casseroles before baking, and feel like a fresh dinner was had each time I thaw and heat one. In this case, I made one as an Italian lasagna, and one as a layered Mexican casserole.

Brown several recipes' worth of ground meat or TVP at once to save yourself time on busy weeknights ahead.

On a slightly-related note: I also brown TVP or ground meat in large batches at a time and freeze it in divided portions for easier casserole assembly. Oftentimes, the deciding factor for me when I am trying to decide what to make for dinner is, “Do I have to stop and brown some ground beef first?” Don’t ever let that be a deal-breaker. I brown mine with standard ingredients, like onions and celery or green pepper, with some garlic. That way, it’s pretty versatile down the road and already has those built-in steps completed.

But I digress.

If you look closely, you can see a little squash juice bubbling out. And if you listen closely, you can hear it screaming. Maybe.

Getting back to the squash, I’ve found over time that the easiest way to cook it is as follows: Wash the outside of your squash. Using a sturdy metal fork, make as many four-pronged stab holes as you can in the rind of the squash, all around its circumference, before your hand gets tired. Make sure the stab holes are deep enough to penetrate the rind. You’ll know you’re making nice, deep stabs when you see watery liquid bubble out around the base of the fork tines when you bury it in the squash. If you can’t tell already, this is an excellent source of stress relief.

30 out of 30 Helens agree: Love hurts.

Place the very-punctured squash WHOLE in a glass (or ceramic), microwave-safe dish. Add about 1/4″ layer of water to the bottom of the pan.

Microwave a single squash for 20 minutes, flipping it over once at the halfway (10-minute) mark. If you are doing multiple squashes, it’s still best to nuke them one at a time. I use lazy Sunday afternoons for bulk cooking like this, and try to multitask while they’re microwaving. (See the browned TVP/beef tip above.)

Please ignore my filthy and stained oven mitt. The good one fell in the toilet. Don't ask.

You’ll know the squash is cooked when you can use an oven-mitt-covered hand to press a large dimple in the side and it takes several seconds to pop back out, if at all.

Allow squash to cool on the counter for a few minutes, and then carefully slice it in half with a large knife. (You might want to put your oven mitts back on for this step — the steam can release pretty intensely when you cut it open.)

The seeds will be probably all lined up when you open the halves.

Use a fork to first scoop out the seeds, which should be pretty easy to spot. Now twirl the fork through the remaining flesh to create the spaghetti-like strands you’ll be enjoying later.

A well-cooked squash should easily release just about all of the flesh, right down to the rind. If you’re having to tug at the fork or scrape very much, the squash probably didn’t cook all the way through. No worries — just set it back in the microwave in a shallow dish of water and let it cook through.

Big bowl o' squash.

See the photo of my leftover rinds? As thin as flower petals! I love when food doesn’t get wasted.

Empty squash rinds. Guess I should have made a birdhouse or something? Nah.

Once you’ve cooked all the squash you’ve got, you can either chill/freeze portions of it as-is, or make one of these two handy-dandy casseroles below, created by me but inspired by Roni at GreenLiteBites, who always knows how to do crazy good stuff to squash.

Chef’s Note: Remember that if you’re substituting squash for noodles, particularly to be frozen and baked later, you’ll be dealing with a considerable amount of moisture in your dish. That’s why I press the cooked squash between several layers of absorbent paper towels to get some of that liquid out beforehand.

Pressing excess liquid out of the squash "noodles" with paper towels.

Rather than post separate recipes, I’ll just give you the highlights reel:

Italian Squash “Lasagna”

Side-by-side, differently-flavored squash lasangas. Mexican on the left, Italian on the right.

In the bottom of a casserole dish, spoon a couple of tablespoons of your favorite spaghetti sauce. Smear it around to cover the bottom, and then cover with a thick layer of the cooked spaghetti squash. Cover with a simple ricotta mixture (I use lowfat ricotta stirred with garlic and italian seasonings). Spoon a layer of sauce over cheese, then another layer of spaghetti squash, another layer of cheese, and finally some sauce over that. Sprinkle about 1 cup of part-skim mozzarella over the top. Cover and freeze. Thaw before baking.

Mexican Squash Casserole

In the bottom of a casserole dish, spoon a couple of tablespoons of salsa or taco sauce. Smear to cover the bottom, and then cover with a thick layer of the cooked spaghetti squash. Add a layer of browned TVP or ground meat with peppers or onions. Cover with about 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (Kraft now makes 100% fat free shredded cheddar — hooray!). Spoon a layer of salsa over the cheese layer. Top with another layer of squash, another layer of meat, more salsa and a heavy sprinkling of cheddar on top. Throw in some black olives if you feel like it. You only live once. Cover and freeze. Thaw before baking.

Labels -- in case I forget in the four hours that lapses between me preparing these and actually breaking down and heating one up for dinner to avoid more food prep in one day.

I get really excited at this point to see how long I can wait before I pull one of them out to thaw and bake. Making and freezing casseroles ahead of time seems so responsible, sometimes I just can’t stand the suspense.

Maybe you’re stronger than I am. Just remember — the power to devour an entire low-fat, diet-friendly casserole is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Or something.

Squash. It's good for you, and stuff.