Spaghetti Squash

tim_n

You may never have heard of this weird and wacky squash (like me) or you may have seen it but not known what to do with it. You might be afraid of it!

But fear not - spagetti squash (a native american plant) can be grown in sunny england and is very simple to cook. We did ours in the oven this week by sticking it in for an hour covered over loosly in tin foil and stabbed ohsomany times with a fork. You can microwave it with some water or grill it, but I figured oven took the least amount of effort on my part.

We served ours with a stirfry, using the noodles inside as the base. Very tasty - not unlike cucumber but with the same wierd noodly texture of rice noodles.

Once you've cooked it, you cut it open, de-seed it and thow the seedypulb onto the compost bin or similar and use a fork on the flesh and the noodles just rise up. Easy as pie. or squash.

Allotment grown btw!

poohzee

can you show us a picture of it - i was intrigued by these last year but couldnt find any. thanks

tim_n

I don't think they're mainstream because I've never heard or seen of them before - but we got given one which was very tasty with free seeds inside!

[edit: nope, no photo... all inside me now, except the skin which is on the compost]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_squash - check that out for photos and info

Plum_Pie

I've heard of it being eaten as a pasta substitute by dieters!

ethansmum

I tried looking everywhere for them last year but with no luck

rustyjemma

http://www.edirectory.co.uk/chilternseeds/pages/moreinfo.asp?pe=DBFBDHJAQ_+&cid=211

The organic gardening catalogue has this squash to.

lindab15

Got one from Tesco a few weeks ago and roasted it in the oven. Quite nice for a change, but still prefer butternut squash I'm afraid - more flavour (although allotment version would be much better than tesco's, I'm sure).

Haven't tried growing them before - good on you ! Aren't they difficult / need a lot of space / need a lot of support ?? We've managed courgettes in the garden, but not ventured to the larger squash varieties yet !

nodwah

Have a look on the greenfingered board as we a discussion a while back.
I've grown them before and they're as easy as courgettes, but mine this year got destroyed by slugs before they got anywhere.
I find them handy as I'm wheat free, the flavour is quite bland though, a good base for sauces.

a41

Have sent this to the wives email address, bit off luck she may change from egg & chips.