When I was a boy we raised a lot of our own vegetables, and squash was a regular part of our diet–when it was in season.
But not spaghetti squash (left).
I don’t know that I ever remember hearing of spaghetti squash before I joined the low-carb diet movement, lost a hundred pounds, and started hearing about the use of spaghetti squash as a substitute for . . . well, spaghetti.
I’d see it in the stores, but as a Helpless Bachelor, the thought of cooking anything that involves more than one step is intimidating to me. (Actually, I’m quite a good cook and used to work as a chef in a Chinese restaurant, but that’s cooking for others; cooking for myself is a different matter.)
In general, if I can’t microwave it or–at the most–boil it, I know that I won’t end up making it, so I don’t even bother buying it.
Judge of my delight when I was in the store Friday night and found spaghetti squash with a convenient how-to-microwave-spaghetti-squash label! I bought one and decided to make it my Adventuresome Food Project For The Weekend.
I found the experience thoroughly delightful, though I did not find spaghetti squash a good substitute for spaghetti. It would work for that purpose in the absence of low-carb pasta, but there’s already plenty of low-carb pasta on the market that makes a better approximation of normal spaghetti.
What I found, though, was that spaghetti squash makes a wonderful low-carb substitute for something else that I’d been missing: hash-browns)!
I love hash browns (with ketchup and cheese and hot sauce–Mmmmmmmmm!) but, being made of potatoes, they are Strictly Verboten on my diet. No hash browns for me.
Until now.
The texture of spaghetti squash is remarkably like potato shreds (see up and right), and the taste and smell are as well. Topped with the pizza sauce I bought (I like pizza sauce on spaghetti better than spaghetti sauce), it really brought back memories of when I worked in a (non-Chinese) restaurant and would make those great beketchuped hash browns that I used to be able to eat. Good stuff!
I was so enthusiastic that I decided to do a blog entry on it, so here’s how y’all can make your own low-carb hash browns. It’s simple enough that even I, a Helpless Bachelor (when not cooking for others), can do it:
- Get a spaghetti squash.
- Stick it so that you pierce its outer rind (a Long Pointy Knife will do this job well, though I used a kitchen implement that looks like an Evil Tuning Fork that came with a long pointy knife set I bought a while back). This will let pressure escape from the squash so it doesn’t ‘splode when you nuke it.
- Nuke it. (On high. Five minutes per pound. Typically about 15 minutes.)
- Make sure that the outer rind has become soft. If not, nuke it some more.
- Let it cool down a bit so you don’t burn your fingers (this part is important!).
- Use a Long Pointy Knife to cut it in two (short or non-pointy knives are totally unsuited for this). The sticker on the spaghetti squash I got didn’t say which way to cut it, but I cut mine down its equator (not end-to-end), which turned out to be the right way to do it.
- In the middle is a hollow area that has orangey goop and seeds in it. Scoop that out and throw it away.
- Use a fork to scoop out the hash brown-like filaments that cling to the inside of the rind and put them on a plate (this is very easy to do since the filaments are practically falling out of there, at least after they’ve been softened up by nuking).
- Since they are already hot and soft and potatoey, top them with your favorite hash brown toppings, and you’re good to go. (Alternately, brown them in a pan so that they’re a little crisp, if that’s the way you like hash browns.)
Now that’s good eatin’!
About 5-6 grams of net carbs per cup. A three pound spaghetti squash probably has about six servings in it.
Now, I’m sure if you put olive oil or butter or garlic or similar spaghettifying things onto spaghetti squash it would make it taste more spaghetti-like, but there’s already good low-carb pasta and spaghetti-squash already tastes like a kind of potato, so it’s perfectly suited for hash browns.
Yee-Haw!
