Spaghetti Squash and Veggies in Garlic and Oil

I was at a friend’s for dinner a few weeks ago and she made this wonderful stir fry, using spaghetti squash as the “noodle”.  I was so inspired and I had intended to copy her recipe as closely as possible, but then I wanted pasta really bad – and since we’re doing the low carb thing, I thought I’d make Spaghetti Squash and Veggies in Garlic and Oil, a more Italian inspired dish.  The market had these lovely, little squashes, smaller than I’d ever seen so I picked one up and used that.

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 head of broccoli, I use the florets as well as the stalks.  Using a peeler, peel away any tough outer skin and then slice the stalks into coins.
• 1 small package of sugar snap peas and snow peas mixture, rinsed and trimmed
• mushrooms (we had white, sliced)
• olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• a pinch of red pepper flake

The first thing we need to do is roast the squash.  The good news is that this can be done days ahead of time. Here’s another post for the squash if you need a more detailed instruction: Spaghetti Squash Puttanesca. This time, I preheated the oven to 400, sliced the squash in half, lengthwise and put the two pieces, insides down, on a baking sheet.  Roast for one hour, remove from the oven, allow to cool and scoop the insides out.  You can reserve the seeds for roasting, if you like. Scrape the insides apart to make the “noodles”, set aside. I’ve kept these for days in a covered container in the fridge and I’ve yet to see them go bad. Preheat the oven to 350, place the broccoli on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  I really like broccoli roasted, you could steam it here as well. Heat a large pasta pot over med/high heat, add about 1/3 cup of olive oil and when it’s hot, add your sugar snaps and snow peas.  Allow to cook, stirring occasionally until the peas start to blister a bit.

add the mushrooms and allow them to brown, stirring often.

Add the red pepper flake and garlic.  When the garlic is very fragrant, add the broccoli and spaghetti squash.  Toss to coat as much as possible.  If it looks too dry, it’s ok to add some more oil.

When you’re done tossing, add 1/2 cup of water and cover, allow the steam to build up and heat up the squash and broccoli.  If it looks too wet, allow the excess water to cook off – but toss it first, it may just need redistributing.

Plate and serve.

You will not miss the pasta, I promise. Absolutely delicious.