Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Chickpeas

January 15, 2011 By Susan Voisin 110 Comments

Spaghetti squash can be a dieter’s best friend if you remember three things: 1) It doesn’t taste like pasta, 2) It doesn’t interact with sauce like pasta, and 3) It doesn’t taste like pasta. Okay, I know that’s actually two points, but the first bears repeating. Spaghetti squash tastes like–surprise!–squash, and if you sit down to a plate of it expecting to bite into a forkful of angel hair, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you’re expecting lightly sweet squashy flavor in fun-to-eat strands of gold, you’ll love spaghetti squash in general and this recipe in particular.

Besides tasting like squash, spaghetti squash has the texture of squash. Though its strands resemble thin noodles, it doesn’t have the starchiness of pasta so sauces don’t cling to it. That means that you don’t want to douse it with lots of sauce because the sauce tends to sink into a puddle underneath the “pasta.” Using just enough sauce to spread the herbs and seasonings through the golden strands is the key to working with spaghetti squash.

The lack of starchiness does have one huge benefit, which is why I mentioned the D-word above: On almost any diet plan, from Eat to Live to Weight Watchers to South Beach, spaghetti squash is considered a non-starchy or “free” vegetable. Many of us start the year off trying to adhere to specific diets, and this recipe is a light and healthy option that should fit easily into any of them.

Spaghetti squash is much easier to cut if you roast it first.

I like the flavor of roasted spaghetti squash much better than steamed, but I was using an older squash that was so hard to cut that I was in danger of losing a finger if I kept trying. So rather than cut it in half to bake, I pierced it several times with a metal skewer and put it in the oven whole.

It was much easier to cut after roasting, and it still had that smoky-sweet roasted flavor. If I had thought about it, I would have put a head of garlic in with it to roast, but I didn’t so I added fresh garlic later.

If you’d like, trim the top off of a head of garlic, wrap it in foil, and bake it along with the squash, checking after 45 minutes to see if it’s softened but not burned. Squeeze out as many of the cloves as you like into the pan when you add the Brussels sprouts and mash them with a fork.

I have to also note that my daughter E, upon looking into the pan as I was finishing cooking, said, “Do I have to eat that?” Our rule is that yes, she has to eat at least a small serving of whatever I cook. (The poor kid is my involuntary recipe tester!) I was really surprised when she finished her small serving and her salad and went back for a little more of each. When questioned, she said that it was “actually pretty good.” Then she poured herself a bowl of Fruitful O’s and soymilk. Oh well, adolescents need their sugar and starch, I suppose.

4 from 4 votes