Stuffed Spaghetti Squash
November 26th, 2011 in Beef, Main Dishes by Julia Volhina
Total cooking time: 2h 00min
My mom usually cooked big zucchini like this: stiffing it with ground beef and rice mince.
However I wasn’t able to find an “adult” zucchini in any shop here in US to cook it. It seems that they don’t survive long enough to grow big here (maybe green piece should look into that, I don’t know).
Anyway, I believe spaghetti squash is a good substitute for this recipe: it serves the purpose by being squash and providing a cavity to cook stuffing, and it also brings nice unique texture to the dish with its “spaghettiness”.
The taste here is similar to cabbage rolls (as if they were made of squash 🙂 ), however the amount of work you need to put into this one is considerably smaller.
Ingredients:
- Spaghetti squash about 3lb big
- 1 lb of ground beef
- 1/3 cup of rice
- 2 onions
- 4 roma tomatoes
- Fresh dill
- Ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
- Oil
How to prepare, step-by-step:
-
Prepare ingredients: take squash longer in shape, make sure you have an over prove pot big enough to fit it:
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe: Step 1 -
Boil rice in salted water until it start becoming softer, then drain water and cool it down:
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe: Step 2 -
Peel 1 onion and chop it, then fry with oil over moderate heat until soft and brownish in color:
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe: Step 3 -
Prepare squash for stuffing:
Slice top off 
Using long knife slice seed area in a circular motion 
And remove seeds using spoon
Make sure you get all the seeds out, especially those in the far end of the squash, then wash inside with water -
Prepare stuffing:
In a big bowl add rice to meat 
Add fried onion 
Season with salt and pepper and mix
-
Using spoon stuff squash with prepared mince:
Stuff squash with mince 
Stuff squash with mince 
Stuff squash with mince
-
Close squash with its tip and put into the oval cast iron pot:
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe: Step 7 -
Blanch tomatoes, keep seeds in:
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe: Step 8 -
Peel remaining onion, slice it into quarter circles, and fry over moderate heat with oil until soft and colored:
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe: Step 9 -
Add chopped tomatoes and cook onions and tomatoes together over moderate low heat until tomatoes transform into paste:
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe: Step 10 -
Add a cup of water to make sauce more watery, then salt to taste and add chopped dill:
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe: Step 11 -
Warm up oven till 350F; pour sauce over the stuffed squash; cover with a lid and put to the oven for about 1h 30 min (or until squash feels soft when piercing it with wooden stick or a knife):
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe: Step 12 -
Skin of spaghetti squash is hard, so it is usually good idea to remove it before serving:
Slice portion piece and put it to the plate 
Use knife to separate skin from the flesh 
And remove it
-
Pour warm sauce over and serve without a side dish:
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe
