Spaghetti squash is oblong shaped spring vegetable. Like any other squash it has creamy yellow outer hard skin and inner core and seed part. It is rich in vitamins, rich in antioxidants and low in carbohydrate. Hence it is loved by weight watchers and one can enjoy this super magical veggie in many forms after baking it for a half an hour. After initial baking/cooking ,inner flesh tends to become thread like texture and which can be enjoyed in many ways as salads, as substitution for noodles etc.
I wanted to try this vegetable from so long. In my recent visit to USA, I asked my sister to bring this veggie when I was at her place. She did struggle a lot to find this vegetable in the Summer and finally managed to find one and handed it over to me. I knew it was extensively used as a substitute to noodles in salads, hence I wanted to incorporate it in our south Indian cooking and tried simple palya and it tasted great with rice and Rasam.
Ingredients:
Spaghetti squash – 1
Red chilli powder – 1 tea spoon
Salt
Turmeric – ½ tea spoon
Jaggery – 1 tea spoon
Grated fresh coconut – 2 table spoons
Seasoning:
Coconut oil – 1 table spoon
Mustard – 1 tea spoon
Urad dal – 1 tea spoon
Cumin – ½ tea spoon
Red chilli -1 (broken in to half)
Curry leaves – 1 spring
Method:
How to remove or prepare spaghetti, out of squash before making palya-
If you have not used spaghetti squash before, there are couple of things one should know. First you should cut this veggie into half lengthwise and carefully remove the seeds and attached fibre. Place these two pieces on a lined cookie sheet or any baking tray. Next spray some olive oil or any other vegetable oil and bake this in a pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes at 180 ®C or until it is cooked and water oozes and accumulates at the centre hollow region.
Next, remove from the oven, cool a bit. Take one fork and scrape all over and see the magic. Yup!!! You will see lots of noodle like strands and collect all these and keep it ready for further cooking.
How to make Palya:
-Take one kadai/wok add oil and heat. Splutter mustard, add urad dal, cumin, red chilli.
-When urad dal becomes light brown, add curry leaves, collected spaghetti squash strands, salt, jaggery, red chilli powder and little water.
-Cook until veggie absorbs all the flavours and water dries up. Garnish with coconut gratings.
-Serve with rice or roti.