Spaghetti Squash with home-made Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti Squash is an amazing vegetable, whose flesh breaks up into spaghetti-like strands after boiling or baking. Its a very healthy alternative to "normal" pasta, with a slightly nutty taste. Looks good, tastes good and most importantly its really really healthy. What more can one ask from a humble squash. It made its first appearance on our dining table this week and we totally loved it. My hubby read about it somewhere and we brought the big 2 Kilo fruit home very enthusiastically. 

He helped me in the kitchen. From lugging the super-heavy thing around from the organic supermarket to pricking with a fork to ensure an evenly cooked squash, to baking and cutting it up, and to scraping it into noodles finely. Everything was done by him. Can't thank him enough :-) 

Spaghetti Squash before and after baking...

Hubby scraping the squash :-)

I made a quick tomato sauce and threw in a few vegetables to make it even more healthier. But, at the end, P. topped it up with some cheese and baked it over... It tasted heavenly but then it wasn't totally healthy. But, what the heck... I am so glad that I tried this veggi and also served it to 2 of our good friends, who were home for dinner this weekend. They loved it too. 

To make it look even more interesting, I baked it in the squash shell itself. It looked simply gorgeous. And pretty shamelessly, I clicked quite a few photos in front of our waiting, drooling, hungry friends so that I could show them to all you lovely people :-) Hope you'll like it. 

Ingredients

2 kg - spaghetti squash

For the tomato sauce

450 grams - tomato, blanched and finely chopped

2-3 pods of garlic, finely chopped

1 - onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup - red and yellow pepper, finely chopped

1 - carrot medium size, chopped, boiled

1 1/2 tsp - dried italian herbs

3 tbsp - olive oil

1 tbsp - balsamico vinegar

1/2 tsp - red chilli flakes (more or less)

salt and pepper to taste

25 grams - parmesan cheese, grated

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Pierce/Prick the squash all around with a fork and place it in the baking tray.
3. Place the tray in the center of the preheated oven and bake for approx 1 hour or until the shell is soft and gives on pressing. (alternately, you can boil the squash or cook in the microwave.)
4. Let the squash cool and then cut it vertically into half. 
5. Scoop the seeds out. Scrape the squash, lengthwise, with a fork, to get spaghetti like strands. (do not throw away the shell)
6. Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the garlic, onion, peppers and saute until the onions are soft.
7. Add the blanched and chopped tomatoes, carrots, salt, pepper and red chilli flakes and cook for 4-5 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the herbs and balsamico vinegar and mix well.
8. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
9. Mix well the spaghetti squash and the tomato sauce. Spoon the mixture into the squash shell, top it up with grated parmesan cheese and place the squash in a baking tray.
10. Place the tray in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the cheese is slightly brown. Serve hot. 

We used half the squash with this tomato sauce and the other half with a basil-pesto (but unfortunately not home made!). Both the versions tasted heavenly, though I personally preferred the tomato sauce to the pesto. 

Enjoy!

Spicy Spelt Spaghetti with Lime Leaves and Sesame.

This month started on a bad note. After a fearful and emotional 2 weeks, now things are slowly falling back into place.

Today, I am gonna share a simple one pot meal with you. The star ingredient of this recipe are kafir lime leaves. It's the highlight of the recipe - the dominant flavour and strong taste makes this spaghetti extra special. And, yes, sesame seeds enhanced the taste of this dish in their own special way.

All in all, I was very happy with the outcome and hope you like it too!

The ginger-garlic-chilli paste is often a life saver - or at least a great time saver ;-) Its easy to make, and you can keep it refrigerated for up to 6 months - and it adds a dash (or more!) of flavour and zing to any dish in a moment - I use it in Indian curries, pasta, savoury muffins and any other dish which needs to made spicy. If you like it really hot, you can easily increase (approx double) the amount of red chillies you use for the paste. 


Ingredients for the paste


35 grams - dried whole red chillies, soaked in some water for 2-3 hrs and then washed twice
115 grams - ginger, peeled and chopped
115 grams - garlic, peeled and chopped
12- 14 tbsp - sunflower oil
1 1/2 - 2 tbsp - vinegar


Add everything in a mixer and grind into a fine paste. Transfer into a glass jar and refrigerate for up to 6 months

Ingredients


100 gram - spelt spaghetti
3-4 - kafir lime leaves
3/4 tbsp - homemade chilli, garlic and ginger paste (more or less)
1/4 cup - red and yellow peppers, cut into squares
1/4 cup - carrots, cut into medium size pieces
1 - onion, cut into medium size squares
1/4 tsp + 1 tbsp - olive oil
1 tbsp - lemon juice (more or less)
1 tbsp - coriander leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp - sesame seeds to garnish
lemon slice to garnish

Method

1. Add the spaghetti to the boiling water with 2 lime leaves, carrots, 1/4 tsp olive oil and a pinch of salt.
2. Drain the water when the spaghetti is done and discard the lime leaves.
3. In an another non stick pan, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and the homemade chilli-garlic-ginger paste and saute on a medium heat for a couple of minutes. (be careful as it will splutter) 
4. Add the onions, peppers and lime leaves and cook until the onions are soft.
5. Add the spaghetti, salt, pepper powder and coriander leaves and mix well. Remove from the heat.
6. Sprinkle the lemon juice and mix well. 
7. Garnish with a lemon slice and sesame seeds and serve.

Enjoy!

Baby Peppers with Pesto Noodles.

The football fever is on full swing...with the World Cup starting, there was more action on the TV than in the kitchen - so nothing too elaborate happened on the cooking front. I am not an expert, nor do I play, but I really enjoy watching the game.

But a good football game without good food is unthinkable (actually, anything is unthinkable without good food!) - and since pasta is one of our fixtures for weekends, I tried this variation with a little more colour to it.

Ingredients

3 - baby peppers, washed, dried and cut into halves

1 tbsp - olive oil

1/4 tsp - dried italian herbs

1/4 tsp - black pepper powder

salt to taste

For the Filling

1/3 cup - mini noodles, boiled

1 tbsp - cashew and walnuts, roughly broken

2 1/2 tbsp - basil pesto

25 gram - feta cheese, crumbled

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C. Place the baby peppers in a baking tray, sprinkle the oil, herbs, salt and pepper on it and place the tray in the preheated oven and bake until almost done (approx 25  minutes)
2. Mix the ingredients of the filling in a bowl and keep aside.
3. Remove the peppers from the oven, add the filling and return the baking tray back in the oven and bake for 5 minutes.
4. Serve hot. 

Enjoy!

Grilled Vegetables by him!

My contribution to this recipe is just the photography...the rest was taken care of  by my dear hubby.

Grilled Vegetables is one dish we have been having pretty often in times recent, especially on the weekends. Its simple, quick to make, very healthy and delicious too. Sometimes we gratin it with cheese, sometimes without and the choice of vegetables depend on what's seasonal, fresh and available in the pantry :-) 

This goes to His Cooking Event at Indian Khana. Thanks a lot for hosting such a fun event. I enjoyed it :-)

Ingredients

1 - carrot, scraped and chopped

1 - zucchini, chopped

1 - eggplant medium size, chopped

2 - potatoes, chopped

1 - tomato, chopped

2 - green chillies, finely chopped (more or less)

2 1/2 tbsp - ginger, finely chopped

1 - red pepper small, deseeded and chopped

1 - onion, chopped

1/4 cup - brocolli

4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1 1/2 tsp - dried italian herbs (more or less)

1/8 tsp - citric acid

a generous sprinkling of olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

100 grams - cheddar cheese, grated

50 grams - parmesan cheese, grated

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degree C.
2. Mix together the cut vegetables, olive oil and the spices in a baking dish. Sprinkle the cheese on the top.
3. Place the baking tray in the center of the oven and bake for approx 20 minutes. Toss them a couple of times in between. 
4. Serve hot.

The colours are a treat for the eyes and add to the appeal of the dish...as the Germans say "Das Auge isst mit" - the eyes eat also, loosely translated :-) 

Together with organic whole wheat bread, the dish is a complete meal. 

Enjoy!