Monday, June 17, 2013

Vegetarian Pad Thai with Spaghetti Squash

SPAGHETTI SQUASH- ahhhh! This has been one of my new favorites. I know being a vegetarian doesn't mean you can't eat noodles, but going along with the theme of trying to be an all around healthier person, spaghetti squash is a great substitute for the carb loaded noodles.

This dish was soooo amazing and we kept saying the whole time we were eating it "can you believe that EVERYTHING in this dinner is vegetables?!". It doesn't get much better than that!

Alright first lets talk about the delicious spaghetti sqaush. First of all, I had no idea that there was a squah actually called "spaghetti" squash. I thought it was just a recipe where you used squash and turned it into spaghetti. I was amazed when I showed up to the store and actually saw the real thing!

There are a lot of different ways to cook it but the easiest and the fastest is in the microwave. First use a knife to puncture holes in the top of the squash. If you forget to do this you will probably end up with a messy squash explosion in your microwave! I usually cook it for 8-10 minutes.

Once you take it out and let it cool a bit, you slice it in half long ways. Use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Then the fun part.....use a fork to scrape out the "noodles"! The squash literally comes out just like noodles. It is the best! And you can actually get a lot of noodles out of just one squash. I would say enough for up to 4 people.

Now on to the other part of the recipe. Since we made this before we started getting our weekly farmers share, we bought a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables along with some fresh chopped bok choy. We cooked it all in a pan with a few cloves of garlic. When that is done, remove it to a separate bowl.

The best part of this recipe is definitely the sauce. (Which by the way is really, really, really easy and delicious!)  What you need is 1/4 cup of vegetable broth, 2 tablespoons all natural peanut butter, 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar, 1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce, and a small squirt of sriracha. (Sriracha is the best hot sauce for this kind of thing but it is very spicy so don't ruin your dish by putting a lot in there, you only need a little squirt!) Heat the sauce in a pan until it is smooth and creamy. Once it is ready, add spaghetti squash and stir fry veggies and mix together. 

Garnish with chopped peanuts, green onions or garlic scapes, and a wedge of lime. 

The result? A healthy,cheap, easy, delicious dinner! I am serious about this one, it is so so so freakin' good! 

Ingredients: 

-fresh or frozen stir fry veggies
-fresh bok choy
-one spaghetti squash
-1/4 cup vegetable broth
-2 tablespoons all natural peanut butter
-1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
-1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
-small squirt of sriracha

Optional Garnish:

-peanuts
-green onions or garlic scapes
-lime wedges


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