Asian Noodle Style Spaghetti Squash

Having only just cooked my first ever spaghetti squash (see how-to below), it seems a bit cheeky to be handing out advice. But the thing I discovered was just how easy and awesome this vegetable is to cook with, so wanted to share the news for others like me who are new to it. I'm all excited about it so just indulge me, and perhaps, share your tips too!

One spaghetti squash produced enough for 4 adult dinner servings. As I was cooking for 2 adults, we had it with roasted garlic, steamed broccoli and capsicum pesto for dinner last night and for lunch today I used the leftover squash to invent a sort of cheats pad-thai (using ingredients from my not very authentically Asian pantry). Both were great and I'm sharing my stir-fry recipe here:

Pad-Thai inspired Spaghetti Squash Stir-Fry
Serves 2. Vegetarian (or vegan if you skip the omelette)

Ingredients:
1 cup green veges you have (I used steamed broccoli, peas. You might have some yummy Asian greens or sugarsnap peas)
1 or 2 organic freerange eggs
2 medium shallots / 1/2 med onion, sliced thinly
1 1/2 cups roasted, prepared spaghetti squash (technique follows)

Other things you can add:
70 grams fried tofu puffs / 1/3 cup fresh firm tofu
170 grams fresh beansprouts

Garnishes you may want to use:
2 T fresh coriander or other fresh herbs like mint, thai basil, parsley
1/4 cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped (I had none so for 'crunch' added crushed oven-baked seaweed potato chips....hmm...)
garlic chives or spring onions, chopped
lime wedges

Stir-Fry Sauce
Combine in a blender:
1/4 c coconut milk
1/2 T Sriracha chilli sauce (or 1/2 t chilli flakes)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 small piece of ginger, peeled and chopped (or 1/4 t powdered ginger)
1 T tomato paste or tomato sauce
2 T fresh lime or lemon juice
1 T soy sauce (or tamari)
dash of water

Method:
Take a wok / large frying pan and heat with a small amount of water to blanch your green veggies. Remove these once just tender (still nice and green and firm) and rinse them in cold water to stop them overcooking. Set aside veggies. (Pour water out of wok and put back on stove).
Now use the egg(s) to cook a thin omelette in the wok. Remove this and cut into strips. Set aside.
Next, heat 1t veg oil in wok and cook shallots till golden brown. Set these aside.
Pour sauce into wok on lowish temperature and cook till bubbling and slightly reduced. Add a dash more water if needed if it's too thick.
Add the cooked spaghetti squash and stir through sauce with tongs/chopsticks. Add the prepared veggies, omelette and tofu, if using. Stir-fry till well heated through. Add beansprouts last as they don't need much cooking.
Serve topped with the fried shallots, chopped fresh herbs and other garnishes you like.

How to Prepare Spaghetti Squash

1. Preheat oven to 180 C / 360 F. Take a spaghetti squash, chop it in half (it can be quite hard so invest in a good chopping knife and be careful!). Scoop out and discard seeds (although some people like to roast and eat them:)
2. Rub oil over cut halves of the squash, including in the hollow. Place on baking tray cut-side up. Arrange sliced garlic in hollows. 
3. Put baking tray in the upper-middle rack of the oven. Bake at 180 degrees celsius (360 degrees F) for about 30-40 minutes. (You will know it is ready when the squash separates from the skin easily).
4. When it's cool enough to handle, (or carefully hold with oven gloves), hold skin-side of squash and use a fork to scrape out the strands of the flesh. This bit is really easy and fun. You get HEAPS of 'spaghetti' strands from one squash, just keep scraping with fork until the skin is just a shell.

Now you can use this spaghetti-like flesh as you would al-dente pasta, pretty much. Don't leave it sitting in lots of sauce, if you can avoid it, as that can make it a bit mushy, apparently. Instead, serve with sauce on top or just heated and stirred through right before serving. The taste is different than pasta but the texture is great. Luc-who-loves-pasta asked if I would make pasta for dinner last night and I made this instead and he loved it. His approval is great as he's a huge carb (wheat) fan so this makes a lighter, more nutritious alternative for us to enjoy sometimes.