Summer squash has been irresistably cheap and fresh at the farmer’s market. Add to this the fact that our preferred farmer only sells his squash by the bucket and you’ll see why this tender yellow squash has become a temporary lunch and dinner staple.
Squash use #1: Squash “pasta”
Ingredients:
- Yellow squash (long and thin ones are better for this than small or round squash)
- Olive oil
- Tomatoes and basil, or your toppings/sauce of choice
- Salt and pepper
Procedure:
- Cut the squash into a long julienne. (A quick guide is here: http://www.ehow.com/how_13876_julienne-vegetables.html.) Basically, cut each squash in half lengthwise, then cut into narrow slices. If your squash is large enough, cut those slices in half again lengthwise to make something noodle-y.
- Heat olive oil in a skillet or similar pan.
- Sauté squash until tender. This fresh-from-the-farm summer squash only cooked for 3-4 minutes. If you’re adding tomatoes and basil (as I did), try to add them halfway through the cooking process so they can mingle effectively.
- Season to taste.
It’s a pretty low-cal “pasta” substitute (1 cup of squash has about 25 calories), so I recommend serving this “pasta” alongside something a bit heartier. 1 cup of squash also delivers 2.5g of tasty fiber, 27 mg of calcium, and about 275mg of potassium! (source)
Squash use #2: Squash “pasta” on pasta
I pack my lunch for work. Every day. (Well, a week at a time, every Sunday night. More on that another time.) The main component of this meal is some sort of protein+carb+vegetable mix, and for far too long that vegetable has been frozen broccoli.
See, frozen broccoli makes a lot of sense in the winter, especially last winter when I was managing an unmanageable project and I was lucky to make it out the door every morning with shoes on my feet, let alone vegetables in my lunch bag. And it’s cheap, and it’s quick, and it’s always available. (And I didn’t have to cook it, which was a big plus in our old apartment.) So I got in a broccoli rut that lasted nearly an entire year, and I’m proudly stepping out of that rut.
With squash!
This week’s lunch is a tofu slab, topped with some quinoa pasta spirals, squash “pasta” with burgundy cherry tomatoes and broccoli sprouts, and pesto.
And yes ma’am, it’s tasty! But the photos look kind of gross. Sorry.
(Better photos coming tonight – I forgot to bring that thumb drive today!)
Ta-da! Squash pasta with burgundy cherry tomatoes that doesn’t look like something’s nesting in it, added above.