Spaghetti squash and salad

Tonight we had a very pleasant dinner, in which the temperatures, flavors and textures harmonized surprisingly well. I was very much flying by the seat of my pants, but hey! It worked.

First I baked a spaghetti squash and let it cool. In the meantime, I made a salad with bulgur and whole grains, half an onion, chopped fine, cherry tomatoes, "spring greens" (a mix of small but remarkably tough leaves from the whole food co-op, tamed and wilted by being tossed with the grains while they were still warm), tvp that had been refreshed in hot water, chopped fresh mozzerella, sliced almonds, a little onion confit, and mustard vinaigrette with plenty of black pepper. That sat out on the counter (no refrigerating tomatoes, even subpar winter cherry tomatoes!), melding, until we were ready for dinner.

When we were ready to eat, I minced a couple of cloves of garlic and heated them in some butter. I fluffed/scraped out half the squash with a fork and added it to the saucepan. A couple of stirs, a few minutes with the lid on, a generous grinding of pepper, and everything was ready. The squash was really very tasty; I think the natural butteriness of it goes well with a simple, buttery sauce. Last time I tried something with tomatoes, and it was fine, but not nearly as good as this -- and this was much simpler, too.

Brownie for dessert.

And now we have oodles of leftover rice salad, which will be good for S's lunch, and half a spaghetti squash ready to be used at a moment's notice. Not bad!

Posted by redfox at February 18, 2004 09:37 PM (dinner reports)

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