Refreshing Spaghetti Squash and Cucumber Salad
This is a great salad to serve with Thanksgiving or holiday meals. It makes a refreshing summer salad as well. Spaghetti squash is low in calories; most of my meat-eater friends love this dish
Refreshing Spaghetti Squash And Cucumber Salad Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash, halved and seeded
8 ounces cherry tomatoes, halved
6 ounces pitted kalamata olives, halved
2 English cucumbers - peeled, seeded, and sliced
1 small red onion, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, minced
cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
cup olive oil, or more if needed
1 tablespoon garlic salt
ground black pepper to taste
How to Make Refreshing Spaghetti Squash And Cucumber Salad
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Place the squash halves into a large baking dish with the cut-sides facing down.
Bake in the preheated oven until you can easily cut into the skin side with a knife, about 30 minutes; remove from oven and set aside to cool.
Toss the cooled spaghetti squash, the tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, red onion, and garlic together in a large bowl until evenly mixed.
Stir the lemon juice and lemon zest together in a small bowl; slowly pour the olive oil into the lemon juice mixture while whisking vigorously. Season with garlic salt and pepper; drizzle over the spaghetti squash mixture and toss to coat. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.
Refreshing Spaghetti Squash And Cucumber Salad Nutritions
Calories: 162 calories
Carbohydrate: 12.2 g
Cholesterol:
Fat: 12.7 g
Fiber: 2.4 g
Protein: 1.7 g
SaturatedFat: 1.7 g
ServingSize:
Sodium: 1041.9 mg
Sugar: 2.8 g
TransFat:
UnsaturatedFat:
Refreshing Spaghetti Squash And Cucumber Salad Reviews
Im excited to be this recipes first reviewer so I can happily report how good this salad is Light and refreshing, with an interesting and delicious contrast in flavors, colors and textures. Since spaghetti squash can vary so much in size, and since mine was small, I didnt measure the rest of the ingredients for the salad exactly - just tossed them in until I liked the proportions. I also left the peel on the cucumber for added nutrition and color. I loved the lemon in the dressing rather than the heavier and tangier vinegar, but it was too much, even tho I omitted the zest altogether. In hindsight, Id still leave out the zest (a tablespoon of lemon zest is a lot), but reduce the lemon juice by half as well. Because fresh garlic is already included in the dressing, I simply used table salt rather than the garlic salt called for and that worked well for me. This was so good I couldnt stop digging into it right after I made it, while it was still at room temperature, and I found I actually preferred it that way than after it was chilled In my opinion, making the adjustments with the lemon easily makes this a 5-star recipe. This is excellent.
This is now a summer must Things I changed: I sliced the seedless cucumbers into strips for a more uniform look and I used sweet red peppers instead of onions as my boys wont eat raw onions. This is a large recipe and would feed the masses but at my house we ate on this all weekend and it only got better. VERY FRESH AND SUMMERY
Great recipe all if you like FETA you need to add it
This was wonderful My two babies could not get enough. We could not find spaghetti squash around here so I improvised with angel hair pasta and a cut up Butternut squash. Also, personal preference, we served it warm.
This seemed like a different and interesting way to prepare spaghetti squash. I served it for company. It was NOT a hit. The flavor was okay but most people did not care for the cold spaghetti squash. I also found it to be too heavy on the lemon flavor. I think adding feta cheese could improve it but overall, I dont think Ill make this again. It was a lot of work and not worth it plus what waste of expensive kalamata olives Youd be better off making a standard mediterranean salad than making this salad and it really doesnt look very good.
Cooking time for can vary greatly depending on the size of the squash. Excellent recipe, followed it exactly first time. Be careful with amount lemon juice and oil. Might be a little too much for tatses. Optional ingrediant would be some dried figs sliced paper thin. About 1/4 cup.
Was quite surprised. Never thought spagetti squash would be good in a salad, but this was different and tasty. Was still good 4 days later. The only downfall was the appearance.
Wasnt sure if this was one I was going to like at first. After reading all the reviews, I decided it was worth a shot...I had all the ingredients except the olives and lemon zest. It was great I liked it as is...my husbant thought that it was good too, but thought that adding diced apple would encourage the kids to try it. (Spaghetti squash and cucumbers arent always on the menu, but we were given these items and didnt want them to go to waste.) I would also suggest adding halved grapes would be good. great salad as is in my book. Very healthy and refreshing. Makes alot
Meh. While the flavor of this salad we found excellent, we felt the need to tweak it by adding balsamic vinegar to kick it up somewhat. What we didnt like about the recipe is the addition of squash. It seemed that someone took a perfectly good Mediterranean salad and just decided to dump in squash they had on hand. In our opinion, squash is much better hot than cold--it gave the salad a weird texture. Id make this again, omitting squash and instead using spinach.
This is so good and refreshing. easy. i serve it instead of a lettuce salad. we love it.
I tried this salad out today and it is very tasty Im not a fan of olives so I left those out, and I like a lot of lemon and thought it needed more dressing. A very simple and delicious salad, I will definitely make it again.
I usually love spaghetti squash but this was this first time I have ever tried it served cold and I just wasnt loving it prepared like this. I made the dressing according to the recipe and I am glad I tasted it first. It was way too salty and lemony. I ended up drizzling a little italian dressing instead.
Yum Great taste, very light and refreshing Can save in fridge and still good next day
We love spaghetti squash & this was fantastic. Only thing is I have always cut the raw squash in half, nuked 1 half at a time. A med sized squash half takes 8 to 9 min. If Im using it hot, we leave the seeds in until the last min. The faster you take the seeds out, the faster it cools.
The spaghetti squash was not cooked after 30 minutes, I gave it an extra 30 because it wasnt even close, and at that point it was still kind of crunchy. Should have specified on size of squash. The sauce made it too lemony and oily. This kind of made me feel sick, but my husband said it was alright so thats why I give it 3 stars, rather than 2.
I love spaghetti squash and wanted an easy salad recipe. The olive oil and lemon juice was too bland. The vegetables are a lot like my pasta salad and I make pasta salad with Italian or Ranch dressing. If I make this again Im going to change the dressing to see if that will zest it up.
I so wanted to enjoy this, but its much too salty. I recommend starting with 1 teaspoon of garlic salt then adjust to taste.
Great salad Even for winter, lol. Only had hot-house cucumbers, so thats what I used. Cut back a little bit on the olive oil. Other that that, its great Thank you
Nor yet but thee is a spaghetti squash on my counter and it will be utiized to the fullest tomorrow.
Took it to a turkey dinner - everyone loved it. Used red and orange bell peppers instead of tomato and added feta.
Great Idea I love spaghetti squash and this is such an original recipe. It was still good without the olive oil and the lemon zest. (I didnt have a fresh lemon on hand, and I eat a very low fat diet.) My only suggestion would be to salt the sliced cucumbers and let them sit in a strainer for 30 minutes and then blot water off with paper towels. Otherwise this salad will probably get very watery in the fridge.
Im not a fan of onion so I used a sweet bell pepper
Im so glad i stumbled across this recipe.. i was looking for something other than the usual spaghetti squash with pasta sauce for a side to our dinner.. i subbed half chopped roma tomatoes/half red bell pepper for the cherry tomatoes, 4 oz black olives for the 6 oz kalamata, left out the cucumbers, used half the red onion, forgot about the fresh garlic, used bottled lemon juice for the fresh, left out the lemon zest, only used 1.5 T olive oil, halved the garlic powder, and added 4 oz feta cheese, 1 T of red wine vinegar, and a few shakes of oregano.. this is exactly what i wanted.. ty for the recipe
Used regular tomatoes diced up. Added grated carrots as well as broccoli came out awesome. Everyone ate and loved it. Even the toddlers
Loved this recipe So light and refreshing and healthy. I had a medium squash and cooked it for about 45 min. Let it cool and then looked in my refrigerator to see what I could add. I used: red onion, chopped zucchini, tomatoes, 1 clove minced garlic, fresh red peppers, feta cheese and some leftover sausage that I had grilled the night before. Mixed it with lemon juice and olive oil (equal parts but not as much as stated in the original recipe) And also salt and pepper. Let it sit for about 2 hours and it was great. I will definitely make this again.
Nah. Thanks for an original idea using spaghetti squash, but this dish just didnt sell. Cold spaghetti squash is not my preferred way to enjoy it and with the cukes and the sauce, it just really didnt seem to jive. Oh, well.
I followed this recipe to the letter as it was my first time cooking with spaghetti squash and I loved it I thought the flavors were great together Will be making again
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