Whether you want a delicious side or use spaghetti squash as a substitute for pasta, the oven is an easy place to cook it and make it taste delicious.
Spaghetti Squash in the Oven
Roasting vegetables in the oven is a beginner-friendly way of cooking, including spaghetti squash, because it brings out their sweetness and gives them great flavor. Plus, it's a hands-off method that lets me prep the rest of dinner while it's cooking.
The best part of cooking spaghetti squash in the oven, versus cooking it in the microwave or in the slow cooker, is that it’s the one place where the heat is able to caramelize the natural sugars of this veggie and make it taste sweeter.
What You Need
I added butter, garlic, and Parmesan as a topper to this basic recipe in the recipe card below, but the basics for cooking spaghetti squash in the oven are olive oil, salt, and pepper.
How to Cook Spaghetti Squash in the Oven
In the recipe card, you’ll find a visual, but first, check out the steps:
- Cut the squash.
Wash it with warm water and soap and dry it well. To cut it, a large knife, such as a chef’s knife, works best. - Pierce the skin.
Poking holes in the skin allows the heat to go through the layers of the squash and ensures even cooking. - Season.
Olive oil, salt, and pepper are the basic starters for this epic veggie.
- Bake.
Bake in a preheated oven, with the oven rack in the middle position, to avoid burning the tops.
Laura’s Tips for Cooking Spaghetti Squash in the Oven
Even with a sharp chef knife, spaghetti squash can be tough to pierce, so I sometimes pierce it once or twice and then microwave the squash for 2 minutes to soften the skin. This won’t cook it; it just makes it easier to cut.
Spaghetti squash cooks very well and evenly when the oven is set to bake at 400F; which is a great temperature for roasting vegetables.
At 400F, spaghetti squash takes 30 to 40 minutes to be cooked. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of the squash. Once you poke it with a fork and there’s no resistance, it’s time to remove it from the oven.
How to Serve Spaghetti Squash
My family loves cooked spaghetti squash topped with my incredible meatless meatballs, paired with juicy seared chicken breasts, or this Salmon Baked in Foil recipe, which can be cooked at the same time.
Easy Oven Roasted Spaghetti Squash
Watch how it’s made:
Ingredients
- 1 large spaghetti squash
- Olive oil
- Salt & Pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter, optional
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder, optional
- 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, optional
Instructions
Prep:
- Preheat the oven to 400F and position the rack in the middle. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Wash the spaghetti squash with warm soapy water and dry it with a clean kitchen towel.
- On a flat surface, carefully slice it lengthwise. With a spoon, scrape the seeds out and discard. Pierce the skin of the squash with a sharp knife -this helps the heat go through the squash layers.
- Drizzle the spaghetti squash tops (the meat) with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the spaghetti squash halves, skin-side down, on the lined baking sheet.
Bake the spaghetti squash:
- Bake in the preheated oven for about 40 minutes, checking it sometime after the 30-minute mark to ensure that the skin pierces easily with a fork through the squash and meets little resistance. Remove it from the oven.
Serve:
- With a fork, separate the squash shreds from the skin and transfer them onto a plate or bowl. Top with the butter, garlic powder, and parmesan and mix well. You can also use it plain as the base for your favorite recipe.
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Jackie says
Such a great recipe for spaghetti squash!
Mel says
I bought a spaghetti squash not knowing how to how to cook it at all, this helped so much