Freezing spaghetti squash?
 

Has anyone tried freezing spaghetti squash? It is so inexpensive now, when usually it is quite high. The young man I cook for is off pasta and doesn't mind spaghetti squash. I think it will be a watery mess frozen, but I'm willing to try one. I have to bake cakes for a funeral tonight, so I will bake the squash, drain it on paper towels and freeze it for few days. I recently purchased commercial frozen zucchini and it was watery and didn't hold it shape in a casserole, so I don't have a lot of hope for the this experiment.

Absolutely works! I cook it, drain, then freeze. I find it needs to be drained again after thawing but that's the only issue with it. Surprisingly it still retains it's texture for me.

I only use mine as a pasta substitute though, so if you were using it for any other reason I can't say how that would work out.

That's good to hear. I think that was my issue with the frozen zucchini - I used it frozen. Next time I will thaw and drain.

This sounds great but how can you tell if the Spagetti Squash is ripe and ready to be eaten? I have a few smaller ones and am curious.
Kirsten

If you bought it at the store it's already ripe. If you're growing them they are yellow and the skins are harder when ripe.

I had a bumper crop of zucchini this year so sliced, froze it open on a cookie sheet, then once frozen I placed it into a freezer bag. Some I shredded in amounts needed for zucchini bread, these slices I'm hoping will not be too slimey when thawed for a zucchini pie which comes out more like a quiche. Eggplant is another item that's hard to freeze so we're going to try baking it with a crust on it and then freeze it on a cookie sheet and then into a freezer bag. I find doing it this way helps keep them separate once in a bag and dries them out somewhat. Will be freezing tomatoes this year as I've canned as much as I need as salsa, sauce and soup.

Most vegetables need to be blanched for at least 5 minutes before freezing to keep their texture and flavor after defrosting. This holds true with spaghetti squash and zucchini and green beans too. If I am shredding zucchini that I will use in breads at a later date I don't always blanch it though.

Would you tell us how to go about the process to get it to freeze well and not be mush when thawed.
Would love to have some on hand, live alone and can not eat a whole one each time. A pasta sub is what I am wanting to use it for as well.

Blanching when freezing uncooked veggies. I believe IR is planning to freeze it after it has been cooked.

If you have a cool place to store it, it will keep for 3 months or more. I grew it this year, I washed all the squash with a very mild bleach solution, then cure them in a warm room for a week or so. Next store them in a cool dark area. Once person I know wraps them in newspaper, others put them on a paper covered rack.

I planted them at the last minute in June and could only find seeds for the larger squash. Next year I will buy my seeds earlier and get the smaller ones. Best thing I did to was put a frame around the plants for it to grow up and over. Kept the squash off the ground while they were growing.

I bake it and scrape it out as I would if I was eating it right then. Let it cool. Drain if needed. Freeze in freezer bags. Then thaw it, typically just let it sit on the counter. Drain again, often just leaving it sit it a colander drains it enough.