Low-Carb Hash Browns!!!

Spaghettisquash1When I was a boy we raised a lot of our own vegetables, and squash was a regular part of our diet–when it was in season.

But not spaghetti squash (left).

I don’t know that I ever remember hearing of spaghetti squash before I joined the low-carb diet movement, lost a hundred pounds, and started hearing about the use of spaghetti squash as a substitute for . . . well, spaghetti.

I’d see it in the stores, but as a Helpless Bachelor, the thought of cooking anything that involves more than one step is intimidating to me. (Actually, I’m quite a good cook and used to work as a chef in a Chinese restaurant, but that’s cooking for others; cooking for myself is a different matter.)

In general, if I can’t microwave it or–at the most–boil it, I know that I won’t end up making it, so I don’t even bother buying it.

Judge of my delight when I was in the store Friday night and found spaghetti squash with a convenient how-to-microwave-spaghetti-squash label! I bought one and decided to make it my Adventuresome Food Project For The Weekend.

Spaghettisquash2I found the experience thoroughly delightful, though I did not find spaghetti squash a good substitute for spaghetti. It would work for that purpose in the absence of low-carb pasta, but there’s already plenty of low-carb pasta on the market that makes a better approximation of normal spaghetti.

What I found, though, was that spaghetti squash makes a wonderful low-carb substitute for something else that I’d been missing: hash-browns)!

I love hash browns (with ketchup and cheese and hot sauce–Mmmmmmmmm!) but, being made of potatoes, they are Strictly Verboten on my diet. No hash browns for me.

Until now.

The texture of spaghetti squash is remarkably like potato shreds (see up and right), and the taste and smell are as well. Topped with the pizza sauce I bought (I like pizza sauce on spaghetti better than spaghetti sauce), it really brought back memories of when I worked in a (non-Chinese) restaurant and would make those great beketchuped hash browns that I used to be able to eat. Good stuff!

I was so enthusiastic that I decided to do a blog entry on it, so here’s how y’all can make your own low-carb hash browns. It’s simple enough that even I, a Helpless Bachelor (when not cooking for others), can do it:

  1. Get a spaghetti squash.
  2. Stick it so that you pierce its outer rind (a Long Pointy Knife will do this job well, though I used a kitchen implement that looks like an Evil Tuning Fork that came with a long pointy knife set I bought a while back). This will let pressure escape from the squash so it doesn’t ‘splode when you nuke it.
  3. Nuke it. (On high. Five minutes per pound. Typically about 15 minutes.)
  4. Make sure that the outer rind has become soft. If not, nuke it some more.
  5. Let it cool down a bit so you don’t burn your fingers (this part is important!).
  6. Use a Long Pointy Knife to cut it in two (short or non-pointy knives are totally unsuited for this). The sticker on the spaghetti squash I got didn’t say which way to cut it, but I cut mine down its equator (not end-to-end), which turned out to be the right way to do it.
  7. In the middle is a hollow area that has orangey goop and seeds in it. Scoop that out and throw it away.
  8. Use a fork to scoop out the hash brown-like filaments that cling to the inside of the rind and put them on a plate (this is very easy to do since the filaments are practically falling out of there, at least after they’ve been softened up by nuking).
  9. Since they are already hot and soft and potatoey, top them with your favorite hash brown toppings, and you’re good to go. (Alternately, brown them in a pan so that they’re a little crisp, if that’s the way you like hash browns.)

Now that’s good eatin’!

About 5-6 grams of net carbs per cup. A three pound spaghetti squash probably has about six servings in it.

Now, I’m sure if you put olive oil or butter or garlic or similar spaghettifying things onto spaghetti squash it would make it taste more spaghetti-like, but there’s already good low-carb pasta and spaghetti-squash already tastes like a kind of potato, so it’s perfectly suited for hash browns.

Yee-Haw!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

19 thoughts on “Low-Carb Hash Browns!!!”

  1. And there I was about to invite you to a slap up roast dinner in England…yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes (you could have hash browns I suppose) vegetables,lashings of gravy, meat…and for desert, I make a wickedly decadent high fat, high sugar chocolate cake dripping in fudge sauce….oh well, I don’t suppose you get to England very often anyway!
    God Bless.

  2. Congrats Jimmy on your new discovery!!! And on your remarkable weight loss. Next, I would like to hear about your shopping excursions to buy a new, smaller and cowboy-esque wardrobe!

  3. Hey, Jimmy — ya want my recipe for Atkins-friendly tiramisu? I developed it from a real recipe, and it is entirely legal (and YUMMY!).
    ‘thann

  4. Thank you very much! That write up was intriguing and the recipe is self evidently a good one.

  5. we all love sketti squash at our house, but haven’t tried it this way. it’s going on the grocery list for next week. Thanks for the recipe, and congratulations on your spectacuar weight loss!
    I have several family members who’ve been quite successful with atkins, but I haven’t tried it as chocolate chip cookies are not on their list of acceptable foods. I’ve managed this past year to loose ‘baby fat’ from the last 4 babies though, and it sure feels good.

  7. For what it’s worth, cauliflower makes decent mashed “potatoes.”
    Spaghetti squash is excellent.

  8. “..if I can,t microwae it, or at most , boil it…”
    Ah Jimmy, I’m so dissapointed. After all your talk of cowboys and Texas, I was a,comin’ over stateside next year for one of those famous Texas Long Horn Beef T-bone barbecues.
    Still, living in San Diego for so long, you have probably lost the nack (cheeky grin)

  9. On the contrary. I’ve learned to cook beef in the microwave.
    “Beef–It’s What’s For Dinner.”

  12. UK–Sounds delish. Unfortunatley, you’re right. I don’t get to your stomping grounds that often. (In fact, I haven’t been yet.)
    Joy–I’ll report on those shopping trips if I can find some way to make them sound semi-interesting. They definitely have occurred.
    ‘thann–Sure! Would love a low-carb tiramisu recipe.

  13. Jimmy from Texas via Catholic Answers was a chef in a Chinese restaurant?
    And now spaghetti squash!
    Here’s a recipe for Kung Pao Spaghetti.
    http://www.recipezaar.com/121823
    Although it’s for real pasta, I suppose you could use the cucurbitaceae species.

  14. Thanks for the recipe!
    Regarding your geography question, it also happens that I was a chef in a Chinese restaurant while in Arkansas.
    Favorite quote (from a customer looking at me across the counter): “I never seen a red-headed Chinaman before!”

  15. Jimmy,
    I’m sorry that I won’t be able to cook for you, but I’ll learn to live with it…(though we do have some pretty good things to offer the traveller to our shores).
    ..and I forgot to congratulate you on your weight loss…I’m struggling right now with the very same issue, I even bought an Atkins Diet Revolution Book in a second hand bookshop while I was on holiday a few weeks ago…but I saw the list of what I couldn’t eat and it’s just giving up all the things I love to eat…bread, pasta,fruit…I don’t think I can get my head around it without feeling deprived and being tempted to binge…and I don’t want to start out with that kind of mindset…failure!
    Anyhow, I took a step in the healthy direction the other day, and I purchased an Easyo Yoghurt maker..it’s practically foolproof and I can add lot’s of fruits. nuts and museli, to liven the repulsive stuff up…i’m eating this instead of deserts and replacing my high calorie snacks with it…yum.
    I can’t believe that 13 years of my life were lived as a vegetarian…and I wouldn’t even eat a cookie or anything with animal fat in it…so, I know that I’m capable of self discipline, I just need to find the ‘on’ switch.
    God Bless.
    p.s. note to self…make post’s shorter in future.

  16. Finally, somebody else who thinks that pizza sauce is better suited for spaghetti, than spaghetti sauce ever was! Thank-you!

  17. “. . . it also happens that I was a chef in a Chinese restaurant while in Arkansas.”
    Very kewl! I seem to have a relatively boring CV, compared to most folks.
    Also, have you folks tried roasting the spaghetti squash – or acorn, or butternut, etc? Cut it in half lengthwise, brush on a very little bit of extra virgin olive oil, lightly salt & pepper it, & place in your oven at 350 for about 30-50 minutes (depending on size) until it’s fork-tender. Develops a really nutty, wonderful flavor! Then use as normal. Adds a lot of depth of flavor to recepies!

  18. Vegetables? Isn’t that what FOOD eats?
    I’m “Atkins” by nature as well as for insulin resistance…

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