25 How to Cook Spaghetti Squash Recipes Ranked Best to Worst

Halve a 1.4 kg (3 lb) squash lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, then salt the cut sides and let them rest for 15-20 minutes so the salt pulls excess moisture to the surface before you pat it dry. Brush with olive oil and roast cut-side down on a lined tray at 200°C (400°F) for 35-45 minutes, until a fork slides through the flesh with no resistance and the edges turn golden. Letting it cool for a few minutes before shredding keeps the strands intact instead of collapsing into mush. This is the method the full recipe below is built around, because it consistently produces firm, separate strands with real roasted flavour.

Pierce the whole squash several times with a knife, then either microwave it whole for 12-15 minutes or halve it, scoop the seeds, and microwave cut-side up for 10-12 minutes on high, turning it once partway through. There's no oil, no salting rest, and no baking sheet involved — just steam heat working through the flesh until a fork meets little resistance. The strands come out noticeably softer and slightly wetter, since the trapped moisture has nowhere to evaporate to and the skin never caramelises. It's the shortcut generations of home cooks have reached for whenever the oven wasn't an option.

Both methods start from the same squash, so ingredient cost is identical — expect to pay around £1.20-£1.80 for a 1.4 kg (3 lb) spaghetti squash at a UK supermarket depending on the season. The real difference is energy: a 2.2 kW oven running for 40 minutes at 200°C (400°F) costs roughly 20-25p at typical UK electricity rates, while a 900 W microwave running for 12 minutes costs closer to 4-5p. Cooked once a week, that gap adds up to around £8-£10 more a year for the oven method, which is a small price for the flavour it adds. Neither method needs extra equipment beyond what most kitchens already have.

The oven method wins clearly on flavour — direct dry heat caramelises the natural sugars along the cut edges, giving a faint nuttiness that steam heat simply can't replicate. Roasted strands also hold their shape better, staying firm enough to twirl on a fork instead of clumping into a wet pile. Microwaved squash is perfectly edible and works fine once it's smothered in a bold sauce, but eaten plain it tastes noticeably blander and softer, closer to a boiled vegetable than a roasted pasta substitute. If texture is what you're after, roasting is worth the extra 45-50 minutes.

Oven-roasting takes about 1 hour total — 20 minutes of prep, including the salting rest, plus 35-45 minutes of roasting — but almost all of that time is hands-off once the tray goes in. The microwave method is done in 15-20 minutes start to finish, making it the obvious pick on a rushed weeknight, though it needs closer watching since squash can turn mushy fast if left even a couple of minutes too long. Neither method demands real skill; the trade-off is simply speed against flavour development. Effort-wise, the microwave method wins here too if you skip cutting altogether: piercing the whole squash and microwaving it whole sidesteps the fiddly job of halving raw squash, while the oven method and the cut-and-microwave option both still require wrestling a knife through it first.

Reach for the oven method when you're meal-prepping for the week, feeding guests, or planning to freeze portions, since the drier, firmer strands hold up far better to reheating and freezing than their microwaved counterpart. Choose the microwave version on a weeknight when dinner needs to be on the table in 20 minutes, or whenever the oven is already busy with another dish. For a dinner-party centrepiece, a caramelised oven-roasted half plated whole looks far more impressive than a microwaved one ever will. When in doubt and you have the time, the oven is the better default.