When spaghetti squash first appeared in my local supermarkets, the cooking advice was to halve the squash, eviscerate it, place cut side down in a sheet pan in a quarter inch of water, and roast until tender. It worked reasonably well as a pasta substitute but I found it always was a bit mushy, with a watery flavor.
This past summer my entire house began renovations. I stayed in a hotel room which had a kitchenette. There were two halogen burners and a microwave but no actual oven. I couldn’t pass up a football-sized spaghetti squash at Trader Joe’s because they charge per item rather than per pound. I poked a few holes with a knife and nuked it whole, on high power for about 30 minutes. The texture and flavor were FAR better than the sheet pan method. The mouth feel is no different from spaghetti and the microwave seems to turn out sweeter strands of squash. Yesterday I nuked a giant, about 5#, for almost an hour, which turned out to be the correct length of time.
This has been my method forever. You do have to be very assertive about poking the holes in the squash—many, and deep. I’ve had them explode in the microwave, and believe me, that is no fun to clean up!
I’m not surprised that the original method turned out soggy - you actually braised it. When I do spag squash, I halve it and rub some olive oil along the cut edge, then roast it cut side down at about 400F until it’s done. IIRC, that takes somewhere between 35-45 minutes.
I usually do it that way, but lately, I’ve also roasted it whole, with many wholes poked through it, then split it and take the seeds out. I scoop out the insides, mix with butter and maple syrup or sugar, add some spices, put the mixture in an ovenproof dish and roast a little longer.
I used to roast (no water!) in the oven but have recently switched to microwaving. I put it in whole with a few pokes for 5 minutes, then remove from microwave and halve. The short cook softens it enough that it is easy to get a knife through it. Once halved, back in the microwave cut side up for another 5-10 minutes, depending on desired level of tenderness.
I’m wary of running a microwave for long periods (we’ve had a few blow out from cooking rice in them regularly, which was maybe 6-10 mins of active cooking time).
I do sometimes microwave squashes for a few minutes to soften to make them easier to halve or slice, then into the oven.
This does make me curious about what the longest cooking time people are okay with in a microwave.
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
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I’ve come to like the way @ricepad does it - and have learned that it’s best to cut the squash across the middle orbit, rather than along it’s longitude. The threads of the squash are longer that way because of how it grows around itself inside of the skin. We just season it with butter, salt and pepper - I usually prop the 2 halves into cereal bowls and we eat them on the side. Very delicate flavor and wonderful texture.
I never run it for more than 6-7 minutes at a time—not because I’m afraid of blowing out the motor, just because nothing seems to take longer than that to cook (or at least, to get to a point where you need to turn it over, stir it, whatever). When I’ve made spaghetti squash in it, I microwave it for about 5 minutes, then check on it and turn it over, maybe run it for another 5. I’ve never needed to leave a spaghetti squash in there for any more than 10-12 minutes total. As soon as the rind is squishy, it’s done.
Surely the prudent maximum time depends on how heavy the food contents are, and how well-made the appliance is. I roasted 5-6# chickens via combined nuking/convection in my first combo microwave (Amana). Many many moons ago but I think that took a bit over an hour.
Our experience a few years ago when we were regularly cooking rice in it (no more than 6-10 mins total active time plus resting time in between) was that that blew out a series of machines of varying levels of expense (including very expensive and “commercial grade”).
(Finally circled back to a cheap workhorse machine, because if they were going to die anyway, why spend that much more money.)
Depends on how much the microwave is being used the rest of the time as well, I suppose, but if I’m “overheating” it I try to break in between to let it cool off.
