Name: Best Spaghetti Squash Pad Thai
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 55 min
Cuisine: Thai
Ingredients: 1 large spaghetti squash; Olive oil; Kosher salt; Fresh ground black pepper; 3 carrots; ½ red bell pepper; 4 cloves garlic; 5 green onions; 2 eggs; ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro; 3 tablespoons sweet chili sauce; 3 tablespoons soy sauce; 1 lime; Sriracha (optional); 2 tablespoons peanut oil; 1 1/2 cups bean sprouts, divided; 1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts, crushed

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This hearty spaghetti squash pad Thai is an easy vegetarian dinner that uses squash instead of noodles. Garnish with cilantro and lots of crushed peanuts!

Even after writing a blog for years, it’s still hard to put your work out there. You would think that after posting hundreds of recipes, adding yet another to the vast collection in cyberspace wouldn’t be a big deal. But it’s still hard to share a recipe with the world, knowing that readers may not be quite as invested as we are. After all, we picked out the squash at the market, thought for hours about the recipe, cooked it, and then spent hours trying to capture its best angle!

All that to say, this spaghetti squash pad Thai recipe is truly one of our favorites we’ve made this year. The squash is from our local market, and we cooked it up on a whim, not realizing it would turn out an explosion of flavor. I looked forward to the leftovers for days. It even turned one of my dearest friends into a passionate advocate for eating spaghetti squash.

Spaghetti squash is often treated in an Italian manner by adding tomato sauce or herbs, but we loved this Thai spin on it. It’s not a traditional pad Thai by any means, just a fun variation using squash instead of noodles! It’s a fabulous fall dinner recipe. Ready to get started?

How to cook spaghetti squash

People are often hesitant to make spaghetti squash recipes at home because they mistakenly think this variety of squash is difficult to cook. That couldn’t be further from the truth! To cook spaghetti squash, you simply have to:

Cut the spaghetti squash in half width-wise and scrape out the seeds (see How to Cut a Spaghetti Squash for more).
Roast it: Season with salt and pepper, then drizzle with olive oil. Place the squash cut side down and roast at 400 degrees until tender, about 45 to 55 minutes. See Roasted Spaghetti squash.
Or, pressure cook it: Go to Instant Pot Spaghetti Squash.
To make the spaghetti squash noodles, run a fork along the tender squash and scrape out long thin pieces.

How to make spaghetti squash pad Thai

Once you’ve tackled cooking the spaghetti squash, the rest of this recipe is a breeze! Here are the major remaining steps to this recipe:

Chop the veggies: carrots, red pepper, garlic and green onions.
Make the pad Thai sauce using sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, and Sriracha.
When the squash is ready, heat peanut oil, then saute the garlic and green onion. Pour in the eggs and scramble them. Then add the red pepper, carrot, bean spouts and squash. Pour in the sauce the cook 2 minutes.
The garnish is key! Add a generous serving of crushed peanuts, and then bean sprouts, cilantro and additional sliced green onion.

A few things to keep in mind…

This easy spaghetti squash pad Thai recipe is tough to mess up, but there are a few things you should keep in mind to make this dish the best it can be.

Make sure to buy a large spaghetti squash for the recipe. If the squash are small, use two.
When portioning the meals, give yourself a hefty portion of squash and top with a good amount of peanuts to make for a filling serving. You’ll want a good amount of vegetarian protein to keep you full, since the noodles are less filling than a traditional noodle.

This spaghetti squash pad Thai is…

Vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy-free.