Key Ingredients You’ll Need

The ingredient list is short here:

• Fire roasted crushed tomatoes: This is the most important ingredient! Fire roasted tomatoes give a smoky sweetness to the flavor of this sauce, instead of a bitter finish like some tomatoes. If you can’t find fire roasted, use the best quality of crushed tomatoes you can find. If you can find fire roasted tomatoes diced but not crushed, you could also whiz them up a few times in the blender.
• Garlic powder, not fresh garlic: I use fresh garlic all the time, but here the powder distributes evenly through the liquid and you don’t even need to chop.
• Whole fresh basil leaves: This recipe uses fresh basil to bring big flavor to the sauce. Of course you can omit if you can’t find it, but we highly recommend it if at all possible. We grow our own basil, which makes it easy to have on hand in the warm months: here’s How to Grow Basil.
• Baby spinach: The spinach wilts down to almost nothing and disappears into the sauce.

What To Serve With Instant Pot Spaghetti

Let’s say that you’re rushing to get dinner on the table: what to make as a side dish while this pressure cooker spaghetti cooks? We’d recommend serving with a green salad: whether it’s a salad from a recipe or just a throw together salad. Here are a few of our favorite salads or salad dressings:

• Grab some greens and add our healthy ranch dressing, balsamic vinaigrette, or honey mustard dressing
• Make our Incredible Chopped Salad or Radish Chopped Salad Recipe
• Or, try this Best Tossed Salad Recipe

Another option: sauté some broccoli with minced garlic while the Instant Pot cooks! Let us know what you’d serve it with in the comments below.

More Instant Pot Recipes

• Creamy Instant Pot Pasta
• Instant Pot Sweet Potatoes 
• Instant Pot Chickpeas
• Easy Instant Pot Lentils
• Instant Pot Quinoa
• How to Cook Rice
• Apple Cinnamon Steel Cut Oats
• Instant Pot Stuffed Acorn Squash
• Instant Pot Taco Soup

How to Roast Acorn Squash for Stuffing

Once you’ve mastered how to cut the acorn squash, roasting it is a breeze! The method is the same whether you choose to leave it in halves, or cut it into wedges as we’ve shown here.

• Preheat to 450 degrees. A hot oven makes for the best roasting: it leaves the squash tender and almost caramelized.
• Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt. This is all you need for great seasoning. Place the squash cut side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
• Roast until tender, about 35 to 40 minutes. The exact timing depends on the squash, so make sure to check with a fork to see when it is tender.

Did you know you can eat the skin too? After roasting, the skin becomes more tender and is easier to eat. You can use these instructions anytime you want to make roasted acorn squash. But if you want stuffed acorn squash…well, keep reading!

Making the Pecan Rice Stuffing

If you’d like a more traditional “stuffed” look, you can leave the acorn squash in halves. But I like to cut it into wedges so it’s easier to eat and serve. Sometimes a half of a squash can really overwhelm a plate, so wedges make portioning easier.

This rice and pecan stuffing truly makes your kitchen smell like fall paradise! The onion, celery, garlic, and herbs combine into something heavenly. Add to that the crunch and rich flavor of buttery pecans, and you’ll find yourself sneaking bites of the stuffing alone. This recipe is perfect for a cozy fall dinner, or even a vegetarian Thanksgiving main dish.

Here are the basic steps for how to making the stuffing for acorn squash (see the full recipe below):

• Make the rice: Add the rice to a pot and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until tender. Then stir in dried sage and salt.
• Prepare the stuffing: Make the stuffing while you wait for the rice to cook: saute onion, celery, and garlic, add thyme and oregano. When the rice is done, stir it in along with the toasted pecans and butter (or olive oil for vegan).
• Serve: When the squash is done, spoon the stuffing over the squash edges and serve.

Variations To Try

There are so many different ways to make stuffed acorn squash. You can also try my quinoa stuffed acorn squash or acorn squash with wild rice stuffing, which use different whole grains for a similarly delicious result.

You could also try adding in something like dried cranberries or finely diced apples for a sweet and savory combo.

More Acorn Squash Recipes

• Instant Pot Acorn Squash
• Roasted Acorn Squash
• Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash
• Acorn Squash Soup
• Acorn Squash Salad with Farro
• 15 Tasty Acorn Squash Recipes

How To Make Vegetarian Ramen

This vegetarian ramen is quick and heavy on the vegetables: greens, shiitake mushrooms, peppers, green onion, radishes. To top it off, I was able to find fresh ramen noodles from our local Asian grocery. Here are the basic steps for how to make vegetarian ramen (or scroll down for the full recipe):

• Find fresh ramen noodles: not the 50 cent pack kind! Many grocery stores now have fresh ramen noodles; you can also check at Asian or international groceries.
• Soft boil the eggs. See the instructions below.
• Make the broth. Saute minced garlic and ginger, then add veggie broth, soy sauce and mirin. Then add the mushrooms, greens, peppers, and green onions to cook in the broth.
• Cook the noodles. Cook the ramen noodles in a separate pot by boiling them for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Garnish and serve. Add the noodles, veggies and broth to a bowl. Top with soft boiled egg, sliced radishes, and chili sauce.

How To Make It Vegan Ramen

If you’re looking for a vegan ramen recipe, I’d recommend my tofu ramen recipe, full of savory veggies and protein packed tofu. Adding tofu is essential for a vegan ramen to make it filling enough. You can also modify this recipe by doing the following:

• Omit the soft-boiled egg.
• Add cubed tofu in the last 5 minutes of the simmer time. You’ll likely need more seasoning for the tofu, so season with salt until the flavor pops or add a splash of soy sauce.
• Some ramen noodles also contain eggs, so check the ingredients in your noodles to ensure they are vegan or replace with rice noodles.

More Noodle Bowls And Vegetarian Dinners

• Miso Ramen with Soft Boiled Egg
• Tofu Ramen
• Easy Soba Noodle Bowl
• Spring Roll Noodle Bowl
• Peanut Noodles
• 50 Top Vegetarian Dinner Recipes

How To Dry Shake For The Best Foam

How does an egg white turn into foam? It’s a technique called a dry shake. Here’s what to know:

• Use the Dry Shake technique. Most cocktails are shaken with ice in a cocktail shaker. But in a whiskey sour with egg white, you’ll do what’s called a Dry Shake. That means you’ll shake the ingredients first without ice. Then you’ll add the ice and shake again. This results in a lovely white layer of foam on top.
• There’s also a Reverse Dry Shake. Another technique gets even more foam: it’s called the Reverse Dry Shake. You shake the ingredients with ice first, then strain out the ice and shake again. This method gets it even more foamy. But we like the texture of the foam in a dry shake, and it’s most common for classic cocktails.

When To Serve This Drink

The whiskey sour with egg white is a classy cocktail that works for anytime: especially to impress guests! It’s great for sipping as a:

• Happy hour drink
• Dinner party drink
• Summer patio drink
• Guys or girls night drink
• Cocktail hour drink

More Egg White Cocktails

So many other sour cocktails use the technique of an egg white foam topping! If you’re a sour fan like we are, here are a few more egg white cocktails to try:

• Mix up the liquor and make an Amaretto Sour, Pisco Sour, Tequila Sour,  Gin Sour, or Vodka Sour
• Try the Classic Gin Fizz with a thick layer of foam
• Opt for a classy White Lady
• Go pink with a Clover Club
• Try a funky Sloe Gin Fizz