Zucchini Stuffed with Vegetables

Name: Stuffed Zucchini Boats with Vegetables and Cheese
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Zucchini 1; Tomato 1; Onion 1; Carrot 1; Garlic 1-2 cloves; Fresh basil 4-5 sprigs; Hard cheese 50 g; Olive oil 3 tbsp; Hot water 2-3 tbsp; Salt, ground black pepper, nutmeg to taste

☆ Rate it

1 h 30 mins

Zucchini stuffed with vegetables and baked under a tasty cheese crust is an elegant, delicious dish.

In the traditional cuisines of the world, vegetables are rarely served as a main course on their own. Vegetables are actually best eaten raw, so the vitamins aren’t lost and you get all the fiber.

But not all vegetables can be eaten raw. Pumpkin, zucchini and potatoes, for example. Besides boiling, baking is one of the most common ways to cook vegetables, and baked vegetables make a super side dish! Baked vegetables are often drizzled with sauce or sprinkled with grated hard cheese.

With the arrival of summer comes a flood of fresh vegetables, including young zucchini. They are quick and easy to cook. But in my opinion the tastiest option is zucchini stuffed with vegetables and baked under a crust of cheese.

With fewer than 20 kcal per 100 grams, zucchini can safely be called one of the most dietary vegetables. It is rich in important vitamins and minerals. Thanks to its low calorie count, zucchini is one of the most popular vegetables in weight-loss diets. The best-known zucchini dish here is zucchini caviar, which is essentially a saute of seasonal vegetables, chopped after cooking.

More with zucchini

Juicy Steamed Vegetables: Broccoli, Carrots and Zucchini

20 min

Ratatouille from Fresh Young Vegetables with Herbes de Provence

3 h

Baked Zucchini Pancakes with Cheese

30 min

Zucchini Boats with Bacon Baked under a Cheese Crust

1 h

Zucchini in Tomato Sauce

45 min

More zucchini recipes

Ingredients

2 servings

Zucchini 1
Tomato 1
Onion 1
Carrot 1
Garlic 1-2 cloves
Fresh basil 4-5 sprigs
Hard cheese 50 g
Olive oil 3 tbsp
Hot water 2-3 tbsp
Salt, ground black pepper, nutmeg to taste

Step-by-step recipe

Turn on cook modeKeeps your screen from turning off while the recipe is open

Zucchini boats

Zucchini stuffed with vegetables is best made from young, green fruit with undeveloped seeds, just like stuffed eggplant.
Wash the zucchini and trim the ends.
Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise. If you can, cut it in a decorative way. It won’t change the flavor, but for looks alone it’s definitely a bonus.
With a spoon or a special tool, scoop out the whole core of the zucchini, seeds and flesh. You should end up with a “boat”.
Chop half of the flesh with a knife. The other half isn’t used.

Filling

Peel the onion and cut it into thick strips.
Peel the carrot and grate it on a fine grater.
Peel the tomato (blanch it in boiling water if needed), remove the seeds and chop very finely.
Peel the garlic and chop it with a knife. Finely chop the basil.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onion over medium heat until golden.
Add the grated carrot and fry everything together for 2 mins.
Add the tomato flesh, garlic and zucchini flesh. Fry all the vegetables for 5 mins.
Add salt and pepper, and a pinch of ground nutmeg.
Stir, then add the chopped basil and 2-3 tbsp of hot water.
Stew the vegetables covered over low heat for 5 mins.

Baking

Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
Salt the prepared zucchini and place them on a baking sheet greased with olive oil.
Spoon the filling into the zucchini cavity. It should be slightly heaped.
Put the zucchini in the oven and bake until half done, about 20 mins: the walls begin to soften but keep their shape.
Grate the cheese on a fine grater and sprinkle it over the zucchini. Put them straight back in the oven.
Bake until the cheese melts and forms a golden crust, about 10 mins. As soon as the cheese starts to turn golden, the dish is ready.