Ground Beef Stuffed Zucchini Boats Recipe

TL;DR

This recipe was inspired by my mum's vegetarian stuffed zucchini boats and our french meat stuffed tomatoes.

I thought it would be nice to have culinary herbs and spices in these zucchini boats.

The Zucchini is hollowed, filled with a prepared meat filling and a seasoned tomato sauce is added.

Meat lovers will also appreciate the ground meat stuffed patty pan squash.

Ingredients

For the meat-stuffed zucchini, you will need the following ingredients (measurements in the recipe card):

• zucchini — I prefer medium or small Zucchini because they are all uniformly the same size and will cook through to the same extent. Younger zucchini are more tender, but if you have large overgrown zucchini, you can still use them in this recipe but cut off the fibrous parts.
• ground beef — Alternatively, the best meat combo is always 50:50 ground beef and pork because pork is fatty, which adds flavor, and beef can be too dry on its own. This is a very popular ground meat combo in Europe.
• salt & black pepper
• onion and garlic powder
• oregano or marjoram or savory (winter or summer variety) – fresh or dried
• basil
• rosemary
• grated cheese

The tomato sauce is optional but makes a great addition to the dish. You will need:

• tomato sauce — unflavored.
• salt and black pepper
• oregano or savory
• onion and garlic powder

To top it all:

• cheese
• olive oil

For the cheese, you can choose to use mozzarella, pizza, or cheddar cheese in the meat stuffing and as a topping.

How to make it?

The process is super simple. It involves stuffing the zucchini and adding the sauce to the baking dish.

Here is an overview of how it comes together. The details are further below in the recipe card.

Step 1

Cut your zucchini in half and hollow out. Place next to each out in a baking dish.

Split hollowed-out zucchini flesh between two mixing bowls.

Step 2

Prepare the meat filling with one of the two mixing bowls.

Add meat, seasoning, and cheese. Combine meat filling with zucchini in the bowl. Keep aside.

Step 3

Combine the sauce ingredients with the zucchini pulp in the second bowl.

Step 4

Stuff zucchini boats with meat mixture and sprinkle some cheese over them.

Spread sauce around the zucchini boats. Sprinkle with olive oil and bake.

Tips

You can skip making and adding the tomato sauce around the zucchini boats, but the purpose of the sauce is to go all zero waste and use up the cut-out zucchini pulp. Besides, the tomato sauce adds some moisture and sauce to your dish.

You can substitute the herb and spice seasoning in the beef stuffing and sauce with an Italian seasoning blend or with French Herbes de Provence seasoning. For the meat stuffing, skip adding oregano, basil, rosemary, garlic, and onion powder and stir in about 2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning. For the sauce, skip adding oregano, onion, and garlic powder and add instead about 1 Tablespoon + 1 Teaspoon Italian Seasoning.

Make it spicy hot by adding red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper to your meat filling and if you fancy Mexican flavors, stir in fresh cilantro and taco seasoning instead. I also recommend my spicy marinara sauce!

Make this meat stuffed zucchini boats recipe with other meats such as ground chicken, ground turkey or pork meat.

You can also stuff your zucchini with premade and seasoned Italian sausage meat. In that case, skip or reduce the meat seasoning of this recipe to adjust the flavor intensity.

Serving

I love these zucchini boats with cooked polenta or grits.

Paul prefers meat stuffed zucchini with cooked plain rice and veggies.

A small light and healthy side dish salad goes really well with this dish.

Sweet corn and bean salad, a green salad, or a red beet salad are all suitable options.

Storing

Store leftovers in an airtight container in your fridge for up to 3 days.

Reheat in the oven in your baking dish or in a microwave.

You can also freeze your meat-stuffed zucchini boats!

Just prep them as per the instructions and skip the sauce. Optionally, prepare the sauce and freeze that separately in a container into batches.

Place the meat stuffed zucchinis in your freezer and freeze them hard.

You don't need to cook your ground beef stuffed zucchini before freezing. It's better to just cook them after freezing.

Take them out whenever you want to bake them. If you froze the sauce, take out a batch and thaw them in a sauce pan or microwave.

Just place the stuffed zucchini into a baking dish, add your sauce as per instruction, and bake an extra 20–30 minutes or until cooked through and done.

FAQs