Zucchini Boats are a great family dinner meal and that's how my mum would get us kids to eat our veggies.
The stuffing is completely vegetarian, skinny, healthy, and includes cheese.
Global Food Recipes
with Spices and Herbs
Free E-Book available for a limited time. Grab yours now and get instantly inspired!
You missed out!
Jump to:
Preparing baked stuffed zucchini boats for dinner is the best way to use up this amazing vegetable!
For that, I share an easy vegetarian meatless Meditteranean zucchini boat version with tomato and cheese.
Zucchini boats were a summer staple in our home, as were meals such as the classic quiche lorraine.
🔪 How to make Zucchini boats?
Zucchini Boats are easily prepared from scratch!
These are quick instructions to help you decide if you want to make this tonight.
The complete recipe with ingredients and detailed instructions can be found at the bottom of this post.
Step 1
Rinse your zucchini, cut it into half lengthwise.
Place Zucchini into a baking dish, scrape out the flesh to create "boats".
Step 2
Collect zucchini flesh with the other stuffing ingredients in a bowl and combine.
Step 3
Place stuffing into the zucchini. Sprinkle some cheese over that and olive oil
Bake until cooked through and golden.
📜 Flavor variations
You can choose your seasoning in this vegetarian recipe.
I recommend adding Italian seasoning, herb de Provence or something like a Mediterranean seasoning.
You can use oregano too and/ or basil and make it spicy add taco seasoning or cayenne pepper.
You can add the following ingredients to these zucchini boats. These are vegetarian meatless recommendations (sticking to the theme).
- jalapenos - for extra heat and a Mexican touch
- mushrooms - sliced
- parmesan - for Italian flavors
- ricotta cheese - for a creamy stuffing
- cooked quinoa or rice - if you have leftovers to use
📕 What zucchini to get?
The perfect zucchini length is 10 inches/26 centimeters. This length is easier to turn into boats.
Smaller zucchini have softer skin and the flesh tends to be tender as well. The squash will cook faster and better through.
Remember to pick only organic untreated/unwaxed Zucchini if you buy them from a store because you will be using unpeeled zucchini.
If you have grown big-sized Zucchini, you can use those as well.
But you will need to peel large zucchini because the bigger the zucchini the more bitter and fibrous the skin gets.
My mum would always prepare zucchini boats with large zucchinis, so she would peel them, quarter, or cut even smaller if necessary and hollow out as good as possible.
Then she would stuff the zucchinis just the way I am about to show you.
🥣 Serving suggestions
Serve up with cooked plain rice or aromatic rice.
Other side dishes such as couscous, wheat berries, and polenta (grits) are also great with these stuffed zucchinis.
A simple green lettuce salad with a vinaigrette is another great addition.
🍱 Storage
Place your leftovers into a fridge-friendly container. Keep the container on a shelf in your fridge. Take out and warm up in an oven-proof dish in your oven, in a skillet over the stovetop, or in a microwave dish in the microwave.
You can freeze your uncooked stuffed zucchini by placing them on a tray and keeping the tray in the freezer. When frozen hard, take them out and store them in a freezer-friendly container or similar.
Place the frozen stuffed zucchini boats on a parchment laid-out sheet pan and keep your oven preheated. Don't thaw your zucchini, just bake it a little more than the recommended time in the recipe until cooked through and golden on top.
👁️ More Zucchini Recipe Ideas
- Meat Stuffed Zucchini Boats
- Zucchini and Eggs Skillet
- Baked Zucchini Casserole
- Garlic Onion Sauteed Zucchini
📖 Recipe
Easy Zucchini Boats Recipe [Vegetarian]
Ingredients
- 2 Zucchini *see Notes
- ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Onion chopped
- 2 Pieces Garlic Cloves chopped
- ½ Cup Tomato Sauce
- ½ Cup Cheese grated *see Notes
- 1 Tablespoon Dried Herb Blend Herb de Provence or Italian seasoning, *see Notes
- 2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Instructions
- Wash your Zucchinis well. Then cut lengthwise into half.
- Spoon out the flesh and hollow out the zucchini so that you are left with the "boats".
- Preheat your oven to 350 Fahrenheit/180 Celsius.
- The soft center of the zucchini can be cut roughly smaller. Collect flesh in a mixing bowl.
- Add to the zucchini filling the black pepper, salt, chopped onion, garlic, tomato sauce, cheese (reserve a ⅓ of your cheese) and herb seasoning of your choice. Mix everything well.
- Stuff your zucchini boats with the prepared filling and sprinkle the ⅓ of reserved grated cheese, which you didn't mix into the filling, over the stuffed vegetable boats.
- Sprinkle some olive oil over the stuffed squash.
- Bake the Zucchini for about 20-25 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit/180 Celsius. Golden brown or until done.
Notes
2. Use a vegetarian cheese to make this vegan. Not all cheese is vegetarian if it contains rennet. Pick a vegetarian grated Mozzarella or Emmentaler cheese. They mention if it's vegetarian or not on the packaging, except if it's from the farmer's market. In that case ask the person at the farmer's market.
3. Choose your seasoning herb blend. I like to use herb de Provence or Italian seasoning. You can use pizza seasoning too or simply dried oregano.
This recipe was delicious! I used store bought tomato pasta sauce (rather than just canned tomato sauce) and added about a cup and a half. I used no oil but topped the boats with provolone cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese. Baked 30 minutes. Perfect. Thank you for a great recipe that I could tweak.
Thanks for sharing your version with us, Donna. It sounds delicious. 🙂
This was not what I expected. I followed all the instructions, except i did one zucchiniand one summer squash. Took way longer to cook, and after 50 minutes I gave up and served it, onions only part cooked. I used Italian seasoning, which was too heavy and could have gone with half. The summer squash was less mushy and more flavorful than the zucchini, but not that great either. Waste of time and ingredients.
Hi Greg, I'm sorry to hear that your zucchini boats didn't turn out as expected.
Did you use the same oven heat as per the instructions? Did you use bottom heat, bottom and top heat or fan heat? Moreover, Fahrenheit and Celsius shouldn't be confused.
You mentioned that your onions got only part cooked, and after 50 minutes that shouldn't be the case at all.
Unfortunately, also, not all ovens are built the same way and Zucchini can vary in sizes. I still feel that you should check your oven and the settings.
About the Italian seasoning, I'll point out in the recipe that this is a flavorful dish. It's not a bland dish, especially since Zucchini can be a bit bland on its own.
Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback, nonetheless. I appreciate it, and I hope someone else will find this info useful in some way.
Melon baller worked great. The pulp was cooked in sim fashion.
Pretty good dish. Will lead to other options.
Amazing vegetarian recipe!!! I used sun-dried tomato paste because that's what I had on hand and added about a half can of well-drained black beans. The herbs de Provence gave it a unique flavor - and I can't wait to eat the rest!
Thank you for the recipe!
Awesome, glad you liked the dish. Thanks for sharing your version, Stephanie. 🙂
Can you use can diced tomatoes instead of sauce?
Yes you can use can diced tomatoes
Cheese is NOT vegetarian. We don't consume ANY animal products.
Cheese is vegetarian. Cheese is not vegan. The recipe is vegetarian but it doesn't claim to be vegan. Please check online or in books for the difference between vegetarian and vegan. And please don't rate the recipe if you haven't tried it.
Some cheese is vegetarian. Some cheeses not vegetarian. You have to read the label.
Hi Stephanie, thanks for pointing this out. I see where I was wrong, and I can see now where what you guys said makes sense. If rennet is added during the cheese making process, then the cheese isn't vegetarian. But not all cheese is made that way. You can use soft Mozzarella to make this recipe vegetarian.
I made this for a friend who just had a baby. She is vegetarian and this recipe was a big hit with her and her family!. Thanks so much.
Hi Sarah glad to hear that the Zucchini Boats were appreciated and that you guys enjoy the recipe as much as I do. 🙂
I LOVE zucchini and all ways to use them! This is so fun and creative to use them as a boat stuffed with all kinds of goodies! Totally trying this soon!
Mouthwatering Pictures. Great. Thank you