Stuffed zucchini
The humble zucchini acts as vessel for a special stuffing of spiced rice, ground beef, parsley, tomatoes and fresh herbs.
Details
- 8
- 20 minutes
- 50-60 minutes
- Medium
Nutrition per serve
- Energy 994.1kJ
- Protein 14g
- Total fat 6.9g
- saturated fat 1.6g
- Carbohydrate 26.7g
- Sugar 6.4g
- Fibre 5.1g
- Sodium 53.8mg
Ingredients
- 10 zucchini
- 2 cups of water
- 200g of lean/premium ground mince
- Pinch of salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped dill
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- 1/2 cup chopped coriander
- 3 large tomatoes, finely diced
- 1 large onion, shredded
- 1 cup medium grain rice, rinse well
- 1 tablespoon salt reduced tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon of Seven Mediterranean spice (This is a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, fenugreek, allspice, pepper and clove powder)
Method
- With a knife, remove the top of the zucchini, then hollow out the cores using a vegetable corer.* Insert the corer ¾ of the way to ensure you do not poke the bottoms. Twist the corer and pull out the cores and place in a separate bowl, this can be used later to make other dishes. Repeat this step a couple of times until you have hollowed out each zucchini to make room for the stuffing.
- In a large bowl, combine the raw rice, ground beef, diced tomatoes, fresh parsley, dill, water, salt, olive oil and Mediterranean seven spice. Use your hands to combine.
- Now using your hands, gently stuff the hollowed zucchini with the rice stuffing, only fill about ¾ of the zucchini as the rice will swell and it will not fully cook if you over stuff.
- Arrange zucchini stuffed side up in in a deep cooking pan, tilt slightly to help with cooking process and for it to cook nicely.
- Add 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste and add water to cover the zucchini.
- Place pan on stove and cook on medium-high heat until liquid starts boiling.
- Turn heat down, cover and simmer for 50-60 minutes until rice stuffing is fully cooked and zucchini is tender.
- Transfer to a serving platter and enjoy!
*If you don’t have a vegetable corer, you can use a knife or a teaspoon to hollow out the zucchini.
Dietitian Notes / Recipe Tips
To adapt this recipe for vegetarians you can use chickpeas instead of minced meat.
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Provider Acknowledgement
Dyala Al Jabi
