Stuffed Zucchini is the recipe you will need with the coming season. Finally we left the freezing days behind and we will be having freshest tomatoes, herbs, green beans, peppers and zucchinis of the year. Zucchini has become one of our favorite summer veggies after yeas of blogging and trying lots of recipes.
This is the first time I’ve made stuffed zucchini this year, so I decided to update this post which was written in the first year of Give Recipe using the new photos.
This stuffed zucchini with ground meat and rice is in our top ten list of our kitchen. As I wrote before, zucchini is not our favorite vegetable and we always look for some different recipes for it. However, this stuffed one is an exception.
This is one of the most common traditional Turkish dishes and we adore it so much that I often make it. I should have put it here before, but we were so impatient to wait for taking a photo when I made it. I made it at night this time not to eat it before the photos as we take photos during day.
More Zucchini Recipes
- Turkish Fritters Mucver
- Fried Zucchini Chips
- Cheesy Zucchini Casserole
- Zucchini Tomato Casserole
- Zucchini Stew
- Zucchini Balls
- Zucchini Dip
As always: If you make this recipe, let us know what you think by rating it and leaving a comment below. And post a pic on Instagram too—tag @give_recipe so we can see!
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Stuffed Zucchini
Zucchinis stuffed with a spicy mixture of rice and ground beef.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients
- 4 middle sized zucchinis
- 1 tomato
- 2 onions, diced
- ¼ cup rice
- 150g ground meat
- 2 tbsp tomato paste or pepper paste (1 for filling, 1 for sauce)
- 1 lemon, squeezed
- A few leaves of dill, minced
- A few leaves of fresh mint, minced
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- Salt
- Black pepper
Instructions
- Wash the zucchinis and cut them into two. Then grab a small spoon and scoop out their pulp. The walls of zucchinis shouldn’t be too thick or too thin (about ¼ inch). Sprinkle a pinch of salt inside each of them.
- For the filling; Mix diced onions, rice, ground meat, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, lemon juice, minced dill and fresh mint, 3 tablespoon olive oil, 2 teaspoon salt and black pepper in a bowl.
- Stuff the zucchinis with this mixture, but be careful, it shouldn’t be too tight because when rice and ground meat cook, they’ll get bigger. You can gently press on the filling while stuffing the zucchinis. Place each stuffed zucchini upright in a large pot.
- Slice the tomato and put a slice on each stuffed zucchini to cover the filling mixture.
- Dilute 1 tablespoon tomato paste with water and pour it into the pot. Then pour some water (shouldn’t cover the zucchini, leave it when the water reaches the middle of zucchinis). Cover the lid on the pot, put it over the lowest heat and cook it for about 40 minutes.
- You can serve it with some yogurt and garnish with dill leaves.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 280
- Sugar: 8.4 g
- Sodium: 626.2 mg
- Fat: 19.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 19.5 g
- Protein: 11.5 g
- Cholesterol: 22.5 mg
Keywords: stuffed zucchini, stuffed zucchini recipe
Shanna says
So grateful for this great recipe!!! My husband is Turkish and it’s such a joy to make him food reminiscent of his mom’s cooking! His mom is a KILLER cook, so when he told me that my stuffed eggplant, from this recipe, was as good as hers, I was impressed with myself AND your recipe!
★★★★
Zerrin says
Hi Shanna! So happy to hear that your husband and you love the recipe. It's always the hardest thing to compete with moms, so I'm sure his mom's recipe is more delicious.
mariam says
nevermind my question i just figured this out..ty
Zerrin says
Great! Please feel free to ask if you have any further questions.
mariam says
look amazing...want to make this. but please clear this up for me as i cant tell from fotos...after cutting them in half ..some zuccini wont have tops or bottoms right..do u place tomato at both ends? or??ty
Lydia says
When my daughter's BabaAnne was here a couple of years ago, we made dolma together, and it was an assortment of eggplant, peppers, zucchini. I didn't get a recipe--she had already made the filling, but I noted that when the vegetables were sliced, the filling stayed inside the circle of the vegetable slice--like in your picture. This looks like an easy recipe I hope to try soon.
Zerrin says
This is so easy! As far as I remember you are doing very well with several Turkish dishes, so this will be a piece of cake for you. Kisses to your cute daughter!
Tangled Noodle says
These stuffed zucchinis look delicious - it almost makes me sorry that we are not planting any this year. Of course, that won't stop me from buying it at the market!
The outside of the zucchini look ridged - did you score them or are they naturally like that?
The flower is a spot of sunshine!
Janet_gourmet traveller 88 says
I love this, it looks so yummy, I have seen stuffed veg recipes but never tried myself. I am tempted to try : )