Zucchini Boats with Ground Beef have savory meat flavored with allspice, a jar of your favorite marinara, spooned into zucchini halves that are cooked until tender. This rice stuffed zucchini casserole is an easy dinner that is both low carb and filling.
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When the heat of summer hits, and gardeners have more zucchini than they know what to do with, we are often looking for zucchini recipes to use up a lot of zucchini. Stuffed zucchini boats are a great option for that.
Whether you are a gardener hauling in loads of zucchini around harvest time, or you are buying them from the store, in July-August zucchini are plentiful and low in price. This makes them a great vegetable to use in as many recipes as possible. Zucchini are also highly nutritious. They are low in fat, sugar, and calories and high in folate and fiber.
These beef stuffed zucchini boats were originally inspired by one of my all-time favorite dishes that my in-laws make-- zucchini and rice. This is a casserole that's made in a big pot with loads of sliced zucchini and onions, rice, canned tomatoes, and sometimes chicken. I made these zucchini boats stuffed full of ground beef and rice and flavorful spices like garlic powder and allspice. Allspice is often seen in baked goods but it pairs really well with ground beef!
Key Ingredients
- Zucchini: Use medium sized green zucchini with the seeds scooped out. Yellow Squash will also work.
- Ground beef: Ground beef adds a nice amount of protein and flavor to this dish. Sub out the ground beef in the stuffing for ground chicken, ground turkey, or ground pork. Ground venison works great if you have it.
- Rice: My favorite way to make this is with basmati rice or jasmine rice. You can use brown rice or wild rice instead of white. If you do, I recommend cooking it ahead of time, as brown rice takes much longer to cook than basmati.
- Marinara sauce: A quality marinara sauce, like Rao's, is best. If you don't have marinara sauce on hand, a can of tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes will work well as an alternative. Add in a clove or two of minced garlic for extra flavor.
- Allspice: You may have it on hand, you may not. Allspice is made from the dried, unripe berry of the pimenta dioica evergreen tree. If you don't have it on hand, it is easy to make an allspice alternative at home if you have a few essential kitchen spices on hand! A recipe to make allspice is 1 part cinnamon, 1 part ground cloves, and 1 part ground nutmeg. So for this particular recipe that calls for ½ teaspoon of allspice, you will need ¼ tsp. of cinnamon, ⅛ tsp. of ground cloves, and ⅛ tsp. ground nutmeg.
See recipe card for full ingredient list and quantities.
How to Make Zucchini Boats with Ground Beef
- Begin by preparing your zucchini. Wash the outside skin and then trim off the top where the stem is. Slice in half lengthwise and then use a spoon to carefully scoop out the seeds and some the zucchini flesh. You can either discard this or save it to add to the filling.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and brown ground beef and diced onion, breaking up the ground beef as you go.
- Once the beef is cooked, add the reserved ¼ cup of marinara sauce, uncooked rice, water, zucchini insides, and spices. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the rice has soaked up the liquid.
- While the filling is cooking, preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a 9x13 pan, add the remaining 2 cups of marinara sauce and place prepared zucchini on top, cut side up.
- With a small spoon, scoop the filling into each zucchini boat. Depending on the size of your zucchini, you may have a little extra filling.
- Top with grated parmesan and bake for 30-35 minutes, until zucchini is tender and rice is cooked through.
Variations
- Chop it all up! This works great as a one pan meal, by chopping it all up and sauteing in a big skillet. Simply slice the zucchini in rounds, and saute the veggies and meat in olive oil. Add spices and tomato sauce at the end (although I would probably sub in a can of diced tomatoes instead!).
- Use a different vegetable as the boat. Take the filling and make stuffed peppers or stuffed cabbage rolls.
- Change up the spices. Not a fan of allspice? Not a problem! This stuffed zucchini recipe is super versatile as a base for lots of different spice combinations. Try italian seasoning, cajun seasoning, or greek seasoning. You could even make chili cheese zucchini boats!
- Make them extra cheesy by adding in a cup of shredded mozzarella cheese to the filling.
Storage
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days. These beef stuffed zucchini make excellent lunches and are easy to reheat in the microwave!
If you would like to make this dish ahead of time, I suggest making the filling and then assembling when you are ready. Zucchini is prone to browning and drying out once cut. You can prepare them early, but you run the risk of a decrease in texture.
Recipe FAQs
No, there is no need. The zucchini skin is delicate and becomes even more so when it is cooked.
More Zucchini Recipes
Zucchini Boats with Ground Beef
Ingredients
- 3-4 medium-sized zucchini
- ½ yellow onion diced
- 1 lb. ground beef
- ½ cup rice like basmati
- 2 cups plus ¼ cup of marinara sauce
- 1 cup water
- ½ tsp. allspice
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. garlic powder
- ½ cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
Instructions
- Begin by preparing your zucchini. Wash the outside skin and then trim off the top where the stem is.
- Slice in half lengthwise and then use a spoon to carefully scoop out the seeds and some of the meat of the zucchini. You can either discard this or save it to add to the filling.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet, and brown ground beef and diced onion over medium heat, breaking up the ground beef as you go.
- Once the beef is cooked, add the reserved ¼ cup of marinara sauce, uncooked rice, water, zucchini insides, and spices. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the rice has soaked up the liquid.
- While the filling is cooking, preheat oven to 375.
- In a 9x13 pan, add the remaining 2 cups of marinara sauce and place prepared zucchini on top, cut side up.
- With a small spoon, scoop the filling into each zucchini boat. Depending on the size of your zucchini, you may have a little extra filling.
- Top with grated parmesan and bake for 30-35 minutes.
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