The late-summer zucchini lovin’ continues! Inspired by a couple of fantastic-looking recipes I’ve seen floating around the blogworld recently, I made some zucchini boats of my own for dinner a few nights ago.

Using recipes as a vessel for a delicious stuffing is always genius in my book, but somehow I’d never thought of using zucchini in this capacity. How stupid! They make perfectly charming and delicious boats, and you can improvise the stuffing based on whatever veggies/leftovers/grains strike your fancy on a given night. When I served them, I only had two zucchini in the fridge, so I ended up serving quite a bit of the stuffing as a side dish. With a couple of slices of rye bread, this made an excellent dinner.

(Mom photographed the meal again… hehe.)

Although I basically opened the fridge and pulled out random bits of food, I’m going to post a really rough recipe anyway. :)

Zucchini Boats Stuffed with Israeli Cous Cous
Ingredients
3/4 cup Israeli cous cous
A few zucchini
Veggies for stuffing – I used grated carrot, chopped mushrooms, fresh corn, chopped olives, and chopped onions
Spices – I think I used oregano, thyme, a bit of cayenne, and herbes de Provence
Tomato sauce, if you have a jar you want to finish
Whole wheat breadcrumbs

First, preheat your oven to ~375. Next, make your cous cous or grain of choice; I’ve seen rice and quinoa used in different recipes. As your grain is cooking, start choppin’ your veggies and and heat a bit of oil in a pan. Cut your zucchini in half and use a teaspoon to scoop out their innards. Throw all your veggies (including the zucchini innards) into the pan and let them saute up a bit; spice as desired. When they seem properly softened, add them to your grain and combine. Then add tomato sauce (or chopped tomatoes or a bit of tomato paste) and flavor with some nutritional yeast if desired. Add breadcrumbs if you feel like it.

Next, stuff your zucchini boats with the grain and veggie mixture; heap the mixture as high as it’ll go without causing your boats to capsize when you put them on a lightly oiled baking pan or dish. Liberally douse the boats with bread crumbs for a nice crunchy top, put ’em on the pan, and pop the pan in the oven. Cook until the zucchini is soft and the bread crumbs are crunchy.

…I told you it’d be a rough recipe. :) If you do try it out, I’d recommend maybe using a higher oven temperature and adjusting as needed during the cooking process.

And this concludes my latest zucchini lovefest. Have a fantastic night, folks!