You can prepare a large number of tasty and healthy dishes from young zucchini. They serve as the basis for silky puree soups, vegetable salads, add a rich taste to main dishes, even sweet pastries with their participation turn out excellent.
Many of us associate stuffed vegetables with cabbage rolls and stuffed peppers. Less known are tomatoes and stuffed potatoes. And stuffed zucchini and eggplant stand completely aside.
And in vain, since the delicate taste of these vegetables goes well with any type of meat, even very fatty meat. The neutral taste of these vegetables does not interrupt the taste of meat, but rather complements it. Below we want to share with you several variations on the theme of zucchini stuffed with meat and vegetable filling.
Stuffed zucchini with minced meat baked in the oven - step by step photo recipe
In fact, you can cook stuffed zucchini in different ways: in a frying pan, in the oven, in a slow cooker, steamed and even on the grill. It all depends on your capabilities and the size of the zucchini. Small ones can be stuffed by cutting them into halves. Larger zucchini is prepared by cutting into round pieces.
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Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Quantity: 4 servings
Zucchini stuffed with chicken - a tender and very tasty dish
Required ingredients:
- 0.5 kg chicken fillet;
- 3 medium-sized young zucchini or zucchini;
- 1 onion;
- half of the bell pepper;
- 1 tomato;
- 2 garlic cloves;
- 0.12-0.15 hard cheese;
- 1.5 cups heavy cream;
- 20 ml ketchup;
- 4-5 sprigs of greenery;
- salt, spices.
Steps for preparing zucchini stuffed with chicken:
- We cut each of the selected zucchini lengthwise into two approximately equal parts. If the fruit is very small, you can remove only the top part - the lid.
- We take out the pulp, leaving the walls 1 cm thick, while trying not to damage the fruit itself.
- Place the prepared zucchini in a frying pan with heated oil, fry on different sides until browned.
- Add water, reduce the heat as much as possible, under the lid for 15 minutes, bring the zucchini halves to an almost soft state.
- Place the zucchini halves on a heatproof baking dish.
- Now let's prepare the filling. We cut the fillet, washed and wiped with a paper napkin, into small cubes; we do the same with the squash pulp, pepper, and onion.
- On the tomato, where the stalk is located, we make a cross-shaped cut and lower it into boiling water for a couple of minutes, after which we remove the skin and also cut into cubes.
- Pass the garlic through a press.
- Finely chop the washed greens.
- Place the fillet cubes in a hot frying pan, stirring and frying until browned. In this case, the released liquid should completely evaporate, but the meat itself should not be brought to an overdried state.
- When the meat juice has evaporated, add oil, salt and spices, stir and remove from heat and transfer to a clean plate.
- Put the oil back into the pan, fry the onion in it until soft, then add the pepper pieces, stirring all the time, fry for about 5 minutes. Next we repeat the same steps with the squash pulp.
- Combine the fillet with vegetables and mix.
- Add tomatoes, garlic, as well as chopped herbs, spices, salt, and a couple of grams of sugar.
- Prepare the sauce. To do this, mix the cream with ketchup, add and mix.
- Fill the zucchini blanks with the filling, pour in the sauce, and sprinkle with grated cheese on top.
- The baking time in a preheated oven is 35-45 minutes, after which the finished dish is removed and covered with foil for 5-7 minutes.
Zucchini stewed with meat
Chicken fillet is best suited for preparing this wonderful dish. You can replace it with another meat of your choice. In the summer, when there are a lot of fresh vegetables rich in vitamins, this recipe for zucchini with meat will be useful to every housewife.
Ingredients for 4 people:
- Chicken fillet – 400 g;
- Young zucchini - 1 or 2;
- Fresh parsley – 30 g;
- Ground black pepper - to taste;
- Sour cream – 200 g;
- Leek – 100 g;
- Salt - to taste.
The preparation diagram is as follows:
- Chop the onion into half rings;
- Wash, dry, then cut the chicken fillet into cubes;
- Cut the zucchini into medium squares;
- Finely chop the parsley;
- In a frying pan with a small amount of vegetable oil, sauté the onion for several minutes;
- Place the chicken in a frying pan with onions and fry it until it turns white;
- Add the chopped vegetable, add some salt, sprinkle with pepper, fry with constant stirring for 15 minutes;
- Next, add sour cream and herbs, stir and leave to simmer for 7-10 minutes;
- Our zucchini stewed with meat is ready. When serving the dish, you need to decorate it with herbs.
If you want to get a bright color of your food, you can add any vegetables - carrots, tomatoes, multi-colored bell peppers. Such a dish will have a more pronounced taste - in the vegetable range, and not in the meat range.
Recipe for zucchini stuffed with rice
A dish prepared according to this recipe will be light, satisfying and extremely simple; its ingredients are always at hand, especially in the summer. If the selected zucchini is young and small, it is necessary to cut them lengthwise for stuffing, and if they are large, with already roughened skin, then crosswise into 3-4 parts, having previously peeled them.
Required Ingredients:
- 3-4 zucchini of any variety and color;
- 1 bell pepper;
- 1 onion;
- 1 carrot;
- 2 garlic cloves;
- 1 tomato or 40 ml homemade ketchup;
- 170 g steamed rice;
- 40-60 g oil for frying;
- salt, spices.
Preparation procedure:
- We rinse the rice until the water is clear, cook it until tender, do not rinse.
- Fry the onion in vegetable oil until transparent, add grated carrots and diced bell peppers, and let the vegetables simmer for 6-8 minutes.
- Add diced tomato, pressed garlic, salt and spices to the vegetable mixture. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
- Combine and mix rice with vegetables.
- We make boats from the zucchini by removing the pulp from the halves cut lengthwise. Cut a large zucchini crosswise into several barrels and remove the pulp from them, leaving a small bottom.
- Place the “boats” on a heat-resistant form or saucepan, add the rice-vegetable mixture.
- Pour 80 ml of water into the bottom of the dish, and generously fill the zucchini preparations with sour cream.
- Bake in a hot oven for about half an hour. Once ready, serve, sprinkled with herbs.
With tomatoes
Zucchini stuffed with vegetable filling will add variety to your summer diet. They turn out very tender, juicy and, of course, aromatic. And to personally verify the veracity of these words, you will need:
- 180 g cheese.
- 6 young zucchini.
- 4 ripe tomatoes.
- 2 onions.
- Salt and oil.
The zucchini is rinsed under the tap, cut lengthwise and scraped out. The extracted pulp is thoroughly crushed and stewed with other vegetables, not forgetting to add salt. The resulting filling is carefully placed inside the zucchini boats. The prepared pieces are placed on a baking sheet and placed in the oven, heated to 180 degrees. After ten minutes, they are mashed with cheese and briefly returned to the oven.
How to cook zucchini stuffed with cheese?
For 1 small zucchini (about 0.3 kg) you will need:
- 0.1 kg of soft salted cheese (brynza, feta, Adyghe);
- 5-6 small fleshy tomatoes (preferably cherry).
Cooking steps:
- Cut the zucchini lengthwise into 2 parts and remove the core with a spoon.
- Mix the zucchini pulp with the cheese cubes.
- Cut the tomatoes into rings.
- Fill the zucchini blanks with the cheese mixture, on which we place the tomato rings.
- Bake in a heat-resistant pan in a hot oven for 35-45 minutes.
Zucchini stuffed with vegetables - tasty and healthy
For the vegetable filling, you can use any ingredients, not exactly those listed on the list. The result will always be tasty and juicy. You can increase the satiety of the finished dish if, a few minutes before readiness, pour sour cream or cream over the zucchini preparations, and also sprinkle with cheese.
For 4 medium zucchini you will need:
- 1 large tomato;
- 1 medium carrot;
- 0.15 kg cauliflower;
- 1 bell pepper;
- 1 onion;
- 40 ml oil for frying;
- 2 garlic cloves;
- salt, spices, herbs.
Cooking steps:
- Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and remove the core.
- Cut the peeled carrots, onions and peppers into small cubes.
- We separate the cabbage into inflorescences.
- Cut the zucchini pulp into cubes or simply chop finely.
- Pour boiling water over the tomato, peel it and cut it into cubes.
- Heat the frying pan, add oil and pieces of carrots, cabbage, onions and peppers, add garlic passed through a press.
- After 3-5 minutes. Add the squash pulp and tomato, add, season and let simmer for another 5-10 minutes until all the released water has evaporated.
- Stuff the zucchini with vegetables.
- Place the pieces on a greased heat-resistant pan and bake in a preheated oven for about half an hour.
- When the dish is ready, it must be taken out and sprinkled with herbs.
Useful tips
To make the cheese on the finished dish as appetizing as possible, use mozzarella, Gruyère or cheddar. For originality, you can sprinkle stuffed zucchini with feta or cheese.
You can add nuts, olives, capers, salted mushrooms, pieces of red fish and many other unusual products to the filling. With their help, your dish will become unique!
Stuffed zucchini is a very simple dish that belongs to home cooking. Every housewife and even every beginner can handle it. Whenever you have the opportunity, be sure to take a risk. You will not regret!
Recipe for stuffed zucchini with mushrooms
It was this tasty and dietary dish that could be found in old cookbooks under the name “zucchini in Russian.”
Required ingredients:
- 3-4 zucchini;
- 0.45 kg of mushrooms;
- 1 onion;
- 2 boiled eggs;
- 1 garlic clove.
Preparation procedure:
- We do the same with the zucchini as in previous recipes, forming boats. If desired, you can boil them for 7-9 minutes to ensure softness. in slightly salted water. The main thing is not to overexpose it, otherwise it will fall apart.
- Thoroughly washed mushrooms, as well as squash pulp, cut the onion into cubes.
- Fry the onion in oil until transparent, then add the mushrooms to it. After they are lightly fried, add the zucchini cubes. We simmer, add salt, add spices, and after turning off, chopped herbs.
- Place a heaping amount of filling into the zucchini blanks; if there is juice left in the pan after frying, pour it on top of the filling. This manipulation will help the taste of the finished dish become richer.
- We iron the boats with the filling onto a greased heat-resistant pan and place them in a hot oven for 20 minutes.
- Pour the finished dish with homemade (store-bought) mayonnaise or sour cream and garlic sauce, sprinkle with chopped egg and herbs.
Diet recipe
If you are on a diet, save the following recipe. It really is not so caloric, and its taste is no worse than other options. On the contrary, this dish is very tender and juicy!
| INGREDIENTS | QUANTITY |
| olive oil | 30 ml |
| water | 50 ml |
| chicken fillet | 350 g |
| onion | 1 head |
| Provencal herbs | 5 g |
| spices | taste |
| zucchini | 2 pcs. |
| lemon juice | 5 ml |
| tomato | 1 PC. |
| Cooking time: 35 minutes | Calorie content per 100 grams: 53 Kcal |
How to cook:
- Peel and rinse the onion, chop into small cubes.
- Wash the chicken fillet thoroughly, remove fat and films.
- Cut it into small slices and put it in a meat grinder or blender.
- After this, place the finished minced meat in a medium-sized container.
- Add spices, half the oil, herbs, water, citrus juice, onion.
- Wash the tomato, chop it finely.
- Add to the minced meat and stir.
- Rinse the zucchini and cut into halves lengthwise.
- Cut out the cores with a spoon.
- Fill the empty spaces with heaping prepared chicken.
- Grease the pan with the remaining oil and place the zucchini there.
- Heat the oven to 200 degrees.
- Cover the zucchini with foil and place in the oven for ten minutes.
- Then take them out, remove the foil and return them for the same amount of time.
Tip: for tenderness, you can add a little cottage cheese to the filling.
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How to cook stuffed zucchini in a slow cooker or double boiler
For 2 small young zucchini you will need:
- 0.3 kg mixed minced meat;
- 0.05 kg oatmeal or rice;
- 1 medium carrot;
- 1 onion;
- 2 medium-sized tomatoes;
- 1 bell pepper;
- 60 ml sour cream;
- 2 garlic cloves;
- salt, spices, herbs.
- 1 processed cheese.
Cooking steps:
- We make barrels from zucchini by cutting each vegetable crosswise into 3-4 pieces and removing the core.
- For the filling, mix cereal (oatmeal or rice), diced half an onion and prepared minced meat. For juiciness, add zucchini pulp crushed in a blender, add salt and crush with your favorite spices.
- We fill our blanks ¾ full with filling, the remaining space will be filled with sauce.
- Chop the remaining onion and grate the peeled carrots. Fry them on the “Baking”, then add about 100 ml of water or broth, spices and bay leaf.
- Grind tomatoes, seedless peppers, garlic and sour cream in a blender.
- We place the zucchini directly to fry, pour sour cream sauce into each barrel, and simply pour the rest of it into the multicooker bowl.
- The zucchini barrels should be half covered with liquid; if there is less, add water.
- Turn on “Stew” for 60 minutes. 10 minutes before the sound signal, sprinkle each barrel with grated cheese.
With cottage cheese and olives
This savory dish will be a worthy addition to any buffet table. To prepare it you will need:
- 500 g cottage cheese.
- 100 g cheese.
- 3 tbsp. l. chopped olives.
- 3 zucchini.
- 2 cloves of garlic.
- Salt, water, herbs and oil.
The washed zucchini is cut in half, scraped out and boiled briefly in salted boiling water. After about five minutes, they are doused with cold water, dried and stuffed with a mixture of cottage cheese, crushed garlic, chopped herbs, olives and grated cheese. The resulting pieces are sprinkled with vegetable oil and baked at 180 degrees for half an hour.
Stuffed zucchini “Boats”
We invite you to embark on a zucchini regatta, which will delight your family and guests, because the dish looks more than original.
For 4 young zucchini (8 boats) prepare:
- 1 half kilo chicken breast;
- 1 bell pepper;
- 1 onion;
- 1 tomato;
- 70-80 g rice;
- 0.15 kg of hard cheese;
- 40 ml sour cream;
- salt, pepper, herbs.
Cooking steps:
- We cut the vegetables into cubes and grate the carrots.
- We make boats from zucchini, as in previous recipes.
- Cut the zucchini pulp into cubes or finely chop.
- Place the minced meat and prepared vegetables in a saucepan, simmer until tender, add salt and spices.
- If a lot of vegetable broth has been released during the stewing process, put the washed rice directly into the saucepan. If the filling is not juicy, cook the rice separately, and after it is ready, combine it with vegetables.
- Place the zucchini blanks in a heat-resistant form and fill them with filling.
- In a separate container, mix grated cheese, sour cream and herbs, cover our boats with this mixture and put everything in a hot oven for about 25-35 minutes.
- We cut fresh cucumbers into thin slices and use toothpicks to make sails for our flotilla.
