Zucchini Boats

We all know that you can blink in summer, and your tender 6" zucchini will suddenly gain enough length and weight to intimidate a football. After the near-constant rain and flooding recently, I squished my way through the wetness to the garden, and found zucchini-on-steroids. Well, really, now, what did I expect after three days of ignoring the garden?



Zucchini boats are good for cleaning out the fridge of leftovers and using up fresh produce from the garden. The guts of the boats are similar to what might go into stuffed green peppers: tomatoes, hamburger, rice or bread crumbs, some of the vegetable shell.

This time I happened to have one thawed chicken breast in the refrigerator, so I used chicken instead of beef. I had a cup of leftover mashed potatoes, two cups of leftover rice, and some home-made bread that turned out not-so-hot [oh, I'm SO embarrassed!!] which lent itself to being hidden in the boats. I also had about 12 ounces of leftover marinara sauce.



You scoop out the pulpy middle of the overgrown zucchini. Depending on how big the zuke is (thus, how edible the middle is) you could chop up the middles, or you could have a nice little zucchini or two to chop up for the boat-guts.

It's best to par-boil the empty boats for 3-5 minutes. If you do, the stuffed boats will cook in about 20 minutes. If you don't par-boil, you'll have to put foil over the boats as they're cooking, and bake them for 40-70 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of the zucchini shells.


Saute the onions, peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, meat, etc, until nearly cooked. Add your cooked rice or your croutons. You may wish to add shredded cheese to the mix, or lay cheese slices on top of the boats in the last 5 minutes of baking. Spice appropriately; we like Italian seasonings: salt, pepper, basil, oregano, garlic.




Fill the boats with the veggie-guts. Bake in medium oven until hot and zucchini is tender. Add cheese at end if desired.