Zucchini - these are the vegetables that are not afraid of inclement weather and are "born" in any case. In addition, unpretentious zucchini can be purchased at very attractive prices on the shelves of many stores. Let's not pass by a simple at first glance, but incredibly useful vegetable and try to make it a tasty “candy” in combination with other ingredients. How can I do that? It’s very simple - to stuff and bake in the oven! It will turn out not only amazingly, but also very useful!
Stuffed zucchini - general principles and methods of preparation
Stuffed vegetables are the basis of a hearty and healthy table. It is unlikely that there will be a person in the world who has not at least once tried stuffed peppers, cabbage rolls or zucchini. It doesn’t take a lot of time to cook them, and you don’t have to look into the cookbook, just open the refrigerator and take a fresh look at the available list of products. After all, zucchini is universal, and the number of ingredients with which to stuff these vegetables is huge. But zucchini is especially tasty in combination with minced meat (pork, chicken, beef, lamb), seafood, fried mushrooms, vegetables and cheese.
Also, as a filling, you can safely use cottage cheese, fruits, nuts or various combinations (for example, meat + rice, a mixture of vegetables + cheese, etc.). And you can use the finished dish both hot and warm, cold with mayonnaise, sour cream, garlic or any other sauce. Here, as your soul desires! Stuffed zucchini will certainly delight you with its ease of preparation, and your family and guests with its juicy, vibrant and delicious taste.
Stuffed Zucchini - Preparing Food
Zucchini for stuffing is better to use large enough, but not overripe. Before cooking, be sure to peel them, cut them in half lengthways, carefully cut the seeds (they are very convenient to clean with a spoon) so as not to make “holes” in the boats and start stuffing the vegetables with the filling prepared in advance. Also, zucchini, especially young ones, can be cut into circles, and on top - lay out the existing filling, sprinkle with cheese and herbs.
Stuffed Zucchini - The Best Recipes
Recipe 1: Stuffed Zucchini in a Dough
Zucchini is so versatile that it can be easily combined with any ingredients. Be it cereals, meat, various sweets, fruits, vegetables and even dough. We’ll call our dish “Zucchini pizza”, because it was she who inspired the idea of creating such yummy.
Ingredients:
- one big zucchini
- boiled sausage (or half-smoked) 400 gr.
- three bell peppers
- three tomatoes
- cheese 400 gr.
- mayonnaise 1-2 tablespoons
- ketchup 2 tablespoons
- greens to choose from
- purchased dough (yeast or puff)
Cooking method:
1. Peel the large zucchini from the skin, cut into rings and peel them from the seeds so that the rings remain whole. Mugs are salted in a bowl.
2. Peel the peppers, cut into thin strips (cubes). We cut the sausage into cubes, and the tomatoes into thin rings. Finely chop the greens. Three cheese on a grater, mix it with a spoon or two mayonnaise and a small amount of herbs. Mix the sausage with pepper.
3. From the dough we form cakes (like pizza) the size of zucchini rings (you can slightly more). Lay the cakes on a baking sheet, and on top of each - one zucchini ring.
4. Next, grease with ketchup dough and zucchini. Inside the ring (in the recess) we lay out the stuffing from sausage and pepper, on top - tomato and a little cheese filling. Top can also be sprinkled with herbs if desired.
5. Heat the oven, send our stuffed zucchini to bake until the dough is ready and the cheese is melted. The finished products turned out to be very tasty: juicy, crispy, fragrant and so seductive.
Recipe 2: Stuffed Zucchini with Vegetables and Minced Chicken
Summer is a season of healthy vegetables. It’s a sin not to cook something special of them. We offer you a recipe for stuffed zucchini with minced chicken and vegetables, which are not only tasty, but also healthy and even dietary. You can hardly ruin a figure with such a dish, but you will get considerable pleasure. By the way, we select any vegetables for your taste: onions, carrots, peppers, cauliflower, tomatoes. Feel free to throw into the container everything that comes to hand - you will not regret it.
Ingredients:
- four medium squash
- minced chicken (purchased or homemade)
- two tomatoes
- carrot
- a bunch of greenery
- onions (onions) - 2 pcs.
- hard cheese (grams 80-130)
- water (half a glass)
- to taste salt, pepper (or spices)
Cooking method:
1. We clean the squash, cut it in half, peel the seeds so that we get two whole boats. Cut the onion, fry in oil until golden brown. Then add the minced meat and fry it also, salt, seasoning, pepper, for three to five minutes.
2. Next, tightly stuffed with minced squash boat. Grate the cheese on a medium grater and sprinkle on top of the stuffed boats. We spread the zucchini in a wide baking dish, top with “chopped” vegetables and a little water (do not touch the cheese), add salt and send it to the oven preheated to 200 ° C.
3. Bake until soft zucchini. Sprinkle the finished dish with any chopped herbs.
Recipe 3: Stuffed Zucchini with Brynza
And again, our favorite zucchini, this time - stuffed with feta cheese. Soft white cheese will give the vegetables a very interesting, spicy and original taste. Maximum benefit and taste in one amazing dish. Be sure to take note!
Ingredients:
- medium squash three pieces
- 300 gr. feta cheese
- half a glass of mayonnaise
- half a glass of fat sour cream
- three table. lies. breadcrumbs
- two to four cloves of garlic (to taste)
- to taste salt and pepper
- Three to four spoons grows. oils
Cooking method:
1. Remove the peel from the squash, remove the flesh, leaving thin walls (do it carefully so as not to perforate the walls), make two boats out of them. In addition to large seeds, the pulp is finely chopped (chopped with a blender or meat grinder).
2. Rub the feta cheese on a medium grater, mix the cheese with breadcrumbs, squash pulp. Add chopped garlic and seasoning to the filling. We mix everything. Fry the resulting filling in a pan. The same should be done with boats - fry them over high heat for 2-3 minutes.
3. Next, grease the baking sheet, put the boats on it and tightly hammer them with the fried filling. Mix sour cream with mayonnaise and pour the stuffed zucchini with this sauce. We send the dish to the oven and bake for 30 minutes at 180-200 C. Then we take it out and enjoy. What a scent! And what a taste! Pleasure guaranteed!
Recipe 4: Stuffed Zucchini with Fruits and Nuts
Try to cook this dish, and you probably can no longer refuse it. The dish includes all flavoring notes - and sweet, and salty, and spicy. The combination of seemingly incongruous ingredients results in an exquisite culinary masterpiece, and all this is an ordinary, inexpensive, not particularly distinguished vegetable - zucchini. Worth trying!
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of peeled zucchini (boats)
- two table. lies. olive oil
- green onions 250 gr.
- 250 gr. apples
- cumin, ginger - half a teaspoon each
- a pinch of salt
- pepper to taste
- 250 gr. chestnut nuts
- 120 gr. prunes
- 120 gr. dried apricots
- 60 gr. almond nuts
- 60 gr. walnut
- 60 peeled sunflower seeds
Cooking method:
1. We make boats from zucchini per kilogram. Chop the green onion and fry it lightly in olive oil. Then put the diced apples there, add salt, pepper, caraway seeds and ginger. Stew for three minutes, stirring.
2. Next, we drop the chopped prunes and dried apricots, a mixture of nuts, and sunflower seeds there. Fry everything, stirring occasionally, for a couple of minutes.
3. We lay the boats on a baking sheet, fill them with filling and cover them tightly with foil. We send them to the oven for 70-90 minutes, until the filling gets a brown tint. The dish is served both in a separate form and to a fruit salad. Bon appetit to all!
Stuffed zucchini - useful tips from experienced chefs
In an apartment, a zucchini can be stored for a long time, if you keep it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator in a small bowl, which is not recommended to be closed with a lid. As a rule, the flesh of a vegetable acquires a golden hue over time, but this in no way spoils its taste. When the zucchini becomes “golden”, it should be cut lengthwise, remove all seeds, allow to dry, wrap with cellophane and put into the freezer. If the squash is not cleaned in time and put away in the freezer, they will become bitter, rude and tasteless.
