Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Need a great recipe to use up some wild growing zucchini’s sprouting up in your garden? We have been using quite a few zucchini in our house that have been given to us from family and friends gardens. We have had zucchini added to eggs, sautéed with butter and cheese, added to soups and roasted veggies dishes. I needed a new recipe and I came up with this one!

How about an Italian stuffed zuchini boats?

This is a simple recipe that packs a flavor punch full of yummy veggies! I don’t add really any spices to the recipe because my spice came from my turkey sausage. Feel free to add spices as you wish or choose a more dynamic flavored sausage to mix up the flavor profile in the recipe.

Ingredients

4 medium zucchini or 2 very large ones

2 Tablespoon coconut oil

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 cup button mushrooms, chopped

1 pound italian turkey sausage, no casing

1 large tomato, diced

2 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup of your favorite cheese (cheddar, parmesan, or goat cheese)

 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Start with cutting your zucchini in half the long way. Scoop out the inside with a spoon or a melon baller so most of the insides are scraped out but you are leaving about 1/8 to 1/4 inch of zucchini from the outside peel. Keep the “insides” of the zucchini you scraped our to add to the filling. Put the zucchini flat (scooped side up) in a large baking dish. Cut them smaller if you have larger zucchini.
• In a large skillet, preheat to medium and add the coconut oil.
• Add in the onion, garlic and mushrooms and sauté for 1 minute until adding the turkey sausage and sauté until cooked through (about 8 minutes)
• Add in the diced tomato, zucchini scooped out “insides”, basil and salt and pepper.
• Once completely mixed together, use a spoon and fill the zucchini boats. You don’t want them overstuffed (or everything will fall out) but don’t under-fill them either. You may have some leftover filling that won’t fit inside the zucchini. I call that lunch for the next day
• Top the zucchini boats with cheese and bake for 30 minutes until the zucchini is tender and the cheese is melted