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These stuffed zucchini boats are so easy to make with minimal prep. Stuffed with beef, rice and veggies, they are wholesome, hearty and wonderfully seasoned. The simple garlic sauce really brings them alive and they’re great t serve as part of a main and can be made ahead of time.
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Today, I am sharing with you a recipe for Stuffed Zucchini Boats with Yogurt Garlic Sauce (the sauce is amazing!). All credit for the recipe goes to my Mom. I was just her assistant and food photographer. 🙂
My husband, who is the official taste tester for all the recipes on my blog, doesn’t like zucchini (and mushrooms & peas). So I thought that he will probably eat the stuffing and leave the zucchini boats on the plate. He even reminded me that he dislikes zucchini as we started eating.
He took several bites of the stuffing topped with the garlic sauce and said it tastes very good. I didn’t notice until a few minutes later that he had cleaned his plate and the zucchini boat was gone as well. He had eaten everything!
These stuffed zucchini boats are perfect to serve as part of a main meal with a side of sweet potato fries, Greek salad or baked potato wedges.
Ingredinets To Make Stuffed Zucchini Boats
- Zucchini
- Ground beef
- Onion
- Carrots
- Tomato
- Rice
- Cumin, oregano, salt and pepper
For The Garlic Sauce
- Yogurt
- Mayonnaise
- Garlic cloves
- Salt
- Fresh dill
How To Make Stuffed Zucchini Boats
- Cook rice according to package instructions.
- Half zucchini in half lengthwise. Remove the middle of each zucchini boat and place it in a bowl.
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Brown meat in a large skillet for about 5 minutes until done. Season meat with salt, freshly ground black pepper, oregano, and cumin. Transfer to a plate.
- Heat 1 Tbsp oil in the same skillet. Add chopped onion, season with salt and cook until translucent.
- To the same skillet add chopped carrots, season with salt and cook until carrots are tender (about 3-4 minutes).
- Add 3/4 of the zucchini mixture and finely diced tomato. Season again with salt, freshly ground black pepper and oregano. Cook until vegetables are tender and flavors are well incorporated (about 2-3 minutes).
- Add ground beef and cooked rice to the skillet and mix everything.
- Season zucchini boats inside with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Fill zucchini boats with the vegetable-beef-rice mixture and place them on a large baking sheet.
- Add water to the baking sheet (about 1/2 inch).
- Bake at 400 F for about 40 minutes.
- While the zucchini boats are baking, prepare the yogurt garlic sauce.
- Just before serving, top stuffed zucchini boats with the garlic sauce. It’s so delicious!
Recipe Variations
For a Paleo version, substitute the cooked rice with cooked quinoa. Perfect summer dinner! Healthy, delicious and nutritious!
Easy Creamy Garlic Sauce
Don’t forget to make the garlic sauce, it’s a game changer! And only a few minutes to make. It’s truly phenomenal and adds so much flavor to the stuffed zucchini boats.
Did I mention that it’s also very versatile and goes really well with stuffed peppers, as a dip, on chicken kebabs, and anything else you like. My mouth is salivating just thinking about that garlic sauce and delicious yogurt-mayo- garlic flavor combo. Yum!
Can you make them ahead of time?
Yes! You can also make these stuffed zucchini boats ahead of time! Make the filling and stuff the zucchini before covering and refrigerating. They can be prepared a day ahead of time and cooked when ready to serve. Leftovers also make a great lunch!
Mediterranean Stuffed Zucchini
I just adore the flavors in the stuffing, the oregano adds a wonderful herby aroma and the cumin adds a slightly earthy quality. The stuffing gets a little crispy when baked in the oven for added texture.
Recipe Notes and Tips
- Remove the middle of the zucchini with a melon baller or teaspoon.
- I used white rice, but the recipe will work just as well with wild or brown rice.
- The garlic sauce will keep covered in the fridge for about 5 days.
More Delicious Summer Dinners:
- Easy Stuffed Zucchini Cups
- Stuffed Peppers
- Grilled Chicken with Raspberry Balsamic Glaze
- Bacon-Wrapped Chicken
- Grilled Chicken & Vegetables
Stuffed Zucchini Boats with Garlic Sauce
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Ingredients
- 3 zucchini
- ½ lb ground beef
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 2 carrots, sliced in small quarts
- 1 tomato, finely diced
- ½ cup dry rice
- cumin, to taste
- oregano, to taste
- salt & freshly ground pepper
Garlic Sauce
- 1 ½ cup yogurt
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 10 garlic cloves, minced (start with 5 cloves and up the amount according to your own taste)
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 Tablespoon fresh chopped dill
Instructions
- Cook rice according to package instructions.
- Half zucchini in half lengthwise. Remove the middle of each zucchini boat and place it in a bowl.
- Preheat oven to 400 F.
- Brown meat in a large skillet for about 5 minutes until done. Season meat with salt, freshly ground black pepper, oregano, and cumin. Transfer to a plate.
- Heat 1 Tbsp oil in the same skillet. Add chopped onion, season with salt and cook until translucent. To the same skillet add chopped carrots, season with salt and cook until carrots are tender (about 3-4 minutes). Add 3/4 of the zucchini mixture and finely diced tomato. Season again with salt, freshly ground black pepper and oregano. Cook until vegetables are tender and flavors are well incorporated (about 2-3 minutes).
- Add ground beef and cooked rice to the skillet and mix everything.
- Season zucchini boats inside with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Fill zucchini boats with vegetable beef rice mixture and place them on a large baking sheet. Add water to the baking sheet (about 1/2 inch). This helps keep the zucchini boats tender and moist. Bake at 400 F for about 40 minutes.
- While the zucchini boats are baking, prepare the yogurt garlic sauce.
- Just before serving, top stuffed zucchini boats with the garlic sauce. It’s so delicious!
Garlic Sauce
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk Greek yogurt, mayo, minced garlic, and salt. Finally, add chopped dill and stir well. You can adjust the ingredients according to your liking, Add less or more mayo or garlic according to your taste.
Video
Notes
- Remove the middle of the zucchini with a melon baller or teaspoon.
- I used white rice, but the recipe will work just as well with wild or brown rice.
- The garlic sauce will keep covered in the fridge for about 5 days.
Haven’t tried it yet, but I don’t agree with your calorie count! Mayo is a total of 1504 calories, or 250/person.
Hi Lorna,
Thank you for your feedback! It does look like the nutrition info was off. It is automatically calculated by the recipe card (which is developed by a developer, not me) and I didn’t manually calculate or enter the nutrition information.
I just run an update on the nutrition info and it looks much better. Also, you will have about 3 cups of the sauce which is way more than what you need for 6 servings. We just love the sauce or if we have leftover, we use the rest for other recipes.
Hope you give this recipe a try, I think you will love it!
With an overabundance of zucchini from my garden, I’ve recently made zucchini bread, zucchini fritters, zucchini frittata, and stuffed taco zucchini. So last night I made your stuffed zucchini boats with the garlic sauce. It is delicious and I will be making this again…..it’s a keeper. My husband loved it too.
Wonderful!! So glad you and your husband loved it!! 🙂
We also have lots of zucchini in our garden, planning on adding more zucchini recipes here.
My mum made this for me and my dad tonight and we both thought that the garlic sauce was just too much to handle. I definitely thought that 10 garlic cloves was way too much for that amount of yogurt. 1 or 2 would have been plenty. Even my dad, who is from an Asian background and he is used to eating a lot of garlic, agreed with me. We both had headaches afterwards and neither of us could stomach it. That said, I tried the rice, meat, and veg mixture on it’s own and it tasted nice. So I would strongly urge people who have never made this before to not use 10 cloves of minced garlic until you’ve tried it a few times. 1 or 2 is plenty.
Hi Kourosh! I am glad to hear that you liked the stuffed zucchini! Sorry that the yogurt garlic sauce didn’t turn out that way. It’s a traditional Mediterranean/Eastern European cuisine, and it turns out great every time I make it. My husband, who doesn’t like unusual tastes, also loves it and has seconds every time.
I don’t know how big the cloves of garlic your Mom used were, neither how strong they tasted. I always try the food when I cook a new recipe and adjust it to my own preference/taste.
Thanks for letting me know though – I added a note to the recipe.
P.S. I just saw that the recipe instructions do read to adjust the ingredients for the garlic sauce to your own liking by adding more or less mayo and garlic.
Yum, I love zucchini, this sounds like a wonderful preparation!
Yummy, these look and sound delicious!
Just can’t have too much zucchini – I’m so glad you hubby loved this too. Can’t wait to give it a try!
Absolutely loving the flavors in this! And it’s great to hear that your husband liked it – it gives me hope that maybe mine will as well!
Oh yum! My mother used to make something similar to this with bell peppers and I loved it as a kid! We have so much zucchini now this would be a great variation. I’m saving this recipe, thank you!
I love stuffing just about anything into zucchinis, but I am telling you that sauce looks just perfect!!!
You had me at garlic sauce – this sounds amazing!