Colorful Super Stuffed Zucchini Boats

“Vacation all I ever wanted, Vacation, had to get away!”  Fortunately I’m just getting away from life and my love is coming with me (as opposed to the Go-Go’s song which is surprisingly sad lyrics for such a cheerful tune).  Eric and I are on a two week vacation, hooray!  But don’t worry my blog is not on hiatus.  I worked frantically for a week doing triple the posts to schedule them out while I’m hiking, relaxing, and lovingly gazing into Eric’s eyes.  In fact, this week is zucchini week!  Pretty much everyone I know who grows zucchini tries to get rid of it, but I’ll always take as much as I can get.  I’ve got a million different ways I like zucchini (well at least 23) so thought I’d share a bunch with you in case you’re trying to figure out what to make with yours.  We get about 4-5 a week in our CSA, and I like to use medium sized ones to make these stuffed zucchini boats.  When I made zucchini boats before, it was mostly cheese, and I wanted to play around with more flavors and textures this time.

I decided to used panko in the stuffing to give it a crispy texture, but I think I’ll use less next time.  I like the mozarella from my previous try better.  Eric also prefers a gooey texture to a breaded one in the zucchini.  The flavors were amazing though.  I had a really soft tomato I needed to use up, so chopped (mushed with the knife really since it was so soft) it and tossed it in with feta (of course!),  I had some lemon zest and minced red onion from making my Daring Cook’s molecular challenge that I hadn’t dehydrated, so tossed those in with some fresh basil from our CSA.  Finally I added some garlic and decided I better stop before the kitchen sink ended up in the bowl!

I really love how colorful these turned out, they’ll be a lot of fun to serve guests as appetizers, especially with smaller zucchini.  In the future I’ll add a little mozzarella in the mix, and sprinkle some parmesan on top.  What do you think would be great in the stuffing?

Super Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Ingredients

1 medium sized zucchini
salt
1/4 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tomato diced
1 tsp lemon zest
1 TBS minced red onion
1 clove minced garlic
1 TBS chopped fresh basil (or 1 tsp dried)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Slice zucchini in half and scoop out seeds to make an hollowed out shell.  Make sure it’s not too thin or it will break once cooked.  Add zucchini halves to a pot of boiling salted water.  Boil for 5-8 minutes until soft but still bright green with some crunch.

While boiling, mix remaining ingredients in a bowl.  Remove zucchini from water (I used tongs and a spatula to support it so it wouldn’t tear), pat dry, place in an oven proof pan long enough to hold them.  Fill each zucchini with half the stuffing mixture.

Place zucchini in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, or until stuffing is turning golden.

Approximate cost/serving: Depending on the cost of your zucchini this can come out to $1 or less per person.

Vegetarian/gluten free: I have made this without the egg before, the texture is a little drier but it still works.  For gluten free, you must use gluten free panko or another substitute.