Spicy Stuffed Zucchini

Coming back from a beautiful holiday in Europe, I was a bit excited to see if anything had changed at our house. We always leave during the start of summer and the garden is, as always, left untended.

So when the taxi dropped us off, the first thing I did was go the the garden. It was pretty amazing. There were overgrown green leaves everywhere, the strawberries were a bright shade of red, and most of all, the zucchini (10 of them!) had grown to an incredible size.

Since no one wants food going to waste, I scrambled up ideas in my head to use the zucchini.

This is what I came up with. Spicy stuffed zucchini. It’s fairly easy, and you can add in ingredients of your choice.

First step is dicing up the onions, garlic and tomatoes.

Then you heat up a pan with a bit of oil and add the onions and garlic in.

When the onions are translucent brown, add in the minced meat, salt and pepper.

You’ll have to break up the meat in the pan and cook it until it’s almost ready, then you add in the tomatoes, chili peppers, and frozen peas. You can also add in other things, like grated cheese, tomato paste, etc.

After everything is cooked, prepare the zucchini by slicing off the ends and scooping out the middle, where the seeds are.

Now’s the fun part! Fill in the center with the minced meat mixture and place it in a baking pan.

To finish, drizzle olive oil over the zucchini and bake in the preheated oven for an hour at 200 °C ( 392 °F).

Here’s the finished product, straight out of the oven!

Spicy Stuffed Zucchini

Servings: 4-6
Time: 1hr 15mins
Difficulty: Easy
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Ingredients:
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, diced
1 lb minced meat
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pepper
2 tomatoes, diced
3 chili peppers
1/4 cup frozen peas
(Optional: 1/2 cup grated cheese of choice, 1/4 cup tomato paste)
2 medium sized zucchini
A bit of olive oil

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 200 °C ( 392 °F). Heat up a large pan on stovetop with a bit of oil.
Brown the garlic and onion in the pan, then add in the minced meat, salt and pepper.
Once the meat is nearly brown and almost cooked, add in the diced tomatoes, chili peppers and frozen peas. (This is where you can also add in the cheese and tomato paste.)
Cut the ends of the zucchini and scoop out the middle.
Stuff the inside with the meat mixture and place in a baking pan. Drizzle olive oil over and bake for 1 hour, until a fork is easily inserted into the zucchini.
Enjoy!