Lamb Stuffed Zucchini
This recipe is a great way to use up that giant zucchini lurking in your garden. Early season zucchini are best as the skin is tender and the flesh is delicate. Older zucchini still taste great, you just may not be able to eat the skin.
Ingredients
Serves: 4
- 2 large zucchini
- 1 (800g) tin diced tomatoes with juice
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3/4 cup (185ml) water
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion diced onion
- 500g lamb mince
- 3/4 cup (125g) basmati rice
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup (125ml) water
- 2 tablespoons dried mint
- 2 teaspoons salt
Directions
Preparation:30min ›
Cook:1hour25min ›
Ready in:1hour55min
- Cut each zucchini in half and use a thin sharp knife to hollow out each section removing the seeds and leaving a round 1cm shell.
- Combine tomatoes with juice, tomato paste, 3/4 cup water and cinnamon in a large oven safe saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Cook until thick; about 20 minutes.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small frypan. Stir in onion then cook until tender; about 5 minutes. Combine cooked onion, lamb, rice, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 cup water, dried mint and salt in a large bowl. Mix well. Lightly stuff lamb mixture into hollowed out zucchini sections. Place stuffed zucchini in simmering tomato sauce.
- Cover pot and place in preheated oven. Cook until the rice is soft; about 1 hour. If sauce is very thin, simmer on the stove top until desired consistency. To serve slice into 2cm rounds and top with tomato sauce.
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Reviews and Ratings
Global Ratings:
(12)
Reviews in English (10)
This is a great recipe, thank you for sharing it! I made it as written the first time and it was wonderful. The second time I decided to tweak the recipe to my tastes a bit more. Like the previous reviewer I omitted the salt (canned tomatoes typically have enough for my tastes) and used fresh mint. I cooked the tomato sauce as advised but added a bit of white wine and garlic. For the stuffing, rather than cook the meat and rice in the oven I added oil to the sauté pan with garlic, onion, and uncooked rice. This gives the rice a head start on cooking and a lot more flavor. I sautéed all until everything browned a bit and added the lamb which I sautéed until cooked. I used a slotted spoon to remove the mixture and stuff into the zucchini to reduce some of the grease. The final cook time for the stuffed zucchini was 30 minutes. My boyfriend indicated this was a “keeper” recipe. - 12 Oct 2009 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
My Husband is Lebanese so I was a bit intimidated to try this recipe...how can I compete with his mother? well, I am happy to report that I passed with flying colors. here is what I customized: I added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon; I used lean ground beef instead of lamb; i sauteed the onion, and then added the rice to the pan, to give a bit more flavor. I added a splash of white wine. i added fresh mint instead of dried, because it grows like weed in my garden. While it was cooking, the smell alone was enough to make us all salivate, and the end result was spectacular! comfort food at its best! thank you for the great recipe!!! - 08 Aug 2011 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)
This took care of a monster zucchini someone gave me. I made 3 very minor changes. First, I eliminated the salt for dietary reasons and to my taste it wasn't missed. Second, I didn't realize I had no tomato paste until I was well into preparing this so I just cooked the sauce down to thicken it. Third, I used fresh mint instead of dried because I had it on hand. The cinnamon adds a lovely flavor and I think next time I will increase it slightly. Thanks for a tasty dish. - 18 Sep 2009 (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)