zucchini boats

This past Sunday Brad and I visited our garden and were pleasantly surprised to find this gigantic zucchini. Our zucchini plants have been wonderful producers this summer but were recently attacked by powdery mildew. We cut back the plants and sprayed with organic magic potions (a copper solution and a milk solution) but they just haven't been the same. So you can imagine we were pretty excited to find this beaut!

After spending Sunday into Monday partying with our friends to celebrate the long weekend, we had a relaxing Monday off from work and I had time to prepare for the work week. Ever since my friend mentioned making "zucchini boats" I've been waiting for our garden to produce just such a zucchini.

Chorizo stuffed Zucchini Boats

1 large zucchini (2-3 lbs)

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup diced bell peppers

1 cup diced tomatoes

2 Tbsp olive oil

6 oz Chorizo, removed from casings (leave this out or substitute rice to make vegetarian)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 C cottage cheese

1/2 C oatmeal

1/2 C sliced almonds (you can substitute breadcrumbs for the oatmeal & almonds, I just didn't have any on hand)

fresh basil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Boil the zucchini for about 15 minutes or until soft enough to easily cut & scoop out inside (I boiled mine for about 10 minutes on each end...it was too big even in our 12 quart stock pot!)

Once cool enought to handle, slice the zucchini in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop out the center down to about 1/2″ thickness, reserving about 1/2 cup. Cut up the reserved zucchini it if it’s not too seedy. Place the two halves of the zucchini into a large baking dish.

Dice into 1/2″ pieces the onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, bell peppers and eggplant. Mince the garlic.
Remove the sausage from the casings and break it apart into small pieces. Cook the sausage all the way through in a pan. Set aside to cool.

Heat olive oil in large pan. Add chorizo and brown thoroughly. Add onion, garlic & bell peppers and cook until soft. Remove from the heat and allow to cool (so egg doesn't fry when you add it!)

When cooled slightly, mix in the beaten egg, cottage cheese, and almonds & oatmeal. Scoop it into the zucchini halves, mounding up the filling. Sprinkle with basil and any cheese you might have laying around (I had fresh mozzarella).

Bake for 30 minutes or until the zucchini is tender (but not mushy!). Garnish with basil. As a sidenote, I had more stuffing than would fit in the zucchini, so I just baked separately in a casserole dish...the leftovers were delicious heated up as a dip for tortilla chips!

original recipe adapted from here