If you grow zucchini, around this time of year one of them hides out under a giant zucchini plant leaf and grows like mad. Maybe you noticed it at one time and thought you’d just give it another couple of days, and then all of a sudden you move the leaf and there’s a gargantuan zucchini. You try to give it to all the neighbors but they all have a giant zucchini too, or just don’t know what the heck to do with it.
At my last house, I had a Lebanese neighbor and when I showed her one of my giant zucchini she was excited to see it because she said there is a great dish I could make by stuffing it. I gave her the giant zucchini because I happened to have two of them, and she told me how to stuff mine. (She may have been from Jordan come to think of it.) Zucchini themselves are a bit bland so I add quite a bit of spices. This filling is enough for a foot-long zucchini, so increase the rice if yours is bigger. If you don’t have a tight-fitting lid for your pan, turn the zucchini over halfway through cooking.
Stuffed Giant Zucchini
1 lb of ground lamb or steak
½ C chopped onion
1 crushed garlic clove
¼ C chopped parsley
1 cup of cooked rice
2 T toasted pine nuts (optional – if you have time)
1 t cumin
½ t nutmeg
½ t coriander
½ t sea salt
¼ t ground black pepper
1 large can stewed or crushed tomatoes or 3-4 cups chopped
1-2 C stock or broth
Brown the meat with the onion, then stir in the garlic and parsley.
Cut the ends off the zucchini and carefully slice it in half lengthwise. Scoop the center out of the zucchini, so you get out the seedy part and some of the flesh, leaving the shell and about ¼ – ½” of the flesh. Compost what you scooped out or put it in your freezer bag for vegetable stock.
Mix the meat mixture, rice, and spices. Press the mixture into two zucchini halves, making it level. Put the two zucchini halves together. Put the tomatoes and one cup of broth into a pan that will fit the zucchini and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and set the zucchini in the pan. Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Add more broth as needed.
