These Italian-Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats are a light and low-carb, high-protein comfort food recipe made with simple, real-food ingredients. Featuring a savory meat and veggies mixture with mozzarella cheese, they bake in the oven for an easy weeknight meal full of flavor and nutrients.
Recipe Highlights
One of our favorite recipes, this Stuffed Zucchini Boats recipe is:
- Made with minimal prep time, a quick cook time, and a total time of just over 30 minutes
- A great way to use up pantry staples you haven’t been sure what to do with
- Gluten-free, rich in protein, low in carbohydrates, high in protein, and an excellent source of fiber and nutrients
- Created with nutritious, whole food ingredients including medium zucchini, cloves garlic, and fresh herbs
Ingredients To Make Stuffed Zucchini
Here’s what you need to make this stuffed zucchini recipe today:
- zucchini – you’ll need 4 medium zucchini (green summer squash) of uniform size
- ground Italian sausage – may sub ground pork or ground chicken
- ground meat of choice – use ground beef, chicken, pork, or turkey
- onion – use a yellow or white onion
- garlic
- canned diced tomatoes
- fresh spinach
- dried Italian seasoning
- fine salt and black pepper
- shredded mozzarella cheese
- fresh basil – optional for garnish
For the complete directions and ingredient amounts, scroll down to the recipe card below. All of our recipes include the nutrition information, listing kcals, protein, carbohydrates, cholesterol, fiber, sugar, sodium, total fat, and more per serving.
How To Get Your Zucchini Boats Just Right
Dietitian Jess developed this recipe and has these tips to share:
- Feel free to make this recipe with yellow squash or hollowed-out bell peppers if preferred.
- Save the scooped-out zucchini flesh, and incorporate it into the meat mixture for more bulk.
- When adding additional vegetables in with the meat, allow them to cook in the skillet long enough for any excess water to evaporate. This prevents the recipe from becoming soggy.
- Substitute the canned diced tomatoes with tomato sauce or marinara sauce if preferred.
- Adjust the flavor to suit your preferences. For instance, additions such as oregano, red pepper flakes, and breadcrumbs are all delish.
Make It Dairy-Free
Substitute the mozzarella with your favorite plant-based mozzarella, or add a sprinkle of nutritional yeast to make these zucchini boats dairy-free.
How To Store And Reheat
Store leftover zucchini boats in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Any longer than this, and the zucchini halves will become too mushy.
For a longer-lasting option, freeze leftovers in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Thaw the zucchini in the fridge overnight.
When you’re ready to eat, reheat leftovers in the oven just until warmed through. You can also warm individual portions in the microwave, but the zucchini is more likely to become slightly soggy this way.
What to Serve with Stuffed Zucchini Boats
This Stuffed Zucchini Boats recipe can easily serve as a complete meal on its own. Or, pair them with a side salad and a side of crusty bread, cooked rice, or quinoa if you want a little more bulk.
Frequently Asked Questions
There’s no need to peel the zucchini shells for this recipe. In fact, most of the vitamins and nutrients are in the skin rather than the zucchini flesh. So, leaving it intact helps ensure you get the most bang for your buck.
Made with protein, nutrients, fat, and fiber, this recipe can serve as a main course on its own. However, if you want to round it out, we recommend pairing the zucchini boats with a carb source such as rice, quinoa, potatoes, or bread.
Yes, feel free to use any cheese you like best! Ricotta, parmesan cheese, Swiss, or provolone all work well to add a delicious cheesy flavor and a boost of calcium.
Omit the meat, and replace it with a crumbled meat alternative, crumbled tempeh, or legumes such as black beans or chickpeas. You can even substitute leftover taco meat.
Slightly fattier meat is best for stuffed zucchini. We prefer to use a combination of ground beef and Italian sausage. However, ground turkey, bison, or venison works well, too. Whatever you use, be sure to cook it in a large skillet until golden brown and cooked through.
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Stuffed Zucchini Boats Recipe
A delicious way to enjoy a summer veggie, these stuffed zucchini boats are nutritious and delicious. Stuffed with a combination of ground protein, veggies, seasonings, and cheese, this dinner is low carb yet full of flavor.
Ingredients
- 4 medium zucchini, uniform size
- ½ lb. ground Italian sausage (may use pork or chicken)
- ½ lb. ground meat of choice (beef, chicken, pork or turkey)
- ½ small onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 (14 oz.) canned diced tomatoes, drained
- 2 handfuls spinach, roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
- ¼ cup fresh basil, thinly sliced (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375℉ degrees. Wash and halve the zucchini lengthwise. With a spoon, scoop the insides out, about ½-inch deep (depending on size) leaving ¼ inch around the edge.
- Chop the scooped-out zucchini flesh and reserve for step 4.
- Place the zucchini halves on a baking sheet, and mist both sides with cooking spray. Position the halves cut side up and bake for 6 minutes. When the baking time is up, remove from the oven and set aside.
- While the zucchini is baking, prepare the sausage filling. Place a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, mist with cooking spray and add the ground sausage, ground beef (or other ground meat), the reserved chopped zucchini, onion, and garlic.
- Break up the ground meat using a spatula and cook for 8-10 minutes or until the meat is cooked through and the onions have softened.
- Add the drained tomatoes, spinach, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Stir and cook 3-4 minutes or until the spinach is wilted, stirring occasionally.
- Stir 1 cup mozzarella cheese into the filling mixture.
- Next, stuff the partially-baked zucchini with the filling mixture.
- Sprinkle the remaining ½ cup cheese over the filling.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until the zucchini is tender and the cheese is melted.
- If desired, top with fresh basil just before serving.
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Notes
May use 1 lb of ground Italian sausage or 1 lb of any ground meat in place of the 1/2 lb Italian sausage + 1/2 lb ground meat
Nutrition Information
- Serving Size: 2 stuffed zucchini halves
- Calories: 420
- Fat: 28 g
- (Sat Fat: 13 g)
- Sodium: 880 mg
- Carbohydrate: 12 g
- (Fiber: 2 g
- Sugar: 7 g)
- Protein: 30 g
- Cholesterol: 101 mg
Dietary
The photos in this blog post were taken by Rachel Cook of Half Acre House.
For ultimate success, we highly recommend reading the tips in the full blog post above. All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish a recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words. Link back to the source recipe here on The Real Food Dietitians. Thank you!
Can you make the zucchini boats a day or two ahead and bake later?
Hi Angie, we haven’t specifically experimented with that method so we can’t say for certain how it would turn out.
did this recipe use to have a cream sauce made with coconut milk?
Hi Sarah, this recipe used to have photos that showed them with a drizzle of our Paleo ranch dressing on top. Here’s the recipe for that dressing: https://therealfooddietitians.com/paleo-ranch-dressing-dip/
Loved this recipe! Tweaked it a bit, adding some chopped red bell pepper. I also did not pre-bake the zucchini because I wanted it to have a firm bite! It worked perfectly! Added this to my dinner menus. Thanks for continuing to provide delicious healthy recipes! All of you get 5 stars in my book! 😊
We love to hear this, Ammi, thank you!