Stuffed Tomatoes and Stuffed Zucchini

Seasonal vegetables are always limited and that’s why you always have to come up with something new, meaning a new combination or a new form of eating them. 

Therefore when I was invited in a cooking show, I prepared two simple recipes that anyone can make: Stuffed Tomatoes and Stuffed Zucchini. 

For both recipes you don’t need any special skills and you can make changes according to what ingredients you have on hand. 

On this post will be some simple changes that I forgot to do or say on the show, because of „the first time on tv“ pressure (If you know what I mean). Since I prepared it on the show, here will be no photos added (until I make both recipes again- [soon] -). Even though I may change some things up, you can still watch me HERE to get the idea (it’s in albanian, that’s why I‘ll explain it here extensively). 

I will also write about the vegan version as I promised on my instagram account. 

Let’s START!! 

STUFFED TOMATOES 

Ingredients:

• 4 big tomatoes 
• 200 gr ground beef
• 1 medium onion
• 1 medium carrot 
• 3 garlic cloves 
• 2 big potatoes
• 100 gr grated parmesan 
• olive oil 
• parsley 
• ground cinnamon and cinnamon sticks

Preparation:

Firstly peel the potatoes and cut them into even smaller pieces (this will help them to boil faster). Then put the potatoes into a pot, cover them with water and bring them to a boil. 

Meanwhile prepare the tomatoes. Cut the upper part to create the “cover” of our “tomato cup”. Then cut the inner linking parts of the tomato and scoop them out carefully using a spoon. [watch the video if you find it difficult to understand]

Put the inner parts & seeds of the tomatoes into a blender and make a sauce out of them. DON’T throw them out!!

Now that you are done with the tomatoes, proceed with the filling/stuffing preparation. 

Add about 4-5 tbsp of oil to a pan and add the finely cut onion and garlic (2 cloves). Stir them around until they become golden brown. 

Add the ground beef and the finely chopped carrot and stir around for 3-4 minutes. 

Don’t forget the cinnamon sticks and a tsp of the ground version.

Now it’s time to add the tomato sauce you previously prepared and of course salt & black pepper. Leave it to cook until the sauce has become compact and the water of the sauce has evaporated. Add the last ingredient there, the chopped parsley. If you want, transfer the mixture to a bowl and remove the cinnamon sticks. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C. 

At this time the potatoes should be ready (but check them with a toothpick if you want). Drain the hot water and mash them in a bowl with 2 tbsp of olive oil, 2 tbsp of parmesan cheese, a bit of our fresh parsley, 1 grated garlic clove and salt.

Now all you have to do is assemble all the parts together. Take a tomato cup, put a layer of the mashed potatoes, a bit of parmesan, a nice layer of the cinnamon ground beef sauce, another thin layer of potato mash and sprinkle some parmesan cheese, chopped parsley and a little bit of salt on top. 

Repeat this process for all tomatoes and put them in the oven for 30-40 minutes. 

ENJOY !! 

STUFFED ZUCCHINI 

Ingredients: 

• 4 big zucchini 
• 1 small tomato 
• 1 small- medium eggplant
• 1 green pepper 
• 1 carrot 
• 50 gr sweet corn 
• a bit of rice or quinoa or bread crumbs 
• 100 gr feta cheese
• 1 onion 
• 2-3 cloves of garlic 
• oregano and parsley 
• olive oil 
• salt & black pepper

Preparation:

Start chopping all the veggies besides the zucchini into small little cubes. So the eggplant, the green pepper, the carrot and the onion. Use the tomato to make a sauce again. 

Now you can proceed with the actual recipe.

Add oil to a pan and add the onion & finely grated garlic in it until golden brown.

Then add the eggplant, carrot and the green pepper and stir them around for about 4 minutes.

Now it’s the time to add the fresh tomato sauce, a handful of rice, the sweet corn and a bit of water. Don’t forget to add the salt, pepper and a bit of oregano at this point. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C. 

Let them cook and in the meantime you can prepare the zucchini by discarding the ends, cutting them in half lengthways and scraping the seed-part off. This way you have prepared your “zucchini boats”.

Check the filling and if it needs more water or spices, add some. Now add the final ingredient, parsley (again). 

Now you can assemble the stuffed zucchini by filling them with the mixture and by crumbling some feta cheese on top. 

The final step is sprinkling some salt & parsley, drizzling some olive oil on top and putting them in the oven for 30-40 minutes. 

ENJOY!! 

THE VEGAN VERSION 

Here I’ll put two substitutes that I have come up with that you can find in your pantry right now, but you can also use industrial substitutes (if they are sold in your country).

For the ground meat you can use not completely boiled black beans ( so they are not a mashy consistency)and chopped walnuts to create the meaty texture. These two ingredients go well with the cinnamon too, but you will have to precook the walnuts to soften them just a bit. 

For the parmesan you can use nutritional yeast and for the feta cheese you can use tofu and salt (or nutritional yeast).