A crispy sausage and mushroom filling, layered over fresh zucchini, topped with cheese and baked. These sausage zucchini boats are a healthy, delicious way to use up your garden-fresh zucchini.
Summertime is still in full swing, even if pumpkin spice is starting to creep up in places. It is still hot outside, and the garden is still flourishing. Summer isn’t stopping anytime soon, even if the world is trying to push fall. I will embrace summer as long as possible.
We are at the point where we need to find as many ways to use the garden’s bounty as possible. And if you have ever grown zucchini, you know you always hit the point of harvesting so many zucchinis that you look for ways to add them into every single possible dish.
And then, you will still have more. Friends come over, and you are giving away baskets full of zucchini in hopes of saving the vegetables from waste.
Okay, maybe I just planted too many. And preserving zucchini isn’t my favorite. You can blanch and freeze or dehydrate. We prefer to just eat fresh zucchini, and the sausage zucchini boats are one of my favorite ways.
Slice in half and scoop out a large zucchini; fill with sausage, mushrooms, and onions, top with cheese, then bake. It is a really flavorful and delicious way to eat your veggies. If kids are particularly picky, you could even add a little sauce to them and call them zucchini pizza.Â
Tips:
- This works really well with those over grown zucchinis that you missed checking for one day, and they grew ridiculously gigantic.Â
- Switch up the sausage for spicy sausage, bacon, or ground beef.
- Top with some fermented jalapeños after baking for a nice kick.
- Using a cast iron skillet makes life so much easier. You can have multiple going at the same time, and then clean up is a breeze. It is an essential tool in the farmhouse kitchen.
- Substitute zucchini for yellow squash if that is what you have on hand.
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Do you eat the skin on zucchini boats?
Yes! Since zucchini has a nice soft skin that is full of nutrients, it is great for eating.
Can I freeze zucchini boats?
Supposedly you can, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Zucchini tends to lose its texture and get very mushy and unappealing after freezing.
What can I do with overgrown zucchini?
Every gardener experiences overgrown zucchini at some point, but hope is not lost. Those large veggies can be turned into cake, brownies, bread, muffins, zucchini boats, and lasagna.
Tools you may need:
Baking dish
Cutting board
Knife
Cheese grater
How To Make Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Slice zucchini in half.
Scoop out the insides and add to a medium cast iron skillet.
Place the hollowed-out zucchini boats in a baking dish, drizzle with oil, and sprinkle with salt.Â
Bake for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, add the mushrooms and onions to the skillet with the zucchini insides. Drizzle with olive oil and cook over medium heat until soft, stirring frequently.
In another skillet, brown ground sausage until cooked through. Add the veggies in with the meat, and stir to combine.
Place the meat and veggie mixture in the partially baked zucchini boats, top with mozzarella cheese, and bake at 400° until the cheese is melted – about 8 minutes.
Optional: top with freshly diced tomatoes, especially in the summer!
Serve as a complete meal, or with pasta, rice, or some sourdough bread.
How To Store
Store in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days in an air-tight container. Rebake at 400° until hot. I always prefer baking over microwave for better texture and quality.
Also, we don’t own a microwave for that and many other reasons.
Find More Healthy Farmhouse Meals:
- One Skillet Creamy Peach Chicken
- The Best Shepherd’s Pie From Scratch
- Meatball Sub Recipe
- Pumpkin Chipotle Spaghetti Squash with Homemade Meatballs
- Tomato Soup From Scratch
- Easy Orange Chicken – From Scratch
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you could come back and give it 5 stars!
Sausage Zucchini Boats
Ingredients
Roasted zucchini:
- 2 medium zucchini
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Olive oil
Filling:
- 6 mushrooms diced
- ½ red onion diced
- Olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 pound ground sausage
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Slice zucchini in half.
- Scoop out the insides and add to a medium cast iron skillet.
- Place the hollowed-out zucchini boats in a baking dish, drizzle with oil, and sprinkle with salt.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, add the mushrooms and onions to the skillet with the zucchini insides. Drizzle with olive oil and cook over medium heat until soft, stirring frequently.
- In another skillet, brown ground sausage until cooked through. Add the veggies in with the meat, and stir to combine.
- Place the meat and veggie mixture in the partially baked zucchini boats, top with mozzarella cheese, and bake at 400° until the cheese is melted. About 8 minutes.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Top with freshly diced tomatoes, especially in the summer!
Lori says
this was delicious! I used hamburger meat instead of pork because that’s what I had. very easy and quick to make. will be making this again!
Tanya says
Have you ever tried shredding the zucchini and throwing it in the freezer raw? This is something I have done for quite a few years already. In the winter I will use the shredded zucchini in soup or make zucchini bars or loaf with it. I measure it out in portion size before I put it in the freezer so that I don’t have to measure it after I thaw it
Fatemeh says
Been making this for months now thanks! I omit the mushroom but its amazing recipe