afoona
Zucchini Stuffed with Meat and Rice in Tomato-Lemon Sauce
Meat

Zucchini Stuffed with Meat and Rice in Tomato-Lemon Sauce

Zucchini stuffed with meat and rice in a homemade tomato sauce - a traditional dish from Levantine cooking that the whole household loves.

⏱ 1 hr 15 min🍽 4 servings 🌍 Middle Eastern👩‍🍳 Afoona🧩 2 parts
🥩 Meat🌾 Gluten-free🧀 Shavuot

👨‍🍳 Method

For the Meatball mix

  1. 1
    Mix the ground meat with the onion, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, rice, salt and black pepper until evenly combined.

To assemble

  1. 2
    Halve the zucchini lengthwise and scoop out the insides with a teaspoon, leaving walls of about 5 mm.
    KnifeCutting board
  2. 3
    Fill the zucchini with the mixture up to ¾ full: the rice swells as it cooks.
    💡Fill only three-quarters full: the uncooked rice swells inside the vegetable, and a full filling gets pushed out.
  3. 4
    Arrange the zucchini, now stuffed, in a wide pot.
    Wide, shallow pot
  4. 5
    Mix the stock, tomatoes, tomato paste, lemon juice, salt and oil and pour over the zucchini.
  5. 6
    Heat the oil in a wide pot and sauté the chopped caps 0 minutes. Add the tomato paste, stock, tomatoes, lemon juice and salt and stir until the paste dissolves.
    ⚙ SimmeringStoveLid
    💡A gentle simmer, not a boil: a hard boil dries the food out and clouds it, a slow simmer cooks it evenly.
431calories
22 gprotein
40 gcarbs
20 gfat
● protein 21%● carbs 38%● fat 41%

Per serving (784 g), of 4 servings

For the Meatball mix · To assemble ·

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⚖ About the ingredients

🔧 Tools needed (5) · 🍳 One cooking vessel

  • Stove · 💡 Workaround, changes the dish: Portable hot plate (one weaker burner) · Camping gas stove (One burner, outdoors) · Electric pressure cooker (multicooker) (One pot, no real shallow frying)
  • Lid · Also works: Aluminum foil (tight aluminum foil) · Plate (an upside-down plate)
  • Wide, shallow pot · Also works: Deep skillet (sauté pan) (None) · 💡 Workaround, changes the dish: Pot (Layers instead of a single layer)
  • Cutting board · Also works: Plate (Large plate, dulls the knife)
  • Knife · Also works: Food processor (Fast, less control over size) · Kitchen shears (For herbs/dough)

By the steps, as the recipe is built now: another version or addition can change the list.

🧩 Built from…

Meatball mix → Stuffed vegetables

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