An easy and delicious recipe for Lebanese stuffed zucchini made with rice and vegan minced meat. Gluten-free and dairy-free - perfect for a healthy and hearty meal.
Wash the rice under running water in a colander to get rid of the excess starch.
In a large bowl, combine the stuffing ingredients rice, beef-less beef, finely diced onion, chopped fresh parsley, dill, diced tomatoes,7-spice mix, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Mix by hand to combine.
With a knife, remove the very top of the zucchini, then cut each zucchini in half to make shorter zucchini for stuffing. Now you need to hollow out the zucchini to make room for the stuffing.
Core. Insert your potato peeler or corer about ¾ of the way into the zucchini, making sure not to poke the bottoms. Twist the corer and pull out the zucchini cores. Do this a few times, and gently scrape the sides of the zucchini until you have hollowed each out. You'll want to leave about ¼ inch rim of zucchini. Poke the zucchini with a fork so they cook evenly.
Lightly oil the bottom of a large deep cooking pan like this one. Spread the tomato sauce and diced tomato and spread over the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. You can optionally also add the zucchini flesh or use it for zucchini muffins.
Now, gently loosely stuff the hollowed zucchini with the stuffing about ¾ of the way (do not over-stuff or crowd the rice stuffing in the zucchini, or it will not cook well).
Arrange the stuffed zucchini (stuffed side up).
Now add the tomato sauce and chopped zucchini pulp. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Top with a plate to prevent the zucchini from flipping.
Place the pan on the stove and cook on medium-high heat until the liquid starts boiling. Turn the heat down to medium heat, cover, and simmer on medium-low heat for 45 minutes until the zucchini is tender and the rice stuffing is fully cooked. Convection stove at 4.
Transfer to a serving plate. Top with the sauce from the cooking pan. Enjoy!