As our garden bounty continues to pile up in the kitchen, we decided to take a week and make an effort to cook with a garden vegetable each day/night. Please join us on our journey!
So day two, we had the BIGGEST zucchini we had ever seen courtesy of my mom. We also had some smaller ones, too. SO we were under some pressure to make something amazing with all this zucchini, and this fit the bill! You can also use fresh corn for this recipe if you have it, but we used frozen. Our garden provided the parsley and tomato. The recipe started from Good Housekeeping’s Family Vegetarian Cooking cookbook, with some extra things we added and changed.
STUFFED ZUCCHINI WITH CORN AND COUSCOUS
Ingredients
8 tsp. olive oil
4-5 small zucchini, or a few big ones, or one MASSIVE one (as shown) equalling to about 24-30 oz total,
cleaned, trimmed and halved lengthwise
2 medium shallots, minced
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 cup onion, finely chopped
2 cups corn kernels (cut fresh from 4-5 ears or frozen kernels, defrosted)
1 cup Israeli couscous (or regular if you can’t find it)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. cardamom
2 cups chicken broth plus 1 tsp. chicken base
1/2 cup water (plus more as needed)
2 Tbsp. chopped parsley
1 medium diced tomato
Directions:
Making the “boats”
Preheat oven to 425˚. Grease broiling pan or Pyrex pan with 2 tsp. olive oil. With a spoon, scoop out the centers of most of the zucchini, leaving a 1/4 inch shell. Leave a couple halves whole to chop up later after they have roasted. Rub zucchini with 2 tsp. more of oil. Coarsely chop the scooped out flesh and set aside. Place all zucchini halves, cut side down in the pan. Set aside.
Make the filling
In a skillet, heat 2 tsp. oil over medium heat. Add the shallots, garlic and onion, and cook until softened. Add the chopped zucchini flesh and salt. Cook until liquid evaporates from the zucchini and it begins to brown, about 8 minutes. Add corn and cook until tender, about 2-3 more minutes. Transfer filling to a mixing bowl and set aside. Return pan to heat and add remaining 2 tsp. olive oil. Scrape bits from the bottom of the pan, and reduce heat to low. Add couscous, and toast couscous in the oil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add cumin and cardamom, cook for 1 minute longer. Add broth and 1/2 cup water, heat to boiling. When the liquid is close to boil, lower heat, cover the pan and simmer on low until liquid is absorbed and couscous is tender, about 25 minutes. Check the tenderness of the couscous midway. If it is looking dry and the grains need more time to cook still, add water 1/4 cup at a time as you go, until desired doneness. Fluff and keep warm.
Assembly
As you are finishing the couscous, roast the zucchini in the oven until edges are browned and the flesh is tender-about 15 minutes. Once done, keep warm. Take the few halves you did not scoop out, and roughly chop them in 1 inch pieces and add them to to couscous. Add the corn mixture to the couscous and heat through. Add parsley to the filling and simmer for one more minute. Place the zucchini halves on a platter. Fill with the corn/couscous filling. Sprinkle with diced tomato and serve!
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