Alright. I’m just going to put this out there: This stuffed zucchini recipe is so good it almost made me convert to Judaism. I was all set to talk to a Rabbi, but then I was told that this recipe had nothing at all to do with Judaism. It turns out my friend Elizabeth (who actually did recently convert), served this at her Passover dinner because her sister and I are both vegetarians.
So even though I tried this recipe for the first time while we were waiting for Elijah to show up, you can serve it whenever you want. In fact, I had my family over for dinner and made it myself the very next week. She got the recipe from YumSugar, and it completely blew my mind: stuffed zucchini? Quinoa? Cannellini beans? I don’t even know what those are! I’ll tell you what though. The combination? Delicious.
This recipe is great because you can basically do whatever you want with it. Can’t find quinoa in the grocery store? Use cous cous. Don’t like almonds? Use walnuts. Do you want to use blue cheese instead of Parmesan? Go on; I won’t tell.
As is my wont when I make something new, I stuck pretty close to the recipe. However, two cloves of garlic didn’t seem like nearly enough, so I used four or five. Luke told me that there is a such thing as too much garlic when it’s raw, but I told him he was being stupid. I was right; it wasn’t even close to being too much garlic.
Then end result is a colorful, relatively healthy, delicious and filling vegetarian main course. It’s also ridiculously easy to make. You need a small saucepan to cook the quinoa, and you mix everything else into that. Then you spoon the topping into your hollowed-out zucchini halves and stick it in the oven. It’s brilliant.
It’s so good, in fact, that I’m going to halve the recipe tonight and make myself dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow. If you’re in the mood for a meatless entree that doesn’t involve a meat substitute, you seriously cannot go wrong with this. Religious affiliation not required.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Apr 29, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Kona, I am not a vegetarian, but must admit some of your recipes sound very yummy, this one I might have to try myself. I also want to thank-you for responding to Jeffs dig on your veggie chili, you didn’t let me down, The bantering between the 2 of you is very funny and keeps me reading. Keep up the good work.
Sounds like all it will take to send you over to Judaism at this point is one bite of sweet potato kugel.
See my latest Hold The Meat post, and you will see how wrong you are. However, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do for a good meringue cookie (another thing I had at my first seder).
I’ll have to find our recipe for stuffed zucchini … it’s got pine nuts and currants and cheese, so really, what more could you want?
Oh, that sounds great! I made stuffed zucchini last week, filled with cottage cheese, onions (I’m thinking you’d skip those), cheddar, almonds, and a few other odds and ends. They were great and the family loved them. But quinoa? teeny tomatoes? garlic? Mmmm… I can hardly wait to try this one out.
(Having read your later post on sweet potatoes, Andrea’s comment made me laugh out loud. I’m thinking Judaism is safe from you for the moment…)