There are many variations to this all-time favorite Lebanese dish. So today I will be sharing with you my recipe, which is based on the way we make it in my family, and the way I usually prefer it.

Difficulty: Hard

Cooking Time: ~ 1h 30mns

Ingredients

You will be needing the following ingredients:

• Lebanese Zucchini
• Rice
• Minced beef
• Tomatoes
• Tomato paste
• Onions
• Garlic
• Beef bouillon
• Lebanese 7 spices
• Bay leaf

Some optional ingredients:

• Chilli Peppers
• Lemon peal
• Greek Yogurt

Tools

• A corer: A tool used to empty the insides of a zucchini. It is an essential tool in this recipe.
• A large pot
• Bowls
• A flat plate

Notes

• The zucchinis used in this recipe need to be Lebanese zucchinis. They are light green and small. They should also be wide enough to be cored.
• The insides of the zucchinis can be used to make other recipes like: zucchinis with eggs.
• It is generally difficult to estimate how much stuffing you will need for the zucchini, so the general rule is to prepare extra. In case of leftover stuffing, you can cook them in a pan with some liquid from the main dish.

Instructions

1- Coring the zucchini. It is important to be careful with this step. You want to empty the insides of the zucchini, all while making sure they do not break or you do not pierce them.

2- Preparing the stuffing. For this step, you will need: Rice, meat, finely diced tomatoes, finely diced onions, finely diced garlic (or minced garlic), 7 spices, beef bouillon, and some salt and pepper. Chilli peppers can be added to the mix as well. In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients together until well combined.

The idea is to properly season the stuffing so that it is flavorful and not bland.

3- Stuffing the zucchinis. Now that we made our filling, it is time to stuff our zucchinis. This step depends on your meat-to-rice ratio. I generally use 1 cup of rice (or even less) for 500g of beef because I like it to be richer in meat than in rice. The more rice in your stuffing the less you should stuff your zucchini.

In all cases, it is important to keep some unfilled space in your zucchini as the rice will expand when cooked and will end up overflowing.

4- Putting it all together. It is time to combine everything and put them all in a pot to start cooking.

For this step, I usually cut some onion and tomato slices to put in the bottom of the pot, as well as a lemon peal, bay leaf, and 1 or 2 bouillon cubes.

Next, I stack the zucchinis on top of the onions and tomato slices, making sure to have even layer as much as possible.

To that, I add some tomato paste and minced garlic.

5- Cooking the zucchinis. In order to cook the zucchinis, it is important to place a plate that is heavy enough to make sure they won’t float on top of the water, to make sure that they cook evenly. Add water to the pot, enough to cover the zucchinis. Bring everything to a boil for 5 minutes, then lower the heat to medium then let it simmer for around 30+ minutes, until the rice and beef are cooked and the zucchinis become soft.

Serving Suggestions

Best served alone, or with some greek yogurt.