If you are like us and have a zucchini plant in your garden, you are probably looking for some creative ways to use up all that zucchini you have right now. So how about switching up your normal taco night with a taco version of zucchini boats? Plus, you are getting a meal with fresh vegetables and all the toppings you like. It’s a win-win.
These can be ready to eat in about 30 minutes and you can top them with whatever goodies you’d like. We used ground beef seasoned with our taco seasoning, but you could use chicken or turkey for this recipe as well. We piled ours high with onions, tomato, avocado, cilantro and salsa, making them a pretty big mouthful. If you are patient and let them cool off for a minute after pulling them out of the oven, you can cut them into pieces to pick up and eat with your hands. That way you can get a good bite filled with all the taco meat and toppings.
Taco Zucchini Boats (Paleo, Whole30 + Keto)
Ingredients
- 3 small zucchini
- 1.5 lbs ground beef
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 1 green pepper, diced
Taco seasoning:
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper
- 1/4 tsp oregano
Toppings:
- 1 avocado, diced
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1/2 cup cilantro, sliced
- 1/2 cup salsa
Instructions
- Prepare taco seasoning by adding all seasoning ingredients to a small bowl or jar and mixing well. Chop onion and bell pepper.
- In a large skillet over medium heat, add the ground beef and onion to the pan to brown. Cook, stirring occasionally until browned about 6-7 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400° Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Cut zucchini in halves or quarters and scoop out the seeds to form a trough in the zucchini and set them aside on your baking sheet.
- Once the beef is almost cooked, add in the peppers and taco seasoning and stir everything together.
- Once the meat is cooked, fill up the zucchini boats with the meat mixture.
- Place baking sheet in the oven and bake for 18 minutes. Prepare toppings while the boats are baking.
- Remove from the oven and cool for a couple minutes, then plate your boats and add the toppings.
I tried these. I made the taco meat a few days earlier and then froze it. Thawed for day of eating. Reheated meat mixture on the stove first. Then put on zucchini’s. When I checked at 18 minutes, the zucchini’s were still hard and meat was starting to dry out. Is there moisture you added to aid the zucchini and keep meat from drying??
We didn’t add any moisture. The cooking time might vary depending on the size of the zucchini and our zucchini was still slightly hard but warmed through. If you are using pre-cooked, thawed meat you can skip the step of re-heating it on the stove. It likely dried out because you’ve essentially cooked it 3 times at that point.
How small are your zucchinis? I think mine are too small….. can barely fit any meat inside after I take the seeds out
Ours were fairly small but enough to get some scoops of meat in them after we scooped out the seeds.