Vegetarian Zucchini Boats are a delicious way to enjoy zucchini season. Tender zucchini is stuffed with flavorful onions, peppers, and black beans for a filling & satisfying meal!
Why You’ll Love Them
They taste amazing. If you love Mexican-inspired flavor, you’ll love this easy dish. The filling in the center tastes like tacos! It’s a fun alternative to traditional stuffed zucchini made with ground beef, marinara sauce, and mozzarella cheese.
They’re nutrient-dense. Zucchini is an alternative to taco shells or tortillas in this recipe, with extra vitamins and antioxidants in each bite. It’s a light summer meal that will leave you feeling satisfied.
They’re quick to prepare. Instead of baking the filling and zucchini together in the oven all at once, this method cuts the cooking time in half by letting the zucchini bake while you saute the filling in a separate pan on the stove. The result is a meal ready to eat in about 30 minutes.
Ingredients You’ll Need
To make the stuffing, you’ll need red onion, bell pepper, garlic, black beans, and spices, but feel free to use any other vegetables you have on hand. You can swap the bell pepper for tomato, or if you don’t have extra veggies around, you can use the scooped-out zucchini flesh as the filling instead.
Top these with shredded cheese for a quick vegetarian meal, or keep this dairy-free by using vegan cheese or my favorite Vegan Nacho Cheese sauce. Either way, it’s delicious!
How to Make Stuffed Zucchini Boats
1. Prepare the zucchini.
Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Use a sharp knife to cut off the ends of the zucchini squash, then slice them in half lengthwise. (No need to peel!)
Next, use a spoon to scoop out the center of the zucchini, including the small seeds. Leave roughly a 1/2-inch of zucchini flesh inside the boat so they will be sturdy enough to cook in the oven. Reserve the zucchini pulp for another use, like adding it to a zucchini smoothie or oatmeal.
Arrange the zucchini squash halves on a rimmed baking sheet, and bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes or until they are easily pierced with a fork.
2. Prepare the filling.
Once the zucchini is in the oven, add the olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion and pepper until they soften, about 5 to 8 minutes. Then add the garlic, cumin, and chili powder and cook for 1 more minute.
Add in the drained black beans and salt, and stir briefly until everything is piping hot and the vegetables are as tender as you’d like.
3. Assemble the zucchini boats.
Remove the tender zucchini from the oven, and spoon the black bean mixture into each zucchini half. Depending on how many zucchini boats you choose to make, you might not use all the stuffing, and that’s ok! Save the leftovers for an egg scramble or stir fry later.
Sprinkle shredded cheese on top for a cheesy topping and return the zucchini boats to the oven until the cheese has melted, about 5 to 8 more minutes. (Or you can turn on the broiler and watch closely until it is bubbly.)
Looking to make vegan zucchini boats? Use dairy-free shredded cheese or drizzle on some vegan nacho cheese sauce. (There’s a tahini sauce option in the recipe notes, too.)
Frequently Asked Questions
They pair well with a side dish of rice, refried beans, or a salad topped with cilantro lime dressing.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat them in the oven at 350ºF for 15 minutes or until the center is hot again. (Alternatively, you can use the microwave in 30-second intervals.)
Experiment with crumbled tofu for plant-based protein or cooked quinoa for a bean-free alternative. Both might require more salt or seasoning, but you can taste them while cooking the stuffing mixture.
Looking for more zucchini recipes? Try Chocolate Zucchini Muffins, Air Fryer Zucchini, and Zucchini Lasagna for more ideas.
Vegetarian Stuffed Zucchini
Ingredients
Stuffed Zucchini
- 4 medium zucchini
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- ½ red onion , diced
- 1 red bell pepper , diced
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 15 oz. can black beans , drained & rinsed
- ¾ cup shredded cheddar or Vegan Nacho Cheese Sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Slice the top and bottom ends off of each zucchini squash, then slice them in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop out the center seeds of each squash, creating a crevice that will hold the black bean filling. Arrange the squash halves, cut-side-up, on a large baking sheet and bake them at 350ºF until very tender, about 20 minutes.
- While the squash is baking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and saute the onion and pepper until they soften, about 5 to minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, and chili powder and stir for 1 more minute.
- Add the black beans and salt, and continue cooking until everything is heated. Turn off the heat and let the vegetables sit in the warm pan until the zucchini has finished cooking.
- Fill each cooked zucchini half with a generous amount of the black bean mixture to assemble the zucchini boats. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top, or drizzle the nacho cheese sauce over them for a vegan option. Return the zucchini to the oven until the cheese is warm, about 5 more minutes.
- Serve the zucchini boats warm, with freshly chopped cilantro on top. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 1/4 cup water
- 4 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1/4 teaspoon each: salt, turmeric, chili powder
Nutrition
If you try these Vegetarian Zucchini Boats, please leave a comment and star rating below, letting me know how you like them!
It’s okay to combine beans and tahini? I thought that was improper food combining.
No, technically beans and tahini are miscombined, but since you’re adding water to the tahini and it’s drizzled in small amounts, it really shouldn’t slow down the digestive process much. (In general, the more hydrated a food, the easier it digests.)
I made this tonight and both my husband and I loved it!!!!! It was super fast and easy to make.
I made this tonight, and when I put it on the table, my 10- and 6-year olds immediately told me how they “do not like zucchini”. I asked them to give it a try, and they ended up enjoying it (although they did tell me how they liked the filling more than the zucchini 😊). This was a very tasty and quick meal that we will be making again. Great way to use some of those zucchini from our garden. Thanks once again, Megan!
I made this tonight and it was delicious! I added diced carrots and celery to the filling and sprinkled finely grated cheese on top. Thank you for the great recipe!
I’ve made this twice so far and love it. I used hard sheep cheese for topping though. I also put more chilli powder in. Great recipe which will become a regular in my diet.
Thank you
Great recipe. You have to try the version that uses the zucchini guts in the filling.
Yes! I added the seeded portion back to it before I added the garlic and it was amazing!
OMG!!!! THIS IS AMAZING!!! The tahini sauce tastes like CHEESE!!! I have been vegan for a week now and this recipe will definitely be apart of my meal plan as often as possible!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!
Very good! Thanks so much for sharing this awesome recipe.
This is absolutely delicious (with either zucchini or yellow squash). I was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and have radically (and I do mean RADICALLY) changed my diet and lifestyle in order to literally save my life. This recipe is chock-full of all the healthy things that I now eat, and it tastes divine. Thank you for posting it.
I’m a potbelly guy determined to eradicate it from me, I’m not a vegan but I substitute the fasting period in my diet to a full vegan diet. I find it a lot of fun and follow your recipes to the dot. Thanks guys.
I have tahini sauce at home instead of raw tahini. Has anyone made the tahini cheese sauce with tahini sauce?
How long will this last in the fridge?
I think they’d last up to 5 days.
That cheese sauce is sensational. It almost reminds me of gruyere or a Quattro formaggi!
Fabulous recipe! I added (extra firm) tofu scramble and pico de gallo to the veggies… luckily, I had doubled the recipe!
I tried this today and it was lovely! I’ve been vegan for a year and a half now and I still really struggle trying to find things I like so I’ve definitely bookmarked this recipe.
I find I never luke tahini based sauces so I left that out and I actually saved the stuff I’d scraped out of the zucchinis and put it in with the rest of the stuff in the frying pan, about 2 mins before I turned the heat off. I think doing that really helped because it seemed to absorb all the flavours really well.
Thanks very much, I’ll be having this again 🙂
Thank you for having such amazing and easy recipes to make! This zucchini was delicious and filling!
Yum! I made these without the yeast because I didn’t have any on hand, but added a little cayenne instead. The sauce was delicious anyway and the whole thing cane together really well. Easy, fast, affordable, tasty.
Tasty, colorful and fun to make. Added mushrooms, carrots and sliced black olives to the filling.
Love the vegan cheese sauce! Wonderful coloring and tangy flavor.
Delicious! We used our summer zucchini! The tahini cheese sauce was da best! Highly recommend making a double batch.
I’ve made this twice for family parties and it’s been a hit for vegetarians and non-vegetarians. It’s easy to make the filling and zucchini boats in advance, then heat in the oven when ready. I have not made the sauce but instead topped with a homemade cashew sour cream.
I LOVED this! I’ve tried so many vegan recipes that disappointed me, and this was definitely not one of them. I made a half-batch and followed the recipe except for the tumeric, because I didn’t have any, and I also added back in the scooped-out left-over zucchini.
Very tasty and filling. The tahini sauce didn’t taste like cheese to me, but I don’t care, the flavor was delicious. I don’t really see the point of comparing faux versions of foods to their “real” counterpart, but to each their own I guess.
Just made this and it t is so good. Thank you for the recipe.
If I do not have “raw” tahini do I need to make adjustments using regular tahini?
I would just taste it as you go and adjust the seasoning as you like. Roasted tahini has a stronger flavor, so it won’t be as “neutral” as the raw version.
Delicious! I made the boats in the toaster oven to avoid turning on the oven and it worked great. I also added brown rice to the mixture because I had it on hand. Light yet comforting meal!
I made this for my husband as he is vegetarian, I had my kids try the filling and they loved it. I will definitely make this again.
This was so delicious!!!! The vegan cheese sauce was 🔥 fire! I didn’t have tahini. So I used some hummus from the fridge. This will not last long in my fridge. I ate half of it already.
I loved this recipe and so did my husband. I used Garbanzo beans instead of black beans. It was great.
I honestly wasn’t sure if I would like this but it actually is the most delicious meal I’ve made in months. I wanted to eat all of it rather than save some for leftovers. I omitted the chili powder but kept everything else as is. I will definitely be sharing this recipe.
What a tasty dish! Quick to prepare and absolutely delicious!!
Made this tonight! Just subbed the red bell for some matchstick carrots that I had on hand, topped with a little avocado and the tahini sauce surprisingly satisfied my cheese craving. My husband devoured his too. Will be making again!
delicious!! i used summer squash and zucchini, both were great.
I made these but exchanged black beans for garbanzos. It turned out delicious .. i did a mix of the sauce and mozzarella cheese for the hubs!
We loved this!
I made zucchini boats last year and we all found them disappointing. Not so with this recipe! Super flavorful.
I reserved the scooped middles for use in tomorrow’s enchiladas and added cauliflower rice and quinoa to the recipe. I found my onion had gone bad, so had to substitute 1/2 t onion powder. I also used shredded cheddar instead of the tahini sauce. So, really, what I took from your recipe were the method and the spice blend and those both worked beautifully!
Thank you for inspiring me to give zucchini boats another go. We’ll have these on rotation through zucchini season.
Sooo good! We added ground beef.