This delicious Taco Zucchini Boats recipe uses fresh zucchini stuffed with taco meat and all your favorite toppings.
This Taco Boats recipe is easy to make. Using zucchini boats instead of taco shells is a low carb way to enjoy tacos.
If you want to make these as keto zucchini boats, all you need to do is leave out the black beans.
This recipe uses lean ground beef, but what is great is that you can substitute ground chicken or ground turkey if you prefer.
When I cook I love when there is lots of color in a dish. Just look at these beautiful zucchini tacos!
You can make these taco stuffed zucchini boats your own with additional taco toppings: sour cream, avocado slices and if you want to spice it up add some Mexican hot sauce.
How to Make Zucchini Boats
Here is the easy process of how to make these zucchini taco boats.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Assemble your ingredients.
Using a spoon, scoop the centers out of the zucchini halves, making sure to leave a 1/4-inch on the outside to create the boats.
Place the zucchini in two baking dishes. Brush them with 1 Tablespoon of the olive oil and season them lightly using the ⅛ teaspoon salt across all of them.
Place the baking dishes in the preheated oven and bake them until nearly tender, about 18 – 22 minutes. They should not be browned at all. Remove them from the oven, but leave the oven on at 400 degrees F.
Heat the remaining 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the yellow onion and sauté for 3 minutes.
Add the ground beef and the garlic to the onion and cook. While it is cooking break up the ground beef until it is in taco meat sized bits and cooked thoroughly. Drain any grease if needed.
Stir in the taco seasoning and water and heat to boiling, then reduce the heat to simmer.
Immediately after reducing the heat, stir in the tomato sauce and black beans.
Let the mixture simmer until the sauce has reduced to a thick beefy paste, about 3-5 minutes, then remove from the heat.
Spoon the beef taco filling into the zucchini boats.
Sprinkle the cheese over the top of each boat.
Return the boats back into oven and bake until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with tomatoes, red onions and cilantro or any of your favorite toppings.
Serve and enjoy!
If you want a great low carb side dish for these zucchini boats, I would recommend Mexican cauliflower rice.
Taco Zucchini Boats Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 medium-sized zucchini with the stems trimmed - sliced into halves lengthwise (about 2 lbs. of zucchini)
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil - divided
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup sweet yellow onion - chopped
- 1 lb. 90% lean ground beef
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 package taco seasoning for 1 lb. ground beef
- 2/3 cup water
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 3/4 cups drained and rinsed canned low sodium black beans
- 1 Tablespoon minced cilantro
- 1 1/4 cups shredded Mexican cheese
- 2 medium roma tomatoes - diced
- 1/2 cup red onions - chopped
- Optional Toppings: sour cream - avocado slices and Mexican hot sauce
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
- Using a spoon, scoop the centers out of the zucchini halves, making sure to leave a 1/4-inch on the outside to create the boats.
- Place the zucchini in two baking dishes. Brush them with 1 Tablespoon of the olive oil and season them lightly using the ⅛ teaspoon salt across all of them.
- Place the baking dishes in the preheated oven and bake them until nearly tender, about 18 - 22 minutes. They should not be browned at all. Remove them from the oven, but leave the oven on at 400 degrees F.
- Heat the remaining 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a 12-inch non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the yellow onion and sauté for 3 minutes.
- Add the ground beef and the garlic to the onion and cook. While it is cooking break up the ground beef until it is in taco meat sized bits and cooked thoroughly. Drain any grease if needed.
- Stir in the taco seasoning and water and heat to boiling, then reduce the heat to simmer.
- Immediately after reducing the heat, stir in the tomato sauce and black beans.
- Let the mixture simmer until the sauce has reduced to a thick beefy paste, about 3-5 minutes, then remove from the heat.
- Spoon the beef taco filling into the zucchini boats.
- Sprinkle the cheese over the top of each boat.
- Return the boats back into oven and bake until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle with tomatoes, red onions and cilantro.
- Serve and enjoy!
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