Skip to Content

Lasagna Stuffed Zucchini Boats

June 10, 2024

These lasagna-stuffed zucchini boats are much healthier than their carby counterparts and come together easily, making them perfect for dinner any night of the week.

Categories

lasagna stuffed zucchini boats with mozzarella

Stuffed Zucchini? Stuffed Zucchini!

If you’ve never had a stuffed zucchini, you are in for a treat. It’s one of our favorite go-to recipes when we are craving comfort food, but don’t want to overload on carbs. Although this recipe is called “lasagna-stuffed zucchini”, we don’t mean that you should stuff hollowed-out zucchini with slices of lasagna. Rather, we mean that we’ve taken inspiration from classic lasagna filling flavors—all that cheesy, tomato sauce-y goodness—and applied it to this much healthier zucchini recipe. We especially love to make the stuffed zucchini in the summer, when zucchini is bountiful and you can always find a neighbor or friend who is giving them away by the (zucchini) boat-load.

hands scooping flesh out if the center of a zucchini
a baking dish with zucchini halves

What Is a Zucchini Boat?

Zucchini boats are the perfect use for medium-to-large zucchini. Those huge, honking, borderline-scary zucchini lurking in the garden? This recipe exists to use those over-achieving veggies up. We call these zucchini “boats” because they are made by halving the zucchini lengthwise, carefully scooping out all of the seeds, and then filling the concave area that results—the “boat”—full of rich, savory goodness.

zucchini halved filled with ricotta and spinach
lasagna stuffed zucchini boats

What Should I Put Into My Zucchini Boat?

Stuffed zucchini walks an interesting line. It’s a little indulgent—we don’t skimp on the cheese—but it’s mostly a healthy dinner that celebrates summers’ bounty. With that in mind, our favorite zucchini boat ingredients are:

  • Ground chicken
  • Red bell pepper
  • Jar marinara sauce
  • Fresh spinach
  • Garlic
  • Egg
  • Parsley
  • Zucchinis
  • Three kinds of cheese! Parmesan cheese, fresh mozzarella and ricotta.

How to Make Lasagna-Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Here’s what makes our recipe a little extra special:

  • We use not one, but three kinds of cheese: Parmesan, mozzarella and ricotta.
  • To keep things light and healthy, ground chicken is our meat of choice for these zucchini boats. Lean, filling, and protein-packed.
  • Jarred marinara sauce! Because you’ve got to do all of that zucchini scooping and that’s plenty of work.
  • Add a few more veggies—like bell peppers and spinach—for good measure.
lasagna stuffed zucchini boats
zucchini studded with lasagna filling, mozzarella and spinach

Do Zucchini Boats Reheat Well?

Yes, they do! We speak from experience when we say that as long as you don’t bake the zucchini boats too long the first time around, they stay sturdy enough to have for lunch the next day, which is actually one of our favorite things about them. The filling makes enough to fill four zucchini, cut down the center. While baking, we make sure to take the zucchini boats out while they still have a bite to them. Then, the next day we reheat whatever is left in the oven to achieve a top with bubbly, crispy cheese. But, if you’re in a real hurry, a quick zap in the microwave does the trick for equally delicious results.

lasagna stuffed zucchini boats

Tools You Will Need.

More Zucchini Recipes To Love.

Because when zucchini season hits, it hits hard.

zucchini stuffed zucchini boats
lasagna stuffed zucchini boats on a plate

Whatever Floats Your (Zucchini) Boat!

When you decide to give these Lasagna Stuffed Zucchini Boats a try, we’d love to hear about it! Be sure to snap a photo, add it to your Instagram feed or stories, and tag @themodernproper and #themodernproper.

💌 Let's Stay Together

There are so many great ways to receive all of our latest recipes, meal tips, and inspiration.

Lasagna Stuffed Zucchini Boats

  • Serves:  6
  • Prep Time:  30 min
  • Cook Time:  40 min
  • Calories:  343

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground chicken
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 24 oz jar marinara sauce
  • 8 oz ricotta cheese
  • 1 1/2 cups fresh spinach, chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, minced, divided
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp Pepper
  • 4 medium zucchinis, cut in half lengthwise, centers scooped out
  • 8 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • red pepper flakes, optional

Method

  1. Heat your oven to 375° F.
  2. In a large skillet, brown the ground chicken until no pink remains. Stir in 3/4 of the pasta sauce and bell pepper. Let simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, gently mix the ricotta cheese, spinach, garlic, egg, 1 tablespoon of parsley, salt and pepper until thoroughly incorporated.
  4. Slice zucchini lengthwise and carefully scoop out the center with a spoon to create a shell or boat. Place zucchini skin side down in a baking dish.
  5. Fill each zucchini with equal amounts of the chicken mixture. Then dollop the ricotta mixture on top of the chicken. Place a few thin sliced of fresh mozzarella on each zucchini half. Spread the remaining pasta sauce over the zucchini boats and top with 1/2 of the parmesan cheese.
  6. Bake 35 minutes or until zucchini is tender and cheese is bubbly.
  7. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of parsley and parmesan cheese.

Nutrition Info

  • Per Serving
  • Amount
  • Calories 343
  • Protein 27 g
  • Carbohydrates 14 g
  • Total Fat 20 g
  • Dietary Fiber 3 g
  • Cholesterol 117 mg
  • sodium 458 mg
  • Total Sugars 5 g

Lasagna Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Questions & Reviews

Join the discussion below.

or
  • Mallory

    Hi! in one of then pictures it looks like the ricotta mixture was layered first can I do it that way? Ricotta then meat then sauce then mozzarella?

    Sure! Should work fine either way. Hope you enjoy Mallory!

  • Barbara

    Could you use Italian sausage or would it be too greasy.

    You could but we would definitely drain it before adding anything else in with it.

  • Robin

    Love your zucchini boats! In the photo it looks as if you dolloped some pesto over the top….is that the case?

    Yes, Robin! Totally optional.

  • Susan

    Do you have a favorite recipe using the scooped out zucchini?

    Hi Susan, you could sauté it with some olive oil and garlic or use it for our zucchini creamy pasta.

  • Frank

    do you think I could sub ground turkey . thanks for this great recipe

    You definitely could!

  • Tammy

    I made this with ground beef and we loved it. Thank you

    THanks Tammy, so happy you enjoyed it!

  • Tammy

    I made this with ground beef and we loved it. Thank you!

    So glad! Thanks Tammy!

  • Hollie

    I've been having to watch my glucose levels recently and eagerly tried this recipe as an alternative to our usual carb-y lasagna. I used sweet Italian sausage instead of ground chicken, which was delish. My skeptical husband even enjoyed it, so it's now become part of our meal rotation.

    Thanks Hollie! We are so glad you both loved it!

  • Josh

    Delicious! I substituted cottage cheese for ricotta (I like it better) and used preshredded mozz. We really really really enjoyed this meal and will make it again.

    Thank you Josh, so glad you enjoyed it!

  • Kaykay

    This was delicious! We loved it. Very easy to prepare "lasagna" with a pasta-free twist. I used my own homemade sauce which already had ground beef in it, but it still tasted great. Thanks for the recipe!

    Thanks Kay, we are so glad you loved this!