This colourful, vegan Baked Stuffed Quinoa Zucchini with Blackberries is full of deliciously refreshing flavours. These zucchini boats make a fantastic healthy appetizer, whatever the occasion!
I am not a massive fan of blackberries. I have an incorrigibly sweet tooth and for me raw blackberries are just not sweet enough. So I go for raspberries or blueberries most of the time.
But I felt that blackberries would be perfect in this easy zucchini boats recipe. In fact blackberries are the star of this recipe. Some of their tartness disappears in the cooking and what remains is sweet and zesty berry burst, which really lifts the bland zucchinis.
The coconut milk and almond flakes add more sweetness and a bit of crunch to this stuffed zucchini boats recipe.
If you are a fan of blackberries you may also like these healthy, delicious Blackberry Prune Squares.
Easy baked stuffed zucchini with quinoa
Quinoa is a hugely versatile ingredient, perfect in salads, side dishes and appetizers. It adds bulk, yet is light and never overpowering. It works really well with all the other ingredients in these baked zucchini boats.
You’ll save time if you cook the quinoa ahead and, once cooled, refrigerate it (for up to 3 days), until you are ready to make the recipe.
This healthy stuffed zucchini recipe is really easy to put together. Simply scoop out the middle from the zucchinis and pop them in the oven for 15 minutes. Combine the pulp with the other stuffing ingredients, remove the zucchinis from the oven, top with the stuffing mixture and bake for another 15 minutes. And that’s all there is to it!
Be generous with the seasoning – zucchini needs plenty of it! Serve these stuffed zucchini boats as an appetizer or side, either hot or cold (I prefer it chilled). Enjoy!
If you are a fan of zucchini you may also like this easy Grilled Pineapple Zucchini Summer Salad.
If you make this recipe don’t forget to let me know in the comments below! I’d love to know how it turned out! Your feedback is always appreciated! Thanks!
This colourful, vegan Baked Stuffed Quinoa Zucchini with Blackberries is full of deliciously refreshing flavours - they make a fantastic, healthy appetizer, whatever the occasion!
- 4 medium/large zucchinis
- 200 g fresh blackberries roughly chopped
- 2/3 cup cooked quinoa a little less than 1
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons cilantro finely chopped plus more for serving
- 100 g coconut milk
- 1/3 cup almond flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt plus a bit more for sprinkling, plenty of pepper
- Olive oil and a little lemon juice for drizzling
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Preheat the oven to 425 F/ 20 C/ gas mark 7. Cut the zucchinis in half lengthways and scoop out the pulp leaving around 5 mm thickness around the edges (use a spoon or a melon baller to do this). Finely chop 2/3 of the pulp and set aside (you can add the remaining pulp to another dish, such as pasta sauce for example).
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Place the zucchini halves (open side up) on a baking tray, season with a bit of salt and pepper, drizzle with a little olive oil and bake for 15 minutes. In the meantime prepare the stuffing mixture.
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In a bowl combine the blackberries, quinoa, garlic, coconut milk, coriander, zucchini pulp, almond flakes, salt and pepper. Stir thoroughly. Remove the zucchini halves from the oven, stuff with the mixture and bake for another 15 minutes.
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Serve hot or cold. Drizzle with a bit of oil and/or lemon juice, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and enjoy!
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RECIPE LINK PARTIES
I am bringing this Baked Stuffed Quinoa Zucchini with Blackberries to #simpleandinseason hosted by feedingboys.co.uk.
Gosh this is beautiful and something I would never have thought to put together. I’m really looking forward to the blackberries coming into season up here… brambling is one of my fave things to do with my kids! Thanks for hooking up with this month’s Simple and in Season 🙂
Thank you so much Hannah, blackberries are really versatile and I can’t get enough of them this summer, I’ll be posting another blackberry recipe this week:)
Oh I absolutely love the sound of this recipe – what a wonderful combination of flavours! I went to a Madeleine Shaw event earlier this year about cooking with berries and she had some wonderful ideas for cooking with berries too, might be worth you hunting them out for ideas. We made a celeriac, quinoa and raspberry dish for lunch with her which was just unbelievably delicious. Thanks for linking up with #CookBlogShare
Thanks Mandy, and thank you for sharing that, I will definitely take a closer look at her recipes:)
What a gorgeous recipe although I have always loved blackberries – they remind me of my childhood as we used to pick them in summer and made so many things with them!
Thanks Corina, I’m going to try to include blackberries in my diet a lot more from now on:)