Zucchini is a fairly versatile vegetable. It can be fried, stewed, baked. From the pulp of the zucchini, you can cook aromatic soups, mashed potatoes, make delicious pancakes or casseroles. But this simple vegetable is also suitable for preparing a more exotic dish for a festive table - oriental zucchini.
Oriental zucchini: ingredients
This is a slightly unusual dish, very delicate and aromatic. Its filling vaguely resembles pilaf, which is cooked in Central Asia. In order to prepare this dish from zucchini, you need to take:
- 25 grams of couscous;
- ½ teaspoon of butter;
- 1 small zucchini;
- 1 tablespoon of squeezed lemon juice (or half a lemon);
- 1 medium-sized tomato;
- 3 pieces of dried apricots;
- 1 stalk of green onions;
- parsley greens;
- 1 tablespoon of almonds;
- 1 raw egg (yolk);
- 1 teaspoon of olive oil;
- Cayenne pepper;
- salt.
All products are designed for one serving.
Cooking oriental zucchini with couscous, dried apricots, almonds and cayenne pepper
At the first stage of cooking, you will need to mix the couscous with 50 ml of a little salted water, put on the stove and bring to a boil once. Then you must immediately remove the couscous from the heat and leave for 5 minutes so that the cereal swells. Take a fork, add butter and mix everything.
A small milk squash must be washed and carefully cut in half lengthwise. Then it follows with a teaspoon very carefully so as not to damage the delicate walls of the zucchini, select its pulp and chop it into small cubes. Then you need to sprinkle the halves of the zucchini with lemon juice.
You can also grate the zucchini pulp coarsely. In this case, the mass will be too juicy. You will have to squeeze it out a little and drain the excess juice.
The medium tomatoes should be washed and diced, and the green onion feathers should be chopped into rings. You will also need to cut dried apricots into pieces and add to tomatoes and onions. Parsley also needs to be washed and finely chopped.
Stir the squash, tomatoes, one tablespoon of chopped parsley, almonds and couscous in a separate bowl. Separate the yolk from the egg and add it to the overall filling. Mix all ingredients, salt and season with cayenne pepper.
Instead of couscous, you can use long rice, only it will need to be boiled beforehand almost until tender.
Now comes the turn of filling the prepared zucchini halves. Put the minced meat in a slide in the resulting recess and sprinkle the dish with olive oil. Preheat the oven to 200 ° C and bake the stuffed zucchini in it for half an hour.
Finished zucchini can be garnished with fresh herbs. You can also serve sour cream sauce with them. If desired, sour cream can be replaced by yogurt with garlic. The dish looks elegant and tasty, it can decorate a festive feast.
