Bulgarian Inspired Stuffed Zucchini Rolls with Meat and Rice

If you love cabbage rolls or stuffed peppers you are going to love our recipe. These are my mom’s creation and we use a very similar meat and rice mixture that we usually make our stuffed peppers and cabbage rolls with. These are incredibly easy and can we made with any spices or herbs you love. This recipe makes 20-25 rolls depending on the size of your zucchini. You will need:

Bulgarian inspired stuffed zucchini rolls with meat and rice by the modern nonna stuffed zucchini rolls with meat and rice

Bulgarian Inspired Stuffed Zucchini Rolls with Meat and Rice

Themodernnonnathemodernnonna
If you love cabbage rolls or stuffed peppers you are going to love our recipe. These are my mom’s creation and we use a very similar meat and rice mixture that we usually make our stuffed peppers and cabbage rolls with. These are incredibly easy and can we made with any spices or herbs you love. This recipe makes 20-25 rolls depending on the size of your zucchini. You will need:
5 from 1 vote

Ingredients
  

The Zucchini:

  • 5 medium zucchini’s
  • drizzle of olive oil for the zucchini
  • sprinkle of salt

The rest of the dish:

  • 2-3 tablespoons olive oil in the pan
  • 1 small very finely diced onion
  • 3 garlic cloves finely diced
  • salt pepper, paprika to taste
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • ½ cup jasmine rice or any
  • 350 grams ground meat of choice we love pork but you can use any
  • 1 cup sauce marinara
  • cup water or to the rim of the zucchini

Instructions
 

  • Cut the zucchini into 1/4 inch slices and place on a baking dish. Sprinkle with salt and olive oil on each side. Bake at 425F until soft — 15 min.
  • Place on paper towel to absorb any moisture and to cool off. In the meantime sauté the onion in a little bit of oil on medium-high heat.
  • Add the garlic, spices and stir. Add the tomato paste and stir. Add the rice and stir. Once it’s all incorporated take it off the heat.
  • Let it cool a touch and add it to your ground meat and mix well. Take the zucchini slices and add about 1 tablespoon of meat into each one and roll them up.
  • Add tomato sauce to a baking dish (mine is 10 by 10) and arrange the rolls. Sauce on top and add the water to the rim of the rolls.
  • Cover with foil and bake at 425F covered for 15 minutes and uncovered for another 15 or until the rice is cooked. Garnish with parsley or dill and enjoy

Notes

You need some water in the dish so that we can cook the rice and meat. This recipe will work with eggplant too and you can absolutely grill them instead of bake them or even shallow fry them too.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
If you love one of my recipes, please leave a review. It would mean so much to me if you did. Thank you for being here and bringing me into your kitchen.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

On Key

Recent Posts

Orzo Pasta Salad

There’s a secret to making the most refreshing summertime orzo pasta salad! My secret ingredient is freshly squeezed orange juice. The orange juice gives this

Read More »

Pickled Onions

Making pickled onions is easier than you think. Did you know you only need one ingredient and 2 minutes of time to make the BEST

Read More »