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

The Modern NonnaThe Modern Nonna
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.
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