It’s officially zucchini season, which is very obvious if you head out to the farmers market, grocery store or even your garden. They are everywhere.
At first, I feel excited and start baking zucchini breads (with chocolate chips of course), and shredding it and adding it to my salads. But after that, it’s time to get more creative.
That’s where this recipe comes in. It’s perfect because the zucchini takes the spotlight as the main element of the dish, and this recipe can easily be doubled to feed a large crowd.
If you’re new to millet, don’t let that stop you. It’s easy to use, and is a wonderful gluten-free grain that’s fairly easy to digest, and contains a good amount of fiber and protein.
To enhance the flavors even more, I suggest roasting the olives in herbs and garlic before adding to the recipe.
It works perfectly in this recipe, and is a nice break from the usual rice – which you could use, but it will take more vegetable broth and will need 20 more minutes of your time to prepare, as it take longer to cook (unless you have a rice cooker – then it’s pretty quick!)
- 4 zucchini
- 1 cup millet
- 1/4 cup onion chopped
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 1 tomato chopped
- 2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 cup black olives sliced
- In a large sauce pan over medium heat, add onion, broth, tomato sauce, chili powder and millet. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 25 minutes.
- While the millet cooks, preheat your oven to 375 Degrees F. Cut ends off of the zucchini and place in a steamer basket on the stove.
- Steam zucchini for 5 minutes and remove from the heat. Allow to cool.
- Once zucchini is cool, cut in half and hollow out the insides; turning them into boats for your filling.
- Lightly oil a large baking dish, and the insides of the zucchini. Place the squash in the dish and fill each boat with a spoonful of your millet mixture.
- Top boats with olives and tomatoes. Place in the oven to cook for 20 more minutes.
- Enjoy these while they’re hot. Feel free to add salt and pepper before serving.
Did you have fun making this recipe? We have so many more stuffed veggie recipes for your next dinner:
- Creamy Riced Cauliflower Stuffed Peppers
- Marinara Stuffed Eggplant
- Zucchini Mushroom Pepper Boats with Mozzarella
About Sarah Hagstrom
Sarah is a health food advocate and loves to spend her time whipping up something healthy and delicious in the kitchen and then sharing either on Foodal or on her own blog "The Seasonal Diet" (www.theseasonaldiet.com). She lives in Sunny San Diego with her husband, where they enjoy running on the beach and weekend adventures.
I’ve heard of millet, but that’s about as familiar with it as I am. It sounds like a healthy addition to my diet, and I’ll have to look it up, to see if it’s something I can also add to the cat food I make. This sounds like a nice healthy and fairly light meal for the hot Summers, so I’m going to look into getting some and trying it out.
When I looked at the picture the first thing it makes me thing is…. hmmm bland + bland + olives?Then I see 1/8 tsp of chilli powder per boat? Wouldn’t it just taste of chilli?
Has anyone tried this because I am having a lot of trouble imagining what it would taste like and how many people that would appeal to? Let alone as a main course with each person eating two boats. I doubt any of my friends who are not vegan would buy that as a meal in itself….
I think this is a great recipe t try, I am always looking for ways to try new vegatables but sometimes I am not familiar with they shoud be prepared. Thank you for this and of course you can always alter the recipe to what fits for you and your family and seeason to your taste. Looks like it will taste good.
These look really good. I am going to have to try this one. Kind of like a wrap boat. Portia, this is how vegetarians eat. It’s all about abundance. You could eat 15-30 or more no problem as a main meal. It’s not like meat or a bag of potato chips. You could have a large salad and as many of these boats as you want until your full.
Hmm, I’m very curious about this recipe. I like zucchini, but only when it is mixed in with other vegetables. And like Diane Lane, I haven’t heard of millet past knowing the name. It sounds interesting though, and on first glance it looks a bit like rice, but after looking closer it seems to be circular in shape. I might have to give it a try sometime, but I’m tempted to do a test run with rice first to see how much the family and I enjoy it. We don’t actually eat rice a whole lot; I generally stick to traditional whole-wheat pasta for my grains. If I decide to give the suggested grain from the recipe a try though, I’ll come back and give the verdict afterwards. 😉
To be honest this looks pretty good as a nice summer snack, but I don’t really know if it work as a meal by itself.
I mean , it may be very simplistic, but when I think main course, I’m thinking of something that would be substantial enough to satisfy my hunger in or two portions. Now, I do agree that people’s definitions of that vary, but when i look at this recipe, all that comes to mind is a pretty large snack. Perhaps instead of going with two full boats of zucchini, it would be better to cut each one in half and serve as an appetizer instead? That’s just my opinion.
I don’t know whether you’re vegan or not, but many vegan and vegetarian foods don’t look very filling to those who are not vegetarians or vegans. I suppose that this is because vegetables are very light and aren’t necessarily very filling when eaten alone. However, grains and beans can be very filling because of their starch and protein content! If you want to make this a meal, I would suggest that you make sure that you have a good portion of beans and millet inside of the zucchini. Also, you could switch the millet for a grain that is higher in protein, like quinoa, because protein is very filling. I have trouble feeling full if I don’t have a good protein or fat source in my food along with my carbs.
I like the idea of stuffed zucchini. I’ve had stuffed bell peppers and that was great. Although I have never had millet before.
I’ve never had stuffed zucchini OR millet. And I do love zucchini (and olives!), so this is something I must try soon, especially as it’s in season. Thanks for the recipe!
I’ve never tried millet before, but many people have recommended it to me, and I’ve heard that it’s pretty healthy an filling. I love zucchini though, so I think I’ll probably give this a go to try out this particular grain (maybe as a snack rather than a meal though).
Much like the others I have not tried millet before. But I do remember seeing one displayed at a Healthy Options outlet in my place. Anyhow, I’d like to try this one as I’m trying to cut back on my meat. This looks filling and can be eaten on its own. OR, does this go well with some other dish?
Very interesting and zesty recipe. We have large and very cheap summer squash here, I am going to try this stuffing with them instead of zucchini, which are pretty expensive here for some reason. I like to use chile and other hot spices when making non-meat foods, just to add some power to the taste.
This recipe is very unique and so simple to make.
I would love to try it and see if my family likes it.
You could even add some meat to it.
Thanks for sharing.
Well this certainly looks like a winner. I consider myself pretty lucky too in that we can often times get fresh zucchini from our neighbors who have a really intricate vegetable garden, so this would be perfect to share with them should I get the chance. I always like taking what they give and making something delicious for them, and so I think this will be my next one. I love olives and tomatoes, so I am good to go there. Thanks for sharing.
Just now googled ‘millet’ and ‘zucchini’ because I have a lot of them and millet is such a wonderful grain. This popped up and it looks GREAT! Thank you. I’ve already started making it. I was surprised to see the critical comments–I’m sure folks can find plenty of meat recipes; this one is for all the wonderful veggies we have this time of year. THANK YOU!!
Deb, we couldn’t agree with you more! This meat-free recipe lets wholesome vegetables and grains shine! Thank you for trying it – and we hope you enjoyed it!