These healthy stuffed zucchini boats are stuffed with a mixture of ground turkey, parmesan, and onions and topped with breadcrumbs.
Turkey Stuffed Zucchini
If you haven’t noticed, I am a huge zucchini fan. When my garden is overflowing with zucchini in the summer, I love to make stuffed zucchini for dinner. They’re delicious, nutritious, and easy filled with a ground turkey stuffing. You can even meal prep them to save time right before dinner. I have a ton of zucchini recipes, including these Sausage Stuffed Zucchini and Veggie Lasagna Zucchini Boats.
I Love Making Stuffed Zucchini!
Zucchini is one of my favorite vegetables and stuffing them opens the possibilities for so many variations. I have tons of variation here on my website from Enchilada Stuffed Zucchini Boats, Turkey Taco Stuffed Zucchini, just to name a few. This recipe was the first one I tested many years ago, and it’s a great basic recipe to start with, but you can play around with variations. Here’s some more ideas:
- Mediterranean Stuffed Zucchini: Fill zucchini boats with a mixture of seasoned ground lamb or tueky, crumbled feta cheese, chopped tomatoes, Kalamata olives, and fresh mint.
- Sun-Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Stuffed Zucchini: Saute chopped sun-dried tomatoes with garlic and spinach. Mix with crumbled goat cheese and fresh herbs like basil or oregano. Stuff the mixture into halved zucchini and bake until tender.
- Breakfast Stuffed Zucchini: Sauté eggs with diced bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, and crumbled cooked sausage. Fill the mixture into hollowed-out zucchinis and top with cheese.
- Pizza Stuffed Zucchini: Fill the hollowed zucchini with marinara sauce, Italian sausage, and cheese and bake. Finish with fresh basil.
I’d love to hear some of your ideas in the comments! And if you make these stuffed zucchini boats, I would love to see them! Tag me in your photos on Instagram or Facebook!
Stuffed Zucchini Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need for this simple stuffed zucchini recipe. See exact measurements in recipe card below.
- Zucchini: Try to buy zucchini that are about the same size so you can have equal-sized zucchini boats. Mine were all approximately 6 ounces. And don’t worry about wasting any vegetables—the zucchini flesh goes in the turkey stuffing.
- Butter: Sauté the onions, shallots, and garlic in butter.
- Onions: Finely dice half of an onion and a shallot. I used both for maximum onion flavor.
- Garlic: Crushing garlic cloves gives them a more robust flavor than mincing them.
- White Wine: When cooking with wine, choose any dry white wine that’s good enough for drinking.
- Ground Turkey: Buy 93% ground turkey for a lean protein without much fat that’s not dry.
- Egg White: The egg white binds the ground turkey and breadcrumbs while adding lean protein.
- Parmesan adds a nutty aroma and creaminess.
- Chicken Broth: Pour the broth into the bottom of the baking dish to help steam the zucchini.
- Breadcrumbs: Sprinkle seasoned breadcrumbs on the stuffing for a crispy topping.
- Spices: Salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning season the turkey and zucchini mixture.
How to Make Stuffed Zucchini
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
- Prep the Zucchini: Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out the flesh with a spoon or melon baller. Place the zucchini in a 9” x 13” baking dish and chop the scooped-out flesh into small pieces.
- Aromatics: Sauté the onion, shallot, and garlic in melted butter in a large skillet on medium-low for a few minutes.
- Zucchini and Turkey: Add the chopped zucchini, season with a pinch of salt, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour in the wine and cook until it reduces. Add the ground turkey, season with salt and pepper, and cook until the turkey’s cooked through. Sprinkle with paprika, garlic powder, and
Italian seasoning, and cook for another minute. Set aside to cool. - Parmesan and Egg: Mix the cheese and egg white into the turkey.
- Stuff the Zucchini: Spoon the turkey stuffing into the hollowed zucchini and top with breadcrumbs.
- Bake: Pour the chicken broth into the baking dish, cover with foil, and bake for 35 minutes.
Variations and Tips
- Zucchini: Sub yellow squash.
- Stuffed Zucchini Boats with Ground Beef: Substitute 90% or 93% lean ground beef.
- Italian Sausage: Replace ground turkey with Italian chicken or turkey sausage—Remove it from the casings, and don’t season it with salt.
- Onions: If you don’t have both an onion and a shallot, double the amount of the one you do have. You can also use a red onion.
- Cheese: Swap parmesan with Pecorino Romano or shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Can’t eat cheese? Skip it or use a dairy-free cheese.
- Breadcrumbs: I like 4C’s seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs, but you can use whatever kind you have. If you use unseasoned ones, add onion powder, garlic powder, and dried herbs to them.
- Gluten-Free: Buy gluten-free breadcrumbs or omit them.
- No onion powder? Replace it with garlic powder.
- No Italian seasoning? Use a mix of dried herbs to make your own.
- Herbs: Add fresh herbs, like rosemary or oregano.
- If the stuffing doesn’t brown, remove the foil and broil for 1 to 2 minutes.
What to Serve with Stuffed Zucchini
One serving of this healthy stuffed zucchini recipe contains almost 32 grams of protein, so it’s filling, to say the least! Below are some side dish ideas if you want to add a carb or a couple of easy salads if you want an extra veggie.
How to Meal Prep Stuffed Zucchini
You can do some of the prep ahead of time to make getting dinner on the table faster and easier.
- Prep the zucchini, make the stuffing, and assemble the boats the day before.
- The next day, bake the turkey zucchini boats in the oven before dinner.
- If you will be short on time the day you are serving them, bake the zucchini for 25 minutes the day before and finish baking them right before dinner to reheat them.
Storage
Store the stuffed zucchini in the refrigerator for 4 days or in the freezer for 3 months. To reheat, thaw them in the fridge and reheat in the oven or microwave.
More Stuffed Zucchini Recipes You’ll Love
- Turkey Santa Fe Zucchini Boats
- Taco Stuffed Zucchini Boats
- Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats
- Chicken Enchilada Stuffed Zucchini Boats
- Colombian-Style Zucchini Rellenos
Turkey Stuffed Zucchini
Ingredients
- 4 medium zucchini, 6 to 7 ounces each
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 1/2 small onion, finely diced
- 1 shallot, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 oz white wine
- 1.3 lb ground turkey, 20.8 oz
- 1 large egg white
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons whole wheat seasoned breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- Salt and fresh pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and using a spoon or melon baller, scoop out flesh, leaving 1/4" thick. Arrange in a baking dish.
- Chop the scooped out flesh of the zucchini in small pieces.
- In a large skillet, melt the butter and add onion, shallot and garlic. Cook on a medium-low for about 2-3 minutes, until onions are translucent.
- Add chopped zucchini and season with a pinch of salt, cook about 2-3 minutes.
- Add wine and cook until it reduces.
- Add ground turkey and season with salt and pepper, cooking until turkey is cooked through, breaking up in smaller pieces, about 5 minutes.
- Add paprika, garlic powder and Italian seasoning. Mix well and cook another minute. Set aside to cool.
- When cooled, add parmesan cheese and egg white, mix well.
- Using a spoon, fill hollowed zucchinis with stuffing, pressing firmly and top with bread crumbs. Place chicken broth in bottom of the baking dish and cover tightly with foil.
- Bake 35 minutes and serve right away.
Last Step:
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Zucchini FAQ
If you grow zucchini in your garden and have ever harvested giant zucchini, you may wonder what to do with them. Any of my stuffed zucchini recipes would be a great way to use them. You can always reduce the portion size to one boat. I also have this Giant Zucchini Parmesan, which I created one summer when my brother had a lot of oversized zucchini in his garden.
Zucchini’s skin is thin, so there’s no need to peel it before cooking it. It gets more tender when cooked. Plus, it provides additional antioxidants.
Yes, zucchini softens as it bakes. It takes about 35 minutes to bake zucchini boats.
Can you please tell me how many Weight Watchers points this recipe would be?
2- the blue button shows the pointe. 🙂
Do you need shallot and white wine?
LOVE all your recipes! This is a great low carb option. Thank you!
Thanks Kris!
Sooooooo delish. I used a whole egg. And seasoned the mixture well. I love this. Its getting added to my recipe book.
My husband loved. Will Make again for sure. I did cook the zucchini boats in the microwave for 5 mins prior to stuffing them. The zucchini came out perfect!
This was sooo good. My family loved them
Gina, sorry if this sounds really dumb, when you say crush the garlic and add? Does it break up during cooking? Or do I crush it into pieces? Wondering if when done do you still have large pieces of the garlic?
Sooo good! I’m loving using up all the zucchini in these great recipes,
what did I miss? When do I use the broth?
That goes into the baking dish.
Easy to make and delicious especially now with all the zucchini in my garden. Everyone enjoyed it.
Would you use red wine if you used Grass Fed ground beef instead? Also, I plan to use one large zucchini from the garden. Would cook times be the same?
Should be fine, same cook time.
Absolutely delicious. I will definitely make again.
Loved this! Amped up the flavor by using smoked paprika and Italian blend spice mix. Froze half. Also, the half I servedcI put under the broiler to brown the tops.
Hen you remove the innards of the four zucchini out you chop them up and add to the onion shallot garlic mixture.
Would this be freeze able? Hubby doesn’t want to try and we are going out of town for thanksgiving. So I am only to actually have 1/2 recipe. Wondering if it would do ok in freezer?
Would this be freeze able? Hubby doesn’t want to try and we are going out of town for thanksgiving. So I am only to actually have 1/2 recipe. Wondering if it would do ok in freezer? Sorry for duplicate comment. I entered my email wrong…
Read more at https://www.skinnytaste.com/turkey-stuffed-zucchini-4-pts/#gAVWg7TLAwQxiEDF.99
can I freeze this dish
This was absolutely Delish and will become a regular dinner in our house!!!
Thank you so much for the recipe!
How will these hold up? I would like to make these ahead for lunches for the week.
would the recipe work without using cheese?
This is a go-to in my dinner rotation now– so glad I found this on your site! My husband and I love it and eat it as often as we can, even when zucchini is out of season. It's comfort food for us and easy to make. Thank you for the wonderful recipe Gina!
I just made these again tonight; over the past 4 years I have probably made these about 100 times. We love them! Whenever I come home from the store with ground turkey my partner always says "Yay! Zucchini Boats!".
i really liked it! would definitely go well with marinara sauce, but i didn't have any on hand. unfortunately, it took me an hour to prep and brown before i could even bake it. i had no idea it would take me an hour and a half before i could eat it and this made me late for my nephew's baseball game. if i do it again, prepping beforehand would be something i'd consider for sure.
I made this for my lunch today. I didn't have bread crumbs and I'm trying to be gluten free, so I used a seasoned quinoa in it's place. It's a good thing because, like others, I felt it was a bit bland. This helped boost the flavor. Yummy. I have a bunch left over and I'm the only one who will eat it, so yay!
We just made this for dinner. I liked it, but my husband hated it! He felt there was no flavor. We have been making only skinny taste recipes for 3 weeks, and this is the first one he didn't like. He actually requested that I never make it again, haha.
We just had this for dinner, and WOW! Absolutely DELICIOUS! Thanks! (My husband thanks you too!)
Could I use yellow squash too?
This was awesome! I just made it tOday
So sad. I made this tonight and it didn't turn out at all like yours. Not sure what I did wrong/differently. Tasted okay. Maybe I'll try again before summer is over!
I have 2 HUGE zucchinis in the fridge and ground turkey yet to be divided and frozen. Perfect! We'll be eating only one zucchini since they are baseball bat sized!
These are delicious! Thank you so much for this recipe, I am in love with zucchini so much more now.
mine are on the oven n I am waiting to try them out!
I made this last night and it was very good. Even the man approved. I like the combination of spices as they really sparked up the ground turkey.
Today I drizzled a little bit of spaghetti sauce on the leftovers and heated them in the microwave for lunch. Tres yummmm!
This was great!!..just an FYI, take the foil off the last five minutes to brown the top..otherwise delish!
great dish….really nice flavor with the spices. I highly recommend this dish!!!
This sounds good and I would like to make tonight. Do you think we could sub Chicken Sausage for the Turkey ?
Thank you
Bev
Sure!
I made this recipe for dinner tonight along with the Low Fat Creamy Mushroom Soup. Both were so delicious! I put the zucchini under the broiler for the last two minutes to brown the topping a little.
I made this receipe for dinner last night and it was delicious!!! After the 35 minutes mine didnt look crispy like your picture so I put them under the broil for a few minutes then added some cheese, let it melt and then added marinara sauce! My hubby LOVED it!!!!
These were great!
I had made the zucchini turkey burger recipe the night before…so I just chopped those left overs right up and used that instead of new ground turkey..and they were delish!
~Amy
I love your website and can not wait to try your turkey stuffed zucchini recipe! I feel like a kid in a candy shop with so many wonderful recipes to choose from and try! The comments also help for ideas and suggestions! Thank you so much!
This looks outstanding – what wine do you recommend I use?
Anything you are drinking!
Made these for dinner tonight and the family loved them! We are vegan so I used Gimme Lean Veggie Protien in place of turkey, veggie broth instead of chicken broth, olive oil in place of butter and no cheese. They still had wonderful flavor and I will make them again for sure!
Thanks again Gina.I made these tonight for supper and they are a keeper.Very filling and I added some yellow pepper and chopped up mushroom with some chili peppers and scrumptious.
Love your recipes
I make my own or I buy 4C
what brand of breadcrumbs do you use when you use whole wheat and seasoned? I see the progresso ones but they have such a high sodium content. Was just curious if you used a diff. brand and what it was. THanks for all your delish meals. I use your site at least 3-4 times a week!
You could do the stuffing the day before, then do the rest the following day. I'm not sure how zucchini would hold up if you cut it the day before, perhaps I would blanch it 1 minute.
I am making this right now. My house smells amazing. I thought the prep time was perfect. I have 10 zuccini plants so lots of it. I cannot wait to eat it. I tried the filling before adding egg white and added a little onion salt to it… perfect. The rosemary is so flavorful. Going to be following all your recipes….of course exchanging all for gluten free as I’m a celiac. Thank you so much for this recipe.
Gina-I would like make the stuffing the night before and then stuff the zucchini and bake it before serving it. Will the zucchini hold up if it is scooped out or is there something I can spray on the zucchini to keep it okay overnight? BTW LOVE your recipes, use them all the time!
Carlee that sounds delish!!
I make this same dish many times each summer…only we top it with grated potatoes (hash browns) and a little bit of butter or olive oil spritzed on the top. It adds a little bulk and my family of 5 can share one giant zucchini this way.
This was great. Used beef broth instead of chicken because it's what I had on hand. Also took the suggestion of some commenters and served this with marinara sauce. Really satisfying!
Quite tasty!! I agree with others about the prep involved… will be a weekend meal for us in the future!
Making this right now…I'm doing a 6 week fitness program…was looking for a low carb recipe for stuffed zucchini since my garden is producing a trillion of them….this looks great…I subed the cheese for feta instead and didn't add the bread crumbs…w'll see! Thank you!
Just made this tonight, and it was delicious – even the teenagers liked it! I drizzled a little Muir Glen pasta sauce over top after I baked them – very tasty!
Love your recipes, tried the Skinny Chicken Parmagiana – delicious!! This site is wonderful!
Thanks!
i made this the other night and it was amamzing. the only thing i changed was i added a small amount of garlic and onion powder and a pinch of salt and sprinkled on top of the zucchini before i stuffed it. gave it a little more flavor. my three year old ate it up! thanks for all the great ideas.
Happy you enjoyed it!
I had to come back to tell you how fabulous this dish is. I followed the recipe exactly except for the whole wheat bread crumbs,(I'm off bread this wk.)and sprinkled w/a bit of parma. Just delecious,I even had left overs for breakfast. Thanks for being here Gina~;o)
@Gwyn, I just recalculated, along with getting the calories, fat and fiber info and I still get 4 points. 🙂 Weigh your meats after they cook. They weigh less. You lose about 1 oz so 5 oz of meat usually becomes 4. Most calorie and point info is based on cooked weight, it's confusing at times.
3 comments! #1: this was filling & delicious! (my grocery store didn't have good looking zucchini so i used yellow summer squash instead!) #2: I think you left the rosemary out of the directions – it's in the ingredients list so i added it with the rest of the spices. #3: When i calculate the points, I get 6 points for 2 halves… (25 for the whole recipe, 17.5 for the turkey alone). Still… that is awesome for the yumminess & for how filling it is!
I LOVE YOUR WEBSITE!!! I finally made this recipe the other night and my roommate is the most UNHEALTHY eater, she thinks that if it is good for you..it's bad…odd..BUT SHE LOVED THIS TOO!!!
I made this last night and it was delicious! My husband loved it too! I liked the prep time. I made the stuffing that afternoon when I got home; before dinner I added the egg and cheese, stuffed the zucchini and added the bread crumbs and dinner was ready in 35 minutes!
This looks amazing! Do you know how many calories it is per serving? Thank you 🙂
This looks too good to be true….I understood that a serving equals 2 halves. I couldn't believe that. It will be so filling and yummy. Can't wait to try it.
Terri
Sorry if I confused you, it's 4 servings. Each person basically gets a whole zucchini to themselves.
Just a quick question: I notice that the serving size says that this recipe serves 4, but then also says 2 halves. Then the recipe itself calls for 4 zucchini. I am just a bit confused by this. I'd love to try this recipe, but I want to make sure I'm preparing the appropriate amounts. So if I halve 4 zucchinis (for a total of 8 halves), how many servings would that be? Thanks for the help. Can't wait to try this!
I made this last night.
It smelled better than it tasted (IMO). I guess I just expected more flavor with all the herbs/onion/shallot. Good for a low carb meal though, just not enjoyable.
Just had this! Amazing! My 6 yr old daughter loved it.
Sure Tricia!
Can I use yellow squash? We have a garden and lots of squash
That's great!!
I made this last night and it was absolutely delicious! It was the first meal I cooked for my boyfriend and he was thoroughly impressed with my cooking skills!!
I love this too but I agree, it does require some prep time. Great as a low carb weekend meal!
Had this for dinner last night! So yummy. Took me a bit longer then I had hoped so it was a late dinner, I decided this is what I call a weekend recipe. We decided the left overs will make great burritos tonight!
Thanks Gina, I tried this one last night and my husband and I loved it!! A real keeper
This site will be great to give me more variety in my diet…Awesome recipes…so excited to try them…thanks and keep them coming.
Fantastic Meg! Let me know how it comes out!!
I can't wait to make this recipe! I've created my weekly grocery list off your blog alone today and I can't wait!!! Thanks for all these fantastic recipes!!
I made this last night for some friends. It was great! The only thing is that I didn't see where you said to add the rosemary. I added it in the pan with the other seasoning. Is that right? I also topped mine with tomato sauce. This is keeper!!!
Your recipes are wonderful and I appreciate that you give us the points. I now believe that I will reach my goal. You're a lifesaver!! Thank you.
I love the idea of adding spinach to it! I love zucchini!!
I made this today, and it was great! I added some diced red pepper and a bit of frozen chopped spinach. The family raved about it. I just started on WW a few weeks ago, and I've found so many recipes on your site I can't wait ti try! Thanks so much
I made this last night and it was delicious! I mixed the breadcrumbs in instead of sprinking them on top because I read the recipe wrong-but it turned out great!
Tonight I am trying your zuchini and tomatoe pasta and this weekend I'll try the bannana bread.
Thank you for all these great recipes!
Gina,
I am SO excited to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing, and I am posting it on my Weight Watcher's Wednesday post (along with a link to you!) Thanks again!
Made this for dinner last night and just had some more for lunch. It was wonderful last night and wonderful today – love it when a recipe tastes great AND reheats well. Love the flavor of the stuffing – very full flavored and well spiced. Also, I LOVE the texture of zucchini when prepared this way! The perfect counterpoint to the stuffing. This was incredibly easy to make. Another keeper – thanks Gina!
This is so good! I’ve actually made a similar dish with homemade sauce! Good and healthy!
That’s what I use is a marinara sauce, and add mushrooms. Sooo good.
mmmmm, love this one too. Until now I used meatloaf to fill the zucchini’s, but Turkey or Chicken is a great idea too, and more healthy!
Thank you Gina for this idea!
I love this one, too! You’re full of delicious looking recipes, Gina!
Looks wonderful! Darn, I just used my ground turkey for meatballs last night. Will have to save this one for later 🙂