These low-carb Veggie Lasagna Zucchini Boats are basically hollowed out zucchinis stuffed with a veggie lasagna filling and baked in the oven with marinara sauce and melted cheese – SO GOOD!
Veggie Lasagna Zucchini Boats
If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know how much I love zucchini boats; I have a turkey taco stuffed zucchini version, an Italian turkey sausage stuffed zucchini, a chicken enchilada stuffed zucchini, and a turkey santa-fe stuffed zucchini. This lasagna boat makes a great vegetarian option.
These zucchini boats are loaded with a ricotta cheese, spinach and bell pepper filling then topped with my quick homemade marinara. They are super filling, although the suggested serving is two, I couldn’t even finish them. I also couldn’t fit them all on one baking dish since my zucchinis where pretty large so I saved the others to bake the next day, but if you want to make them all either use a large dish or fit them in two dishes.
Because these are made with such few ingredients, the key to making them great is good quality ingredients. Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, fresh basil and good quality tomatoes to make the marinara are a must. For years, I’ve been talking about the only brand of canned tomatoes I use, Tuttorosso (green label). You just can’t make a bad sauce with them, anytime I try another brand I’m always disappointed. Tuttorosso took notice on how much I love their brand and ask me to partner with them to create a new recipe. These are perfect for summer, especially with the start of zucchini season, hope you enjoy!
How To Make Veggie Lasagna Zucchini Boats
More Zucchini Recipes
Veggie Lasagna Zucchini Boats
Ingredients
For the Filling:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 2 loose cups baby spinach, chopped
- 3 cloves chopped garlic
- 1/3 cup chopped onion
- 1/3 cup chopped red bell pepper
- kosher salt
- 3/4 cup part skim ricotta
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 large egg
- 4 large basil leaves, chopped plus more for garnish
For the marinara:
For the Zucchini Boats:
- 4 40 oz total medium zucchini
- 1 cup part skim shredded mozzarella, Polly-O
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- In a medium pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until golden, careful not to burn, about 1 minute. Add crushed tomatoes, salt and black pepper to taste. Stir and reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 5 minutes, then add fresh basil.
- Heat a large nonstick saute pan over medium heat, add oil, onion, garlic and red pepper and season with 1/8 tsp salt. Cook until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the baby spinach and saute until wilted, about 1 minute.
- In a medium bowl add the ricotta, parmesan cheese and egg, mix well. Add the cooked vegetables and basil and mix.
- Cut zucchini in half lengthwise and using a spoon or melon baller, scoop out flesh, leaving 1/4″ thick.
- Place 1/4 cup of sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 12″ baking dish, and place zucchini halves cut side up.
- Stuff the zucchini with ricotta mixture (scant 1/4 cup) and top each with 2 tbsp marinara, 2 tbsp mozzarella. Cover with foil and bake 40 to 45 minutes until cheese is melted and zucchini is cooked through.
Last Step:
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Nutrition
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Disclosure: This recipe is sponsored by Tuttorosso. Thank you for supporting the brands I love that make Skinnytaste possible. All thoughts are always my own.
I have diabetes and do not eat pasta. This is a great alternative and healthy too! Love it!
This was fabulous!! Made it tonight with a few changes and was surprised by how great it tasted!! I chose to try and take the WW points dow a few. I used FF cottage cheese in place of Ricotta; put that into the food processor and pulsed until it reached texture of the ricotta. I didn’t have the spinach, so I chopped the pulp from the zucchini and sautéed with onions. Used dried basil and chives, ‘cause that was what I had! And subbed Trader Joe’s lite mozzarella for regular. Didn’t miss the points and it was packed with flavor! Thanks, Gina – you’ve knocked it out of the park again!!
What do you do with the zucchini that is scooped out? I wouldn’t want to waste it, but don’t cook with zucchini much. Ideas??
Can you prepare and refrigerate overnight, then bake the next day?
These words were straight out of my husband’s mouth tonight…”If eating healthy taste this damn good I think I will be fine!” He is against meatless entrees but he took a bite and ended up eating 3!! He does want me to try either lean burger or pork with the sauce next time!! These zucchini boats were AMAZING!! Full of flavor and tasted just like lasagna!!
I’m not able to eat eggs and poultry that is why I don’t make lasagna.
Why do you comment and give such a poor rating because of your own dietary issues? Not cool.
I am trying lots of new veggie recipes and this one tops the list! I made it tonighr and it reaaly satisfied my craving for lasagna. I wanted some meat, so I added 1 link of chicken sausage diced. It was perfect! This is a winner!
My husband bought unsalted tomatoes for the sauce, how much salt would you add?
Made this for dinner tonight and OMGOSH it was fabulous! I substituted the arugula for the spinach and did not make the marinara sauce because I can my own tomatoes into sauce each year, so used that instead. So delicious, Gina, you’ve created another winner! Loved it.
The zucchini in my grocery store are quite small right now. I still bought 40 oz but they are much smaller than yours and it’s a lot more than 4. Should I reduce the baking time since they are so much smaller?
I would test it to see if it’s cooked to your liking 10 min before
I followed the recipe as closely as possible, even double checked everything, and I had barely enough filling and sauce to stuff 6 of my 8 zucchini boats… I measured the 1/4 cup and 1/8 cup for accuracy so the size of the zucchini shouldn’t have been a factor… Not sure what I did wrong. The 6 are in the over now, so hopefully they taste good!
I noticed in the directions that it says to use a “scant” 1/4 cup of the cheese mixture to fill the zucchini so I added an extra 1/4 cup of ricotta when making the cheese mixture and had just enough to fill 8 zucchini halves by using a loose level 1/4 cup (not packed) of cheese mixture to stuff each one.
Very good! Hubby wanted some italian sausage in it, but I loved it as is!
I made this tonight and it was super good! Instead of ricotta I used tofu with the water squeezed out. I used an 8oz ball of shredded FRESH mozzarella instead of mozzarella. I used a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes instead of crushed tomatoes because I like chunks of tomato. And I used the chopped innards of the zucchini and cooked it with the onions. I cooked it covered until the last 5 minutes. YUMMY!!!
Hello! I’m thinking about making these this week, but I know we won’t finish them in one night. I was wondering if you have tried freezing them after cooking? I’m not sure if the zucchini would just end up a big mess when defrosting. I’d love to know if you have attempted to!
Very tasty. The recipe itself is a little misleading. Pay attention to the blog post that says that 8 zucchini boats will not fit all in one pan. I could only fit 6 and couldn’t figure out why, and then I saw that the picture only had 6 as well.
Could these be “baked” on the grill? I would rather not use the oven on hot summer days. Thanks!
Sure, you can do them over indirect heat
They came out great on the grill! Just made them tonight too – in the oven. Great recipe and so delicious!! Thanks, Gina!!
One with chicken and riced cauliflower. and any sauce.
Thank you for all your wonderful recipes! I couldn’t get my daughter to eat hardly any veggies until I started using your recipes, especially the zucchini boats! She just loves them! She also loves pizza so I think a pizza zucchini boat would be awesome too. Maybe with Turkey Pepperoni and mushrooms and maybe even black olives or bell peppers. Do you have any recipes like that? Thanks!
Delicious!
My hubby and I loved this dish! It was all the taste of lasagna without the guilt!! Thanks for sharing!
Made this last night. Husband and I loved this! Definitely a keeper
These look great! If I used store bought marinara, how much should I use?
I can’t eat peppers of any kind. Any suggestions for a substitution?
Stupid question: Do you eat the skin…. or leave the skin? I have never eaten the skin, but wondering if cooking this way and nutrition…. hmm…
Definitely eat the skin!
I always use tuttarosa. These look delish can’t wait to make them
Hi Gina! I love making your recipes. But, I’m having a little trouble with this one. I followed it to the letter, but the zucchini came out quite mushy. The softness put us off from it. I want to try some of your other zucchini boat recipes, but how do I keep it from turning to mush?
I’ve made these and other Skinnytaste zucchini boat recipes and the cook time has been right on for perfect texture of the zucchini; but I did learn to remove the foil immediately when you take out of the oven or the zucchini will continue to cook and become mushy and lose its color. If you have to keep them warm at least remove the foil and tent loosely with the foil.
I made these last night for my fiance and I and we LOVED them! Any suggestions on what can I use the hallowed-out flesh for? I’m an American currently living in the U.K. and there’s a wide spread shortage of zucchini (courgette) in the country – to the point that you can’t find them in grocery stores. I was fortunate enough to find two a few days ago (but paid an arm and a leg for them) and will feel bad now throwing any part of the zucchini away.
Maybe this would work… https://www.skinnytaste.com/zucchini-pancakes-225-pts/
Is the egg required? I am vegetarian but don’t eat eggs so wondering what to sub with?
leave it out!
These look wonderful! Could they be made up in the morning so they are ready to put in the oven for an evening meal?
OH MY. DELICIOUS! I absolutely loved this recipe! I’ve been so addicted to your site…I want to thank you so much for posting all of these AMAZING recipe. I can’t wait to try more!
Gina – How about an “Eggplant Parmesan” boat??
Have the pickiest 2 year old daughter on the planet and she absolutely adored this! She helped me make them and was so proud to devour her delicious creation! I baked her portion without any sauce and she spooned it on my herself as she liked. (Hubby loved it, too!) Thank you so much for all your creative and easy to create recipes – Love your Instagram, also!
Awesome!! Sometimes I think when the kids help make a meal they are more willing to try it!
can you do this in the slowcooker? if so, how would you modify if necessary?
The basil in Step 2 refers to that used in the marinara, the 1 Tb. I was wondering about the 4 leaves of basil referred to in the list of ingredients for the filling.
Where did the 4 chopped basil leaves get used? I don’t see them mentioned in the instructions, only in the ingredient list for the filling…
Under step 2 in directions..”Stir and reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 5 minutes, then add fresh basil.” The basil is also used for garnish.
I make your zucchini taco boats regularly, and I noticed that this recipe doesn’t require parboiling the zucchini before putting them in the oven. Does this mean I can skip that step with the taco boats?
Hmmm I noticed that too. Any thoughts?
Have you ever tried adding the scooped out centers of the zucchini into the filling? Would you recommend this or do you just throw it out?
I do on some recipes but not on this one.
I was wondering the same thing as I was scooping. I make the sausage stuffed boats and the zucchini is added back in to saute. Also in that recipe you say to par boil the zucchini first. I have done it both ways and I don’t see much difference. Great recipes either way! Thank you for these.
Both give the same results. You can add if you want but I had too much filling.
I’m not normally a fan of zucchini but I made these tonight for supper and they were GREAT! I’ll be making them again. Thanks for the delicious recipes ????
I wanted to make the filling the night before having them for dinner, would you recommend this? I think it should be ok but thought I would ask! Thanks!
Fabulous! I steamed the zucchini boats in the microwave before filling them. Which reduced my cook time to 20 mins. Packed with flavor and just delicious. thank you
These were amazing. I’m new to cooking and I’m so inspired by your recipes to keep trying. Thank you for taking the time to post quality recipes.
Aww thank you!
This was AMAZING!!! Made for friends and we all devoured the zucchini boats- your food blog is by far my favorite and this is probably my new number one recipe! I would not change a thing- it was so tasty! Thank you so much!
Awww, thank you!
Hi Gina – how would you freeze these? Thaw and then throw in oven for same amount of time? Or put them in the oven straight from the freezer? Sorry for all the questions! Thank you! Love your recipes!
Yes, I usually thaw first but either way works fine!
I love your recipes but have never commented. I knew these boats would be good but they were amazing. Making them for the second time in a week tonight.
I made these last night. Not only tasty but easy to make. Even my husband enjoyed them, and he is like a big child!
I am making these tomorrow. I love all your boat recipes :). Do you think these would freeze well? Uncooked?
HI Gina- I have looked for the crushed tomatoes but can’t seem to find the brand? Is there a certain store that sells them? Thank you!
All supermarket here in NY sell them, amazon as well but if they aren’t available to you my second option would be San Marzano
Here in Texas the same company sells under the label Red Gold. I’m not sure if the flavor is the same but I used them in my marinara and my boats tasted really good.
great!
This looks awesome! I will try it ASAP. How long do you think they last in the fridge / as leftovers?
I would use them within a few days at most.
My family loves your zucchini boats! We have yet to try this newest recipe, but will definitely check it out. Last night, I made your Sloppy Joes, but tweaked them by using the filling in a zucchini boat and topped with cheese…DELISH!
Yum!
thanks Gina! as much as I love all of your recipes that we have tried. This one is, well, AWESOME. the marinara sauce! I was worried as I didn’t have any garlic, but instead used garlic powder., and since there wasn’t any to soften I put all of the ingredients into a bowl, stirred and microwaved for a couple of minutes to warm it up. I am sure the fresh basil and crushed tomatoes are key. then the filling: where do I start, again, probably the fresh basil. I probably wouldn’t have used as many leaves, but I am so glad I followed the recipe. I could have eaten the filling and gladly drank the marina. they were that good. Then putting it all together, POW, even better! I had zucchini from the garden and they were HUGE, I only could fit 3 halves into the pan, lengthwise and then I divided the filling among the boats, well, we jokingly called them barges they were so big. But even bigger was the flavor. thanks again for another wonderful recipe!
I think a riff on Pad Tai could be yummy….maybe some spiralized carrots, some snow peas, the zucchini filling and some shrimp with lots cilantro and a peanut sauce? Maybe it could even be a dish served cold ( after the boats bake).
That sounds interesting. Did you try this?
What about some sort of seafood paella boat? That would be quite a challenge with the rice. Maybe use cauliflower rice! I’m just not sure how to get it crispy. Or a sushi boat. Kind of like using the zucchini in place of the cucumber.
These were amazing, great way to use up all those zuchini from the garden! We did add some turkey Italian sausage to the sauce and ricotta!! Kids devoured it!!
Great!
I made this dish for my family. It came out delicious! I will make this dish again. It is yummy!
Glad you and your family enjoyed it!
Hi Gina-
I have been a devout follower for quite some time and love your recipes. They actually, are better than those that you get from weight watchers.
However, the other night I tried spiralizing the large carrots and couldn’t even make a dent.
what’s the secret?
WHat kind of spiralizer do you have? The cheap ones don’t work.
The nutrition information is for how many zucchini boats? One or two?
2 boats.
I just made these (only I had to add some venison sausage as my husband prefers dishes with meat), and they were delicious! Thank you!
Sounds good!
How about an alfredo-ish with chicken!?!?
OMG yes!
Greek zucchini boats with feta and olives!
“Pizza” zucchini boats!
Farro/quinoa risotto zucchini boats!