Vegan Enchilada Zucchini Boats!

These satisfying Vegan Enchilada Zucchini Boats are filled with nourishing beans, rice, bell peppers, and onions and coated in a delightful, aromatic sauce. It is healthy, low-fat and sure to become a new family favorite.

Whole Food Plant Based, Vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, no highly processed ingredients and gluten free.

Hi there, Ameera here!

We are all about anything Tex-Mex, Southwestern, Mexican flavors.  This recipe is downright delish!

You gotta give this one a try!

Tips for Success:

• Flavor Profile: These Vegan Enchilada Zucchini Boats are full of delicious, spicy enchilada and Mexican flavors.
• Low-Fat Dish Expectations: This dish was designed to be low in fat. Because it is low in fat, you are not going to experience that endorphin rush associated with eating high-fat foods when eating this dish. It is very tasty for what it is, and that is a low-fat dish. We just want to make sure that our Readers recognize this when contemplating making this recipe.  If you wish to make it more indulgent, add chopped avocados, vegan sour cream, and/or crushed tortilla chips.
• Salting the Scooped Out Zucchini Boats: Zucchinis retain a lot of water.  To avoid a watered-down zucchini boat, you need to salt them to draw out any excess liquids from the zucchinis.  This will help avoid the enchilada sauce from becoming watery. Gently wipe out some of the sea salt before loading with the filling.
• Cooked and Refrigerated Rice: Cooked and refrigerated rice works best when making this dish.  If you use recently cooked rice, it will be too gummy and sticky. Using cooked and refrigerated rice (preferably made the day before or earlier in the day) allows the rice to dry out enough to showcase distinct individual grains of rice making a better textured dish.
• Filling Amount: This recipe makes a generous amount of filling. We piled the filling high onto the zucchini boats as we wanted a great ratio of zucchini to filling ratio. If you have some leftover filling, just pile it in between the zucchini boats.  We used 5 medium zucchinis and had no leftover filling.
• Enchilada Sauce: We used our Enchilada Sauce.  Feel free to use your favorite enchilada sauce recipe or store-bought enchilada sauce.  If purchasing from the store, be sure to select a mild enchilada sauce.
• Enchilada Sauce Mix: The enchilada sauce mix used in the Skillet Ingredients is simply removing ¼ cup of the Enchilada Sauce Mix after it is made and using it in the Skillet Ingredients.
• Chipotle Powder: These enchilada zucchini boats are spicy, but not overly spicey.  Feel free to decrease the amount of chipotle powder.
• Chopped Mild Green Chiles: Watch the label of the chopped green chiles as they come in mild and hot.

Leftovers and Freezing:

Leftovers will generally keep 5 days in the refrigerator.  Store in a covered container.

This dish freezes well.

Pantry Products:

• Sea Salt:  Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

Kitchen Products:

• Large baking dish

If you try these tasty zucchini boats, we would love to know if you enjoy it as much as we do! Please leave us a review! Post a picture on Facebook or Instagram and tag us! We would love to hear from you.

Vegan Enchilada Zucchini Boats

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• Author: Monkey and Me Kitchen Adventures
• Prep Time: 30 Minutes
• Cook Time: 35 Minutes
• Total Time: 65 Minutes
• Yield: 4-5 Servings 1x
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Stovetop, Oven
• Cuisine: Mexican Inspired
• Diet: Vegan

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Description

These satisfying Vegan Enchilada Zucchini Boats are filled with nourishing beans, rice, bell peppers, and onions and coated in a delightful, aromatic sauce.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Base Ingredients:

• 5 to 6 medium zucchinis
• Sprinkle sea salt *

Enchilada Sauce Mix Ingredients:

• 2 cups enchilada sauce *
• 1 – [ 4.5 oz. can ] chopped mild green chiles, undrained *
• ¼ cup nutritional yeast

Skillet Ingredients:

• 1 cup yellow onions, fine dice
• ½ cup red bell peppers, fine dice
• ½ cup green bell peppers, fine dice
• 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 – [ 15 oz. can ] black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 ½ cups refrigerated rice (of choice) *
• ¼ cup enchilada sauce mix * 

Skillet Spice/Herb Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon chipotle powder (+/-) *
• 1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon sea salt (+/-) * 

Topping Ideas:

• Chopped avocadoes
• Vegan sour cream
• Chopped fresh cilantro
• Crushed tortillas

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
2. Cut the zucchinis in half lengthwise. Gently scoop out the insides of the zucchini, leaving a boat-like shell with a ¼ inch thickness perimeter all the way around the zucchini.  Discard the insides and the seeds.
3. When finished carving the zucchini boats, sprinkle the insides of the zucchini boats with sea salt, turn them upside-down (cut side down) onto a paper towel lined baking sheet to drain. Set aside for a minimum of 15 minutes.
4. Place all the Enchilada Sauce Mix Ingredients into a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
5. Place the Skillet Spice/Herb Ingredients in a small bowl, mix well, set aside.
6. In a large skillet, add the finely diced onions and bell peppers, sauté over medium-high heat for 7 to 9 minutes to soften, add a splash of water, if needed to avoid burning. Then lower the heat to medium, add the minced garlic, sauté, stir constantly for one minute.
7. Then add all the remaining Skillet Ingredients and the Skillet Spice/Herb Mix to the skillet, stir well to incorporate, simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes, then remove from the stove.
8. Take the zucchini boats and gently wipe out the sea salt, set aside.
9. Place one cup of the Enchilada Sauce Mixture onto the bottom of a large baking dish.
10. Arrange the zucchini boat halves into the baking dish on top of the Enchilada Sauce Mixture.
11. Take the Skillet Mix and generously load the zucchini boats, piling high (see notes).
12. Take the remaining Enchilada Sauce Mix and spoon it over top of all the zucchini boats. Cover with foil and bake in a preheated 400 F oven for 15 minutes.
13. After 15 minutes, remove the foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes (35 minutes total in the oven).
14. After 20 minutes, remove from the oven, allow to sit for 10 minutes to allow the flavors to develop. Top with avocado chunks, fresh cilantro, vegan sour cream and/or crushed tortilla chips.

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Notes

*Please reference the blog post for Tips for Success, Pantry Items Used, Storage and Freezing, and Kitchen Products Used.

*Sea Salt:  Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.

*Servings:  4 to 5

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