Keto Stuffed Zucchini with Ground Beef

This easy Keto Ground Beef Stuffed Zucchini is a healthy, gluten-free, and low-carb dinner recipe for taco nights! Bonus, with only 4 grams of net carbs per serving, these are perfect keto zucchini boats to integrate into your keto meal plan.

Baked stuffed zucchini is a healthy low-carb meal using low-carb vegetable zucchini as a taco shell. They are also known as zucchini boats or zucchini tacos. In a stuffed zucchini recipe, the zucchinis are cut lengthwise, cored, and filled with cooked meat like ground sausage, ground beef, ground turkey, or vegetarian filling.

The filled zucchini boats are then baked in the oven. Not all stuffed zucchini recipes are keto-friendly because some use bread crumbs on top of the zucchini. But this ground beef stuffed zucchini recipe is keto-friendly, 100% made with low-carb ingredients.

Ingredients and Substitutions

For the taco stuffed zucchini, you need:

• Zucchini – read below to learn how to pick them.
• Ground beef or ground Italian sausage, it’s up to you. Both options make tasty keto stuffed zucchini boats.
• Homemade taco seasoning – or a combination of cumin, paprika, chili, garlic powder, chili powder.
• Olive oil
• Yellow onion – red onion works as well. It’s slightly higher in carbs, so for a keto stuffed zucchini recipe, it’s better to use yellow or white onion.
• Tomato paste
• Beef broth
• Sour cream or plain Greek yogurt to lighten the recipe and make healthy stuffed zucchini boats.
• Grated cheddar or any hard grated cheese like grated mozzarella or grated Parmesan cheese.
• Salt and pepper

You must choose zucchinis that:

• Fit your baking sheet – too long zucchinis won’t fit, and if you cut the zucchini ends, the filling drips out.
• Are not too thick – choose medium zucchinis, about 8 inches long and 2 inches wide. Avoid large zucchini that take ages to bake and stay crunchy.

How To Make Stuffed Zucchini

It is super easy to make stuffed zucchinis at home.

Zucchini contains 95% water, and you don’t want all the vegetable water to end up in your dish.

1. First, cut the zucchini lengthwise, keep the skin on, and don’t cut the sides!
2. Use a teaspoon to carefully scoop out the flesh from each zucchini half, as seen in the picture below. Watch out. If you go too deep, you can break the zucchini halves. Discard the flesh from the zucchinis or set it aside to use in a keto soup recipe later.
3. Then, lay each zucchini boat on a large baking dish – at least 9-inch x 13-inch to fit 4 medium zucchini or 8 zucchini halves.

4. Lightly oil the dish with olive oil and sprinkle salt all over the zucchini. The salt will extract the water from the zucchinis. They are going to sweat!
5. Set aside the zucchini for 20 minutes while preparing the filling.
6. After 10 minutes, use an absorbent kitchen paper towel to pat dry the zucchini.
7. In a large frying pan, heat olive oil, and cook the onion until fragrant.
8. Then, add ground beef and, using a spoon, crumble the beef to create small pieces of meat that grill evenly on all sides.
9. Finally, add taco seasoning, beef broth, sour cream, and tomato paste, and keep cooking the beef for 5-6 minutes until cooked through and fragrant. The mixture should be thick and not runny. If too runny, keep cooking until it forms a paste and the liquid evaporates.

10. Now, spray a large 9×13-inch baking sheet with olive oil. Next, lay the zucchini shells next to each other onto the baking sheet. It’s fine if they touch each other.
11. Fill the zucchini with the cooked ground beef and add the grated cheese on top of each keto-stuffed zucchini boat.
12. Bake the stuffed zucchini ground beef and cheese for 15-25 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Serving Suggestions

Remove the baking tray from the oven and serve immediately as a low-carb alternative to tacos for taco night! Serve the stuffed zucchini boats with keto Mexican toppings like:

• Cilantro
• Sour cream
• Diced yellow bell pepper
• Diced avocado

Storage Instructions

Store the cooked zucchini in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. These healthy stuffed zucchini boats are amazing to meal prep healthy lunch or dinner.

They are delicious when rewarmed in the microwave or a frying pan until piping hot.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Healthy Zucchini Recipes

Zucchini is a wonderful low-carb vegetable for creating tasty and healthy zucchini recipes. Below I listed more low-carb keto zucchini recipes for you to try.