Feta-Stuffed Zucchini

Every summer I get asked to share some easy – and preferably Turkish – summer dishes. And every summer, I get really excited about fresh, vegetable-based dishes as the temperatures rise and I crave my own brand of comfort food. I'll be bringing back my grandmother's recipes soon, starting with a bulgur salad next week, but tonight I'm sharing a very easy zucchini dish that I improvised with börek stuffing.

Round zucchini are rare enough that I wasn't fully aware of their existence before last year, but they showed up at my local grocery store this week, and I remembered Rory talking about stuffing them – all while craving cheese – and so I decided this was the time to bring one of my favorite things – börek filling – to one of my favorite vegetables.

Feta-Stuffed Zucchini

This is one of those recipes where you don't really need set quantities of things. You can make a single zucchini if you're cooking for yourself, but I've made it with three.

3 round zucchinis

a big thing of feta (or if you have access to actual Turkish cheese, then beyaz peynir)

1 clove of garlic

a bunch of parsley

salt

olive oil

cayenne pepper

red pepper flakes

Start by cutting your zucchinis in half and removing the stem. Set them in an oiled pan (I do this with olive oil, but a cooking spray is probably fine) and hollow out the centers (easily done with a melon baller). Put the removed zucchini pieces aside. Sprinkle with salt.

Mash up your feta in a mixing bowl with the minced garlic. You can mix in an egg if you want to help keep your mixture together, but I skipped that and drizzled in a tiny bit of olive oil instead.

Either shred the removed zucchini centers in a food processor or chop them up finely. Add to feta mixture.

Chop up your parsley and add to mixture. Season as you like – I added both cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes.