Grilled Mexican (Stuffed) Zucchini

Before Christmas my roommate wanted to have a Christmas dinner with some of her closest friends and roommates. She was making a spicy lime chicken and mexican rice. Our guests were bring a gauc salsa, chips, margaritas, beers, etc... basically it was a mexican inspired dinner. I was asked to bring a vegitable dish.

Now you might thing that a Mexican vegitable side dish would be easy, but after doing some research everything I found had beans, rice  or corn and very little vegitables. Being a healthy person and focusing on having a well balanced dinner I didn't want to have two starches (corn & rice). I also am werid and don't like beans. With a lot of research I found this recipe for Mexican Zucchini on Yummly. Yummly had all the ingredients, nutrition facts and tastes. Even a little app that you could put in how many people you were serving and it would change the ingredent measurements. The directions on how to make the zucchini dish and I believe the orginal with directions was located else where on Yummly.

The hard part about this recipe is that I hate zucchini. The only way I like zucchini is in chocolate zucchini cake or zucchini bread. But I know there is a whole group of people out there that do like zucchini and that I'd probably be ok making this dish. I just personally can't judge the recipe for you because I hate the taste of the main ingredient. So I asked for feedback at dinner after the whole serving plate was empty and everyone loved them. They thought I was insane for not likeing zucchini.

The Recipe:

Grilled Mexican (Stuffed) Zucchini

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

4 green zucchini

3 tbsps olive oil

red pepper flakes (salt and to taste)

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 cup cheese (queso, crumbled, Mexican // I used garlic and herb feta)

1/8 cup of minced onion (red or white)

cracked black pepper

1 lime (cut in wedges)

To Start: Turn your oven to broil, meanwhile cut the ends off of your zucchini and then slice in half lengthwise. Take a spoon and scrape out some of the seeds and create a little 'ditch' in each slice. This will help the cheesey stuffy stay on the zucchini and not slide off. Place on a cookie sheet and drizzle generously with olive oil and then sprinkle with salt and red pepper flakes to your tasting. Place in the oven for 2 to 7 minutes. I had mine on the middle rack in the oven for 5 minutes and then I placed them on the top rack and for a minute or two and they got the grilled/charred marks which is what I was looking for.

While your zucchini slices are in the oven mix together your mayonnaise, cheese, pepper and minced onion in a small bowl. You could even add some minced garlic (maybe about 2 cloves) adjust to your taste.

When the zucchini are done let them cool a bit to room temperature. It was freezing outside when I made there so I just took the cookie sheet outside and stood there for 30 sec and then they were perfect (still warm). If you don't have freezing weather then just leave them out to cool or put them in the fridge for 30 seconds. Then spoon your cheese mixture into the detch sections of the zucchini that you made earlier. For your final step sprinkle the top with chili powder and serve with lime wedges to squeeze on the top.

Enjoy!