Southwest Stuffed Zucchini Boats
with Pico de Gallo, Avocado Crema & Cilantro
- Milk
Send your taste buds on a flavorful cruise with this crowd-pleasing stuffed zucchini. These boats are filled with Southwest-spiced rice, then blanketed with a layer of kickin’ pepper jack cheese, and finished with fresh pico de gallo, avocado crema, cilantro, sour cream, and hot sauce. There’s something about this recipe that’ll really put the wind back in your sails.
Ingredients
1 unit
Onion
2 unit
Zucchini
¾ cup
Jasmine Rice
1 tablespoon
Southwest Spice Blend
1 unit
Veggie Stock Concentrate
1 unit
Tomato
¼ ounce
Cilantro
1 unit
Lime
4 tablespoon
Guacamole
3 tablespoon
Sour Cream
(Contains: Milk)
½ cup
Pepper Jack Cheese
(Contains: Milk)
1 teaspoon
Hot Sauce
Not included in your delivery
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Nutrition Values
Utensils
Cooking Steps
• Adjust rack to top position and preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and dry produce. • Halve, peel, and finely dice onion. Trim and halve zucchini lengthwise; scoop out and discard seeds with a spoon. Dice tomato. Roughly chop cilantro. Zest and halve lime.
• Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Add 3⁄4 of the onion; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until softened, 4-5 minutes. • Add rice and Southwest Spice Blend; stir to coat. • Stir in stock concentrate, 1 1⁄4 cups water (2 1⁄4 cups for 4 servings), and a big pinch of salt. Bring to a boil; cover and reduce to a low simmer. Cook until rice is tender, 15-18 minutes. • Keep covered off heat until ready to use in step 5.
• While rice cooks, rub zucchini halves all over with a large drizzle of olive oil (two large drizzles for 4 servings); season with salt and pepper. Arrange, cut sides down, on a baking sheet. • Roast on top rack until browned and tender, 15-20 minutes.
• In a small bowl, combine tomato, half the cilantro, a squeeze of lime juice to taste, and as much remaining onion as you like. Season with salt and pepper. • In a separate small bowl, combine guacamole, lime zest, half the sour cream (save the rest for serving), and lime juice to taste. Season with salt and pepper. Add water 1 tsp at a time until mixture reaches a drizzling consistency.
• Once zucchini is tender, remove sheet from oven. Heat broiler to high. • Fluff rice with a fork and season with salt and pepper. TIP: For extra richness, stir in 1 TBSP butter (2 TBSP for 4 servings). • Carefully flip zucchini and stuff with as much rice as will fit (there'll be plenty left over; save for serving). Evenly top with pepper jack. • Broil until cheese is melted and lightly browned, 2-3 minutes. TIP: Watch carefully to avoid burning.
• Divide remaining rice between plates and top with stuffed zucchini. • Top with avocado crema, pico de gallo, remaining cilantro, and remaining sour cream. Drizzle with hot sauce if desired and serve.
Customer reviews
Review summary
Updated on Feb 2026- Flavor: Many loved the delicious combination of flavors, with the southwest-spiced rice and fresh toppings earning particular praise 🌶️.
- Ease of prep: Generally easy to make, though some found it more time-consuming than expected; several appreciated how simple it was.
- Suggestions: Consider adding black beans or ground meat for extra protein; some found larger zucchini easier to stuff.
- Portions: Generous servings with plenty of rice; some had enough for leftovers or to feed additional people.
- Texture: A few found the zucchini too soft; cooking for less time or sautéing instead of baking may help maintain firmness.
Reviews from our home cooks
I am a first time Hello Fresh user and I wanted to try something a little healthier and different from my usual. I was nervous but I selected the all veggie option. I was worried that the taste might be a little too different for me and that the meals wouldn't fill me up. I have never been so happy to have been so wrong! The Southwest Stuffed Zucchini Boats are flavorful and left me feeling totally satisfied. Happy that I tried something new and it paid off in a big way!
The avocado crema made the dish. Sooo delicious and tastes just like authentic pico and flavors from mexican restaurant. Would have preferred meat included with this - I added ground beef and taco seasoning to the rice in the zucchini boats and it was fabulous. Also, it was missing the southwest seasoning so the rice was not flavorful- I tried to improvise with my own spices.
This was surprisingly delicious! Very simple and fast to prepare, and although the pico de gallo was much more basic than how I would normally prepare it, it was really delicious and a perfect compliment to the stuffed zucchini. I only wish there was a little more cilantro. The crema with the guacamole was so good!
Southwest stuffed zucchini It's fun to cook and was the favorite recipe in my family. We love the taste. I was surprised because the meat lovers in my family love this recipe the best. No meat lol
I forgot to add a protein but we loved it. I really enjoyed the pico and the avocado crema. Next time we order this we will add a chicken or beef to go with it. One of the zucchini we got had a side that had gone bad but I just cut it off and we had 3 boats and I even had one to take to work the next day!
I like that your zucchini boats are different combinations. This was superb. And thank you for medium sized zucchini's. Last time one was small and the other barely medium. This is a favorite version of zucchini boats. We added fresh avocado, and the pico was good... added an extra half tomato we had.
It was tasty. The zucchini was a little too small to make into a boat so I cut it into half moons and turned it into a southwest zucchini bowl.
This was so good I've bought the ingredients at the grocery store and made it THREE TIMES! My goal this winter is to find more ingredients that I can use to make stuffed zucchini boats. Healthy and delicious.
My family loved this. My daughter had seconds, and my husband went back for thirds. We had NO leftovers, which is rare. (And a little disappointing, as I was looking forward to packing a zucchini boat for lunch the next day!). All in all, this felt like a complete, satisfying vegetarian meal. The avocado crema was yummy, but we definitely could have used more cheese and sour cream.
The rice was delicious as a side dish BUT I think the zucchini would have tasted much better stuffed ONLY with the ground beef. The Pico de Gallo and Avocado Creme were very tasty.
