Stuffed Zucchini with Roasted Bell Pepper, and Purple Onion

I love, love vegetables. I love to eat them, but I often find myself at loss on how to prepare them. Of course, you can grill, roast, steam, saute all your vegetables, and you can vary the spices that you use, but I am not very creative when cooking vegetables and like many of you I end up making the same vegetables over and over again.

I cannot remember where I saw a recipe of stuffed zucchinis, but I thought why not stuffed them with vegetables instead of meat to make it a truly vegetable dish. So  here it is :

Ingredients for 4 :

• 4 medium sized zucchinis about 4-5 inches long
• 1 small purple onion
• 1 whole roasted bell pepper ( a big jar can be found in grocery store or at Costco)
• 1/2 cup of parmesan,  swiss cheese or even feta ( optional)
• 1 tsp of demarle rosemary and thyme spice
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1/8 tsp of pepper
• 1 tbsp of olive oil

1. If you have not purchased roasted bell peppers, you will need to roast the fresh ones yourself. It is quite easy. Since it  just takes times, you may as well prepare a few more to keep in your fridge for more recipes.  Slice the bell peppers in half. Place then onto the silpat skin up, and roast them for 30 minutes at 450. When they are roasted, let them cool first by placing a silpat over them to keep them from drying up. When they are somewhat cooler, place them into a plastic bag and let them cool completely. The reason why you will want to place them into a bag, is to allow them to “perspire” and it will be easier for you to peel the skin off. 
2. After 30 minutes to an hour, when they are completely cool. Carefully peel of the skin. It should come off fairly easy. Et voila. 
3. Slice and dice one whole bell pepper and place it into a large bowl.
4. Rinse the zucchinis thoroughly under running water. Then with a sharp knife, slice the zucchini in half in its length. With a melon grater, or a little spoon, grate the inside of the zucchinis. Place the “meat” of the zucchinis onto a chopping block, and chop the zucchini “meat” finely. Empty it into a bowl where you would have already placed the diced bell pepper. Set aside. 
5. Chop the onion very finely. 
6. In a large saute pan, warm up a tbsp of olive oil and when the oil is warm, saute the onion until it becomes a dark amber color.
7. Empty the onion in the bowl where you would have placed the zucchini’s “meat”.
8. Add the salt, pepper, 1 tsp of rosemary and thyme and 1/2 cup of cheese ( optional). Mix well. 
9. Fill the zucchinis with the mixture and place them into a deep flexipan that you would have placed onto a medium perforated sheet. 
   
10. Cook for 20-30 minutes ( it will depend how big they are. the larger, the longer they will need). Enjoy!!!

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!!!