Easy Zucchini Pizza Boats
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With a handful of ingredients and your favorite pizza toppings you can turn zucchini into quick and delicious Zucchini Pizza Boats. Perfect for lunch or dinner!
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Raise your hand if you love pizza. Now raise your hand if you don’t get to enjoy it nearly as often as you’d like. Same here!
When I first tried zucchini pizza boats, I realized it wasn’t the crust I was missing but the combination of sauce, gooey cheese, and all the toppings. As long as I can pile those flavors onto something else, I’m just as happy.
These zucchini boats have become my favorite stand-in for pizza. They’re especially perfect in the summer when zucchini is everywhere. And honestly, having too much zucchini is never a problem—you can turn it into so many delicious dishes like crispy Italian zucchini fritters or elegant zucchini involtini.
The base recipe I share below is for vegetarian pizza zucchini boats but you can make them vegan with a cheese substitute, though I haven’t tried that myself. The fun part, of course, is piling your favorite pizza toppings on these, whether you keep it vegetarian or add in some meat.
A Quick Look At The Ingredients
Get the full list of ingredients and amounts needed for this recipe in the recipe card below.
What Makes This so Great?
- Make it your own – Use whatever topping you love on pizza to jazz up these Italian zucchini boats. Add mushroom, bell peppers, pepperoni, Italian sausage, or even bacon.
- Gluten-free pizza alternative – This recipe will satisfy your pizza cravings without any of the guilt.
- Quick recipe – In addition to being delicious, this stuffed zucchini boats recipe is also super easy to make. There’s only about 10 minutes of hands-on time. Perfect for busy weeknights or even lunch!
Step-By-Step Made Simple
I like to make sauce ahead of time so I often use the Ragu Sauce I usually have frozen or my quick 15-minute marinara sauce.
For recipe purposes I kept things simple with just cheese and sauce but if you want to add toppings it is best to do so under the cheese before you bake them.
Leftovers? No problem!
Storing: I usually keep my zucchini boats in the fridge for up to 4 days. I just pop them into an airtight container or wrap them in foil.
Reheating: When it’s time to reheat, I stick them in the oven until the zucchini is warmed through and the cheese is melty again. I skip the microwave since it makes them too soft.
Freezing: I don’t recommend freezing these. Cooked zucchini just doesn’t hold up well, and once it thaws with all that extra moisture, the boats turn mushy. Add pizza sauce to the mix and it’s pretty much a soggy mess.
Easy Zucchini Pizza Boats
Equipment
- Oven
- Chopping Knife
- Spoon
- Blender
- Baking Sheet
- Measuring Spoons
- Measuring Cups
Ingredients
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 2 cloves garlic
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp oregano
- 1 ½ cup mozzarella cheese shredded
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper.
- Wash and trim the zucchini and cut them lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop the seeds and a create a hollow inside for the filling to sit.
- Place the sauce, garlic, oregano and salt in a blender and blend until smooth.
- Spoon the sauce into the hollowed-out part of the zucchini making sure not to overfill.
- Top with mozzarella and any other topping you wish. Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and zucchinis are fork tender but not mushy.
Nutrition
Notes
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
I may have missed it somewhere in the description, but how many zucchini are needed for the recipe? Would the recipe for 4 servings need 2 full zucchini or 4? Thank you!
About 4 medium sized zucchini are recommended but if you have fewer or more just adjust the other ingredients accordingly. This recipe scales up and down just fine.
this is the worst recipe ever! I followed the recipe and baked for 25 min, but the outside got burned and the zucchini was not cooked so I tried for an additional 15 min at 380, and now they turned out halfway cooked. what a waste!
Hi Zakia, I am sorry this happened to you but this does not seem possible. It should not take that long to cook zucchini. Did you use Zucchinis similar in size to what was shown in the ingredient photo or did you bake an oversized zucchini which would absolutely need more time? I use zucchinis that are about 8 or 9″ long and about 2-3 inches in diameter.
These really came out great. I am looking forward to trying more toppings the next time I make them.
These are such a tasty way to have pizza flavors, healthier! I love them. Perfect for the kids.