This meal is great as your holiday main, featuring a zucchini boat stuffed with a lentil, rice, and cranberry mixture and topped with crispy mashed potatoes.
Prep Time1 hourhr
Cook Time40 minutesmins
Total Time1 hourhr40 minutesmins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: brown lentils, Cranberries, Potatoes, rice, wild rice, zucchini
Servings: 4Servings
Calories: 509kcal
Author: Jen deHaan
Equipment
Oven
Food processor and/or blender
Parchment paper
Baking sheet
Ingredients
1zucchiniMedium-ish. Please see notes!
Filling
2TbspwalnutsChopped fine. Substitute other nut or seed as desired
Cook wild rice, lentils, and chickpeas (or use canned/packaged if desired). These can be made anytime in advance and refrigerated.
Boil the potatoes while you prepare the zucchini.
Cut the zucchini in half, lengthwise (see photo). Scoop out the seeds to form a hollow center, and compost these seed-filled pieces.
Scoop out some additional flesh so there is a lager hollow center for the filling (see photo). Reserve the seedless zucchini pieces and add them to a large bowl.
Make the filling
Add 1/2 cup of cooked chickpeas, and all of the lentils and rice to the large bowl.
Add the remaining chickpeas (1/2 cup) to food processor or blender, along with the garlic, all dry spices. Blend until lumpy or smooth. If you have any trouble blending, add a bit of the aquafaba from the can or cooking water to the food processor.
Fold together this blend with the rice and lentil blend in the large bowl.
Add this filling into the hollow center of your zucchini boats.
Make the mashed potatoes
When the potatoes are tender, drain and set aside.
Add all ingredients from the potato flavoring section (oat milk, nutritional yeast, minced garlic and salt) to a bowl and whisk until smooth. Alternatively you can blend these ingredients in a blender.
Rice or mash the potatoes, adding about 1/2 cup of the "potato flavoring" (previous step) to this and fold until combined.
Add these mashed potatoes on top of the rice filling on your zucchini boat.
Make and apply the crunchy topping
Crush the cornflakes in a bowl.
Add some of the blended potato flavoring and optional seasonings (pepper, salt) into the corn flake mixture and stir to combine.
Add these crunchy bits on top of the mashed potatoes.
Bake it and serve
Place the two boats on a baking sheet. Cover with parchment paper or tin foil to protect the crunchy topping.
Bake at 375F for about 30 minutes until zucchini is fork tender. Remove the parchment paper and continue cooking about another 10 minutes until crunchy topping is golden brown.
Cut each boat in half, and serve with cranberry sauce or gravy.
Notes
Zucchinis: Sizes vary greatly! If you have particularly large zucchinis, I recommend increasing the recipe for fillings and toppings. You might have some extra, but you can add it to a dish and bake like a casserole.Potato flavoring: Makes 3/4 cup - used about 1/2 cup in potatoes, and reserved some to use for corn flake topping. Add remaining flavoring to potatoes or corn flake topping if consistency requires. Lentils: These might end up fairly mushy, or not, depending on what type you choose and also how you decide to cook them. I've made them both ways, and both work for this recipe. It does affect the texture, but it doesn't ruin the recipe either way.Corn flakes: Check the ingredients so they are suitable for you. You might need to check for honey (not plant-based or vegan), or malt (not gluten free if this is required for you). There are many options still available, and if you can only find a sweetened version this will work just fine in the recipe!