Low calorie, low carb, low fat but high flavor turkey Zucchini Taco Boats are a great meal! Everyone will love this recipe full of flavor and tons of fiber!
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Serve these zucchini taco boats for dinner and then keep with the zucchini theme and have zucchini brownies or chocolate marble zucchini bread for dessert.
I’m really trying to eat better. Not only am I trying to lose about 10 leftover pregnancy pounds, but the Mr. is diabetic. Have I mentioned that before? You probably wouldn’t know it with all the baked goods and pasta I make.
He is way more disciplined than I am and doesn’t often indulge, but still. I need to try harder to make low carb meals for him. So, making these zucchini boats into turkey tacos sounded like a great idea!
When I was working on this dish (very quickly, while the baby was occupied with her floor mat), I didn’t have high hopes for it. I love zucchini, but I don’t always love ground turkey. Not that I don’t love it, actually, I just don’t cook with it often.
But then, as I was scooping the meat mixture into the zucchini boats, and tried a spoonful, I knew it was going to be awesome. And the finished product definitely was.
While Julia was patient while I was cooking, she was not so patient for the plating/photographing phase. For that reason, these pictures don’t do the dish justice, but I promise it’s really good.
INGREDIENTS
- Zucchini – Four medium zucchini
- Salsa – I highly recommend making your own salsa (this one is so good!), but jarred works too.
- Ground Turkey
- Garlic Powder
- Cumin
- Salt
- Chili Powder
- Paprika
- Onion
- Tomato Sauce
- Water
- Mexican Cheese Blend – shredded
- Sour Cream – optional for serving
TOOLS FOUND ON AMAZON TO HELP YOU:
TIPS FOR MAKING ZUCCHINI BOATS:
- I highly recommend making your own salsa to go into these zucchini boats turkey tacos. It is so easy and so worth it. It makes this dish that much better and you’ll have plenty left over to eat for days with other things.
- Use a melon baller like this Melon Baller with Two Sizes to scoop seeds out of the middle to make the “boats”.
- Make sure to spray your pan to prevent them from sticking on the bottom.
- Don’t overcook the zucchini. You want it soft, but not mushy.
NEED MORE ZUCCHINI RECIPES IN YOUR LIFE? TRY THESE:
These Zucchini Taco Boats are sure to be a hit with your family. Just think of how much healthier Taco Tuesday will be?
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Zucchini Boat Turkey Tacos
Ingredients
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to boil.
- Pour 1/2 cup of salsa into the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish and set aside.
- Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise then with a small spoon or melon baller (I used my tablespoon measuring spoon), hollow out the zucchini pieces but leave 1/4″ rim. Save 3/4 cup of the zucchini flesh and chop into small pieces.
- Drop the zucchini halves into the boiling water and cook for one minute. Remove from water and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- In a large skillet, brown the ground turkey, breaking it up while it cooks. When it’s no longer pink, add in the spices and mix well.
- Add in the chopped onion, reserved zucchini, tomato sauce, and water. Stir it up then cover and simmer on low for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, arrange the boiled zucchini halves into the bottom of the 9×13 dish.
- Once the meat mixture is done, spoon the mixture into the zucchini boats evenly. Press down so the filling stays in the boats.
- Top each half with a sprinkle of cheese.
- Cover the pan with foil and bake for approximately 30 minutes until the zucchini is fully cooked and the cheese is melted.
- Serve with sour cream and more salsa.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying/pasting and/or screenshots of full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Content and photographs are copyright protected.
With meals like this, you can afford to have some of our delicious Chocolate Brownies for dessert!
Originally published July 1, 2014
I made the zucchini tacos, but changed all the spices to make them Italian. They were awesome. Thank you for such a delicious recipe. It is a keeper, in both the Mexican and Italian formats, that will help me in my low carb eating plan.
I’ve done the same thing – added marinara and Italian seasonings! I’m glad you liked them, thank you for letting me know =)
Has anyone by chance figured out the calories and/or other nutritional info? Made it tonight and was really good. Thanks
Hi Debbie 🙂 I’ve added a button that says “Click here for recipe nutrition” to the bottom of a lot of my posts – it takes you to a site called My Recipe Magic which calculates the nutritional info. One serving of these Zucchini Boat Turkey Tacos is calculated to be approx. 210 calories/9.75 g of fat. Here is the link: http://myrecipemagic.com/recipe/recipedetail/zucchini-boat-turkey-tacos Hope that helps!
I have a question on the nutrition – my husband is also a diabetic on an insulin pump, so we count carbs. According to your chart – you say 4 servings. Do you mean 2 halves are one serving? I was a little confused. Thank you! Making this tonite!
Hi Barb,
Yes, I meant 2 halves = 1 serving. So, it *could* serve 4 people, but last night I had 2 halves and my husband had 4. Even more confused?? haha
It really depends on the size of your zucchini. Sorry I’m not more help, we don’t count carbs, we’re just very mindful of them. Let me know how you like them!
Thank you for the fantastic recipe! My whole family enjoyed your recipe, even my adult son who normally won’t eat ground turkey.
Yay! Love to hear that =) Honestly, I’m not a huge ground turkey fan either, but this one I love.
Thank you for sharing this, it is the perfect recipe to bring to a company potluck. I plan to make halves for easy finger food apps. My thought was this could be considered a healthy version of potato skins, “zucchini skins”. Can you tell me why you put salsa in the bottom prior to cooking, and why you boiled the zucchini?
Hi Ginger,
You parboil the zucchini so that you don’t wind up with crunchy zucchini. You will still bake it, but I find that boiling it for a couple minutes helps with the baking. The salsa at the bottom of the pan helps add flavor and prevents the zucchini from sticking to the dish =)
I’m not sure it’s much of a finger food but I’ve never tried making halves. Let me know how it goes!
How do you change this to Italian?
However you want 😉 I haven’t made an Italian version.
We love this dish, and make it all the time. I also use the salsa recipe all the time now too. I make one batch and freeze it into smaller containers. The seasonings on this turkey is perfect, and I also use this as our go to taco seasoning. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! Oh and sometimes I boil the zucchini without coring it, and then chopping it all into the skillet for a one pot bake which is a lot quicker.
Yay – thanks so much for sharing, I’m glad you love it <3
Absolutely LOVE this recipe! Even my children, ages 11 & 10, love it. I’ve recommended and passed this recipe on to others!
Yay 🙂 🙂
Delicious!
I loved these so much! Thanks for a great recipe!
I just made this recipe, following the instructions exactly, and it turned out soooo good! My fiancé and I both loved it and are excited that we meal prepped so many servings! The amount of spices seemed like a lot when I was cooking, but the flavors were perfect.
I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for leaving a review 🙂
Why do you boil the zucchini for a minute?
You parboil the zucchini so that you don’t wind up with crunchy zucchini. You will still bake it, but I find that boiling it for a couple minutes helps with the baking.
i am on a low carb diet and made it tonite. I love it! my Husband ( he did not know it was low carb and low cal ) said” you have to make this more often, it’s really good”
Yay! The low carb/low cal is an added bonus =)
Absolutely delicious!!! The seasoning was perfect. Thank you for sharing this recipe and this will be my Taco Tuesday recipe every other week.
That makes me happy, thanks for letting me know!
Such a yummy healthy meal!! My family loved it.
Thank you, Jenna!