Caveman Sam

Last night I made something primal that even the cavekids liked. So far in my primal journey this is rare. Unless I make bacon of course. Everyone likes bacon.

There are tons of recipes out there for zucchini boats. It’s a relatively simple concept: scoop out innards of zucchini. Put delicious stuff where the zucchini innards used to be. Bake. Eat.

Even a caveman can do it. So I did.

I pulled ideas from a number of recipes and when it was time to buy the ingredients on our most recent shopping expedition I found some organic chicken Andouille sausage. I thought it would be perfect for these boats. I think it was.

Andouille Sausage Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Servings: 2-4

Ingredients:

• 1 large zucchini, or a couple small ones
• 2 Andouille sausages, chopped (I used chicken sausages)
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 3-4 small tomatoes, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 medium mushrooms, chopped
• 2 splashes of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon. pepper

Directions:

1) Cut zucchini in half the long way.  Scoop out zucchini innards until the shell is about 1/4 inch think. Keep about 1/3 of the zucchini guts.

2) Chop up the onion and mince the garlic. Or just use a garlic press like I did. Sauté the onion and garlic in the first splash of olive oil until tender, about 4-5 minutes.  While they’re cooking, chop up the mushrooms then throw them in the sauté pan along with the zucchini. Cook the mixture for a few more minutes. Remove from heat.

3) Heat the second splash of olive oil and throw in the chopped up hunks of Andouille sausage. Cook until lightly they’re browned on all sides and smell delicious.  Stir in the cooked vegetable mixture.  Then throw in the diced tomatoes, basil and rosemary and cook another minute or so. Set aside to cool.

4) Preheat the oven to 350° F.  After the stuff mixture has cooled a little, mix in the Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper.  Fill the zucchini shells with the mixture.  Fill a baking dish with 1/4-inch of water.  Place the filled zucchini shells in the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes. Probably less if you’re using smaller zucchinis. Remove those beautiful boats and serve immediately.

I used the cavewoman’s tomato scooper thingy for this. You could use a melon scoop or just a spoon I guess.

Zucchini boats ready for passengers of deliciousness.

Kapow! I love how my garlic press becomes a garlic shooter with crispy cloves and the right pressure.

Sizzle.

The photo quality is much improved with the use of my flash but I was hoping to catch the gas flame under the pan. Alas, the flash was too powerful.

When I cut the sausages in half lengthwise like the zucchini I considered just putting them in like that with the other stuff piled on top. Maybe I’ll try it next time.

More sizzle. And while it’s sizzling you can do this:

I made it a theme to cut everything in half lengthwise for this recipe.

Get everything back in there and add the spices and tomatoes… It was smelling marvelously at this point.

After it’s cooled throw the remaining ingredients in and:

Stir! (Observe the evil Halloween bowl filled with Satan’s candy in the background.)

Load ‘em up.

35 minutes later:

I’ve never been a big vegetable fan but these are really good. The cavekids even ate little sections and then asked for more. We’ll definitely be making these again. Special thanks goes out to the cavewoman for helping with the photography. I struggled to take photos of myself chopping various things. she stepped up and did a great job. As I’m sure you’ve noticed.