prior to grilling:
after grilling:
- 1 small zucchini
- 1 small yellow squash
- 1 cup frozen or fresh corn
- 1/2 sweet pepper (red, orange or yellow)
- 1/2 apple
- 10 cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 c. fresh parsley
- 8 leaves fresh basil
- 1/4 c. olive oil (i used basil flavored, but regular evoo works too)
- 1/4 c. red wine vinegar (if you don’t have any good quality red wine vinegar, go with apple cider, balsamic or something with a sweeter flavor)
- freshly cracked sea salt and pepper
- lemon juice
- shredded parmesan cheese
slice zucchini and yellow squash in half lengthwise. with a small paring knife, carefully cut about 1/4″ around the inside of the skins. (just get the edges, trying to reach the bottom is tricky and leaves holes in the skins!) with a melon baller or spoon, start at a cut edge and hollow out the skins, leaving an empty “boat.” this requires patience and care, as the vegetable is raw and somewhat hard. once you get all the meat out, scrape the spoon along the inside to get any excess, leaving a little less than 1/4″ throughout. wrap shells in foil and refrigerate.
dice the meat from the zuchinni and squash, as well as the sweet pepper, apple and herbs and quarter the cherry tomatoes. combine all ingredients in air-tight bowl, and squeeze a little lemon juice to keep everything from going brown. mix well, and add freshly cracked salt and pepper to taste. (be generous!)
marinate in the fridge for 1 hour.
fill boats with veggie mixture. when the veggies are raw, they are much firmer and therefore, fill up the boats quickly. pack the veggies in, but don’t overload it, or you will have a mess on your hands. there will be some veggies leftover.
make a tight tinfoil package for each boat, leaving the crimped edge at the top so you can open it later on the grill. grill on top shelf over medium heat for about 20 minutes. open packets and top each with a couple tablespoons shredded parmesan. grill 5-10 more minutes or until cheese is hot and melty.
note: we served the boats with only a chicken breast (ok, premade cordon bleu, but all the cheese ran out on the grill) and it was a good healthy portion of food. however, if the extra veggies would have been cooked (in their own tinfoil pack without a boat, perhaps?) we probably would have eaten them. as it is, i happen to have a couple more zucchinis, so we’ll probably just have a repeat.
ps… jason said he might have liked a diced jalapeno added to the mix, just to spice it up a bit. i think i’ll try that on the replay.
