Kousa bi laban

Spiced beef stuffed zucchini in a cooked garlic yogurt sauce. An absolute showstopper of a dish, served with vermicelli rice!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Middle Eastern

Diet Halal, Vegetarian

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings

Calories 123kcal

Author Farah Abumaizar

Equipment

Blender or immersion blender
Vegetable or apple corer

Ingredients

For the yogurt sauce (laban)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bunch cilantro (coriander), finely chopped about 1 heaped cup
6 garlic cloves, crushed or minced
32 oz full fat yogurt 1 kg, sour yogurt preferred
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt plus extra for sprinkling on cilantro
2 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water

For the stuffed zucchini:

1/4 cup vegetable oil
2-3 lb Lebanese zucchini (summer squash, baby marrow, gray squash) 1-1.5kg, about 16-22 pieces

For the spiced beef:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon all spice or seven spices
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 lb lean ground beef 500g
1/4 cup toasted pine nut or almond slivers see notes

Instructions

To prep the zucchini:

Core the zucchini about 3/4 of the way down, until hollowed out. You can save the cores for another use, see recipe card below.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the cored zucchini in batches, frying about 5 minutes a side until golden brown and starting to soften. Remove from the heat to a paper towel lined plate.

For the spiced meat and stuffing the zucchini:

In a large skillet over medium high heat, add the olive oil. Once hot, add the diced onions and cook for 3-4 minutes until softened, stirring continuously.
Add the crushed garlic, and cook for a further minute or so, then add the minced beef.
Cook for a minute, breaking apart any clumps of meat with a wooden spoon, cooking, a good 6-8 minutes until beef is all cooked through and brown with no pink bits remaining. Keep stirring and breaking apart clumps of meat.
If desired, drain any extra fat. Add all the spices (seven spice or all spice, cinnamon, salt and black pepper) and stir to combine. Taste the mince and adjust for seasoning. Stir in the toasted nuts.
Using a small spoon, or even better your hands, stuff the hollowed out zucchini all the way to the top with cooked beef. Make sure it's stuffed tight and compact, press in with your finger at the very top to indent the meat inside. This will prevent meat from coming out as it cooks in the yogurt sauce. Set the stuffed zucchini aside.

For the yogurt sauce:

Heat a small skillet over medium high heat, and saute the chopped cilantro and crushed garlic with a pinch of salt until the garlic has just turned golden. Set aside.
Mix the cornstarch with the water to form a paste.
Using a blender or immersion blender, blend together the yogurt, the egg, the cornstarch paste,and the salt until well combined.
Pour yogurt mixture into a heavy saucepan over medium heat and immediately start whisking. Keep whisking and don't stop or the sauce will separate. After around 10 minutes or so, the sauce will begin to boil and as soon as that happens take it off the stove.
Add the fried garlic and coriander mix, stir and taste for seasoning. Add any salt you feel it needs, and a splash of water if you think sauce is too thick.
Add the stuffed zucchini to this pot of yogurt. Simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until zucchini is completely tender and cooked through, don't let the yogurt sauce come to a boil.
Seve with toasted almond slivers or pine nuts on top and vermicelli rice on the side (see notes for rice recipe).

Video

Notes

Toasted nuts: Toast the pine nuts or almond slivers by heating a drizzle of olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat, then adding the nuts. Stir frequently until golden brown (a few minutes) then immediately remove from the skillet into a small bowl so they don't burn.

Yogurt: regular plain yogurt full fat works great. You can also sub for Greek yogurt, or if you're in the Middle East and have access to it, go for sour yogurt. It'll give an even tangier flavor Make sure to keep whisking the yogurt sauce when it's on the stove. If you stop, you risk the sauce splitting and curdling. Just whisk away until it first comes to a boil, then immediately remove it from the heat.

Vermicelli Rice: For the vermicelli rice, recipe here.

Storing leftovers: Leftover kousa bi labanwill last tightly covered in the fridge for 3-4 days tightly covered. Reheat over low heat and if it the yogurt sauce is too thick, add a splash of water.

Freezing stuffed zucchini: You can freeze hollowed out zucchini, or the sauteed and meat stuffed zucchini. They might retain a little water when you thaw them, but they'll still be fine. Freeze for up to 2 months.

Using up zucchini cores: This old fashioned zucchini casserole is the perfect recipe to use up the inside of the zucchini, as well as these zucchini fritters, zucchini chocolate cake, healthy zucchini brownies, and apple zucchini bread.

Nutrition