Maqmoor with Zucchini

Maqmoor with Zucchini

Syrian-style Maqmoor with zucchini: hollowed zucchini is stuffed with a mixture of ground meat, Egyptian rice, onion, parsley, pomegranate molasses, and spices, then broiled in the oven from above at 180°C. It is then cooked in a sauce of onion, tomato paste, and hot water until tender, and served hot with pomegranate molasses, pine nuts, and parsley.

A Syrian-style cooked dish made with zucchini.

Like a simple zucchini stew or baked vegetable dish.

Use fresh zucchini and cook until tender so the flavors blend well.

Ingredients

  • 2 kg zucchini
  • half a kilo ground meat
  • 1 cup Egyptian rice
  • parsley
  • 3 onions onion
  • 2 onions finely chopped onion for the meat seasoning
  • 2½ tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon seven-spice blend
  • 3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
  • oil
  • a little pine nuts
  • hot water

Instructions

  1. Prepare the zucchini stuffing in a frying pan with oil and finely chopped onion, then add the salt.
  2. Add the ground meat to the frying pan and stir it with the onion and salt until cooked.
  3. Add Egyptian rice to the frying pan with the meat and stir until it absorbs the flavor.
  4. Add the parsley to the frying pan at the end of preparation without cooking it.
  5. Add pomegranate molasses to the frying pan to make the stuffing tangy.
  6. Leave the stuffing in a tray or bowl to cool before stuffing.
  7. Hollow out the zucchini at the preparation area, not too deeply as for stuffed vegetables, leaving some of the flesh inside.
  8. Stuff the zucchini with the prepared filling, leaving it not completely full.
  9. Brush the zucchini with oil, then arrange it on an oven tray.
  10. Set the oven to heat from above at 180°C, and broil the zucchini in the oven, turning it continuously until it takes on color.
  11. Prepare the sauce in the frying pan by adding oil, then sliced onion wedges with salt and spices, until the onion softens.
  12. Add the tomato paste to the frying pan, then add hot water to adjust the color and consistency.
  13. Add the broiled zucchini to the frying pan with the sauce and leave it covered over a heat higher than medium for half an hour, until tender.
  14. Serve the dish hot on a serving platter with pomegranate molasses on top, and sprinkle with pine nuts and parsley.

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