Recipe This | Bolognese Zucchini Boats In The Air Fryer (2024)

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Zucchini Boats In The Air Fryer loaded with Bolognese. Our Zucchini boats are cooked from start to finish in the air fryer with minimal prep and lots of Italian Bolognese flavour. We love to binge on zucchini boats for a quick lunch with the kids and it is perfect toddler food too.

Recipe This | Bolognese Zucchini Boats In The Air Fryer (1)

Zucchini Boats In The Air Fryer is a delicious Milner family favourite and is updated to reflect our current readership. Originally published on RecipeThis.com back in 2016.

Table of Contents

Zucchini BoatsIn The Air Fryer

Can you imagine how great it would be to cook a Bolognese in the air fryer and then load it into zucchini boats for the best tasting zucchini boats that you have ever tried?

Wellthis is exactly what I am doing right here and right now!

Theproblem I often find when cooking zucchini boats is that the zucchini is nevercrispy enough as you always want that just grilled texture.

Thenadd to this the problem with cooking a Bolognese. You hate the fact that you mustkeep stirring the Bolognese and want an easier option.

Wellthis is when my Bolognese zucchini boats in the air fryer become the perfectlunch. The Bolognese is cooked in the air fryer and you don’t need toconstantly stir it and the zucchini boats are crispy thanks to the greattechnology of the air fryer.

Or if Bologneseis not your thing, you can swap it for another filling for your zucchini boats.

Thechoice is yours.

What Are ZucchiniBoats?

You mightbe wondering what a zucchini boat is. Basically, it is where you chop up andremove most of the flesh of a zucchini so that it is the shape of a boat. Thenyou fill it with your favourite fillings and toppings.

It makes analternative to bread or pizza in your favourite recipes.

My favourite filling for a zucchini boat is Bolognese but a lot of favourites work well too. Just imagine your favourite buffalo chicken, Tuscan chicken, hamburger helper or even baked beans inside of a zucchini boat.

ZucchiniBoats For Toddlers

Let me show you a quick cute picture:

Are Zucchini Boats Healthy?

Recipe This | Bolognese Zucchini Boats In The Air Fryer (4)

I call myzucchini boats fairly healthy. That is because they have cheese in them foryour cheese fix. They would be considered low carb, Keto Weight Watchers orSlimming World friendly though if you follow a diet.

We couldnever call processed cheese healthy, but it’s a much better alternative thangiving your kids a can of Bolognese or a Bolognese pizza for their lunch.

You couldlose the cheese on top if you wanted to keep the zucchini boats 100% healthy.And replace it with something crispy such as quinoa.

Can You ReheatZucchini Boats?

Yes you can! Place them back in the air fryer in its basket or the air fryer grill pan and reheat at 160c/320f for 3 minutes. Then they are lovely and hot again like they were when you originally cooked them.

How To FreezeZucchini Boats?

If the zucchiniboats are fully cooked wait until they are cool, place them on a baking tray inthe freezer and wait until they are partly frozen. Then remove them from thetray and place into freezer bags. This will stop the zucchini boats from stickingtogether.

If theyare uncooked wrap them in silver foil and freeze them in separate portions. Butdon’t include the grated cheese to the top of the zucchini boats until at theend of the cooking process.

Zucchini BoatsCook Time?

To createthe perfect zucchini boats the cook time is quicker than you would think.

10 minutes forcooking the Bolognese. This is based onusing a dish inside of your air fryer so that you don’t have any Bolognese escaping.
10 minutes forcooking your zucchini and getting themnice and crispy.
2 minutes for yourloaded zucchini boats in the air fryerand giving the cheese a chance to melt.
22 minutes totaltime from start to finish. I love thefact that my zucchini boats cook time is so low!

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What To ServeWith Zucchini Boats?

I live on the Mediterranean this means we don’t have bigappetites and instead tend to eat small portions. Because of this we find acouple of zucchini boats each is adequate for our lunch, so rarely have it witha side.

But if you wanted to serve your zucchini boats with a sideor maybe you want a smaller portion of zucchini boats then I would recommendthe following:

Instant Pot Garlic Spaghetti – My number #1 Italian cheat recipe in the Instant Pot which I originally cooked in a field on a camping holiday.

Air Fryer Potato Wedges – For me zucchini boats are like having pizza and you just want more finger food to go with it.

Air Fryer Veggie Fries – Keep the vegetable party going with some veggie fries. They are delicious and so easy to make in the air fryer alongside your zucchini boats.

Print Recipe

Bolognese Zucchini Boats In The Air Fryer

Zucchini Boats In The Air Fryer loaded with Bolognese. Our Zucchini boats are cooked from start to finish in the air fryer with minimal prep and lots of Italian Bolognese flavour. We love to binge on zucchini boats for a quick lunch with the kids and it is perfect toddler food too.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time22 minutes mins

Total Time27 minutes mins

Ingredients

Kitchen Gadgets:

Recipe Ingredients:

2 Medium Zucchinis
300 g Pork Mince
½ Large Onion Diced
400 g Tinned Tomatoes
1 Tbsp Garlic Puree
2 Tsp Oregano
50 g Hard Cheese optional
Salt & Pepper

Metric – Imperial

Instructions

Place your minced pork, garlic, diced onion and a little salt and pepper into an air fryer cake pan. Cook for 8 minutes at 180c/360f in the air fryer.
Stir in tinned tomatoes and oregano and cook for a further 2 minutes at 200c/400f.
Slice the zucchini in half lengthways and remove centre from the zucchini using a spoon.
When the air fryer beeps load the cooked Bolognese into the zucchini boats and place the zucchini boats in the air fryer on the grill pan. Cook for a further 10 minutes at 180c/360f.
Once it beeps add cheese on top and cook for a further 2 minutes at 200c/400f.

Notes

Because you’re using minced pork instead of minced beef it carries more fat and doesn’t need olive oil.

When cooked you can chop them into bite sized pieces as its perfect little pizzas for toddlers.

You need to press the cheese down on the zucchini boats otherwise the air will take them.

If your zucchinis are really large chop them in half and then each zucchini would make 4 zucchini boats instead of 2.

If you live outside of the US a zucchini is a courgette. If you live in the US minced pork might be known as ground pork.

You can grate or slice on any of your favourite cheeses that melt well. My favourite is English cheddar, but the choice is yours.

Nutrition

Nutrition InfoPlease Note: Nutrition values are our best estimate based on the software we use at Recipe This and are meant as a guide. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.

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