mouth watering kousa mehche (stuffed zucchini)

Who said traditional lebanese dishes can’t be presented in a modern creative way?

Mehche kousa or stuffed zucchini is one of the delicious traditional dishes that all lebanese families cook at least twice a month. Kids as adults love it. So succulent that people never bothered themselves to think of the esthetic presentation on the table .

Personally it’s one of my favourite dishes and i want to take it to the next level, by showing you how the presentation can be equivalent to the taste.

Isn’t mouth watering?

Usually kousa mehche is accompanied with wara’ arich or stuffed vine leaves to make the dish a killer.

Recipe:

• 1 kg kousa
• 200g ground beef
• 1 cup rice
• 2 medium tomatoes chopped
• tomato paste
• salt & pepper to taste

First you need to empty out the zucchini pulp with a special corer. Carve it as much as you can but try not to break it 🙂

Mix together the meat, rice, salt and pepper to stuff the zucchini to 3/4 full. The same stuffing is used also for the vine leaves.

Put the zucchini in the pot vertically, open side to the top so the rice will not go in the sauce. Add the chopped tomatoes, the paste and salt to taste then cover with water.

Bring it to boil then reduce to medium low flame and cook for 45 mns approx.

My mom is the queen of kousa mehche, she taught me!