How to Core Zucchini

Learn how to core zucchini to make foods like kousa mahshi using traditional and fast methods.

Why Core Zucchini?

Coring zucchini is needed to make foods that require the vegetable to be filled with other foods. Such as  Lebanese stuffed zucchini (Kousa Mahshi) filled with rice and vegetables.

The by-product is the remaining pulp, which is my family traditionally use to make foods such as zucchini flesh dip or zucchini with bulgur.

What You Will Need

Zucchini are the long cylindrical fruits that are either yellow or green in color. It is best to choose ones that are good quality and not bent in shape, a straight fruit is easy to work with when coring and then stuffing.

A coring tool either manual or electric. A coring tool in Arabic is called a manakra these tools are available with smooth or serrated sharp edges. Buy it from The Home Depot.

The electric corer is conveniently faster than the traditional manakra. It generally takes a quarter of the time to manual core.

Two bowls - one to catch the pulp as it is taken out of each vegetable and the other to collect the hollowed zucchini.

A paring knife for trimming off the ends.

How to Core Zucchini?

Step 1 - Thoroughly wash and dry zucchini

Step 2 - Using a paring knife, cut the ends off. Do not cut too much off the tip as you want to be able to maintain the shape. See note 1.

Step 3 - Using a corer, place the tip into the center of where the opening will be (this is where the stem was attached and not the flower, which is the larger end) See note 2. 

Step 4 - Gently start turning the corer using slight pressure to push into the flesh. Move the corer as if it were a screwdriver to push into the vegetable whilst rotating the zucchini. See video.

Step 5 - As the flesh is carved out, pull out to remove flesh and collect the pulp into a bowl. Clear any buildup on the coring wand. As the hole widens, the motion will become more like carving and you will move the corer around the inner perimeter scraping flesh out. Visually check the inside to know where more needs carving and where flesh may need to be scraped out.

Step 6 - Repeat step five, until there is no more flesh, every so often shaking out any loose flesh. Leave a perimeter of about 3mm of skin. 

How To Core A Zucchini Without A Corer?

Whilst I strongly recommend a manakra (corer), as its sole purpose is to hollow out vegetables, here are a few other kitchen tools that may help.

However, it is important to note that these methods may not yield the desired result.

• Try using an apple corer if the zucchini's have a big enough opening.
• Melon baller with a thin handle
• Grapefruit spoon
• A potato peeler the long scoop pencil version

Ways to Cook Zucchini Flesh

Here are several easy ways to cook zucchini flesh

Try it in my chickpea flour omelette packed with herbs and veggies,  which is based on my vegan ijjeh recipe, an open faced omelette.

Another use is in my sweet potato and zucchini fritters or this courgettes with baked beans by my friend Choclette.

Make savory muffins, they are great for any time of day, try these zucchini muffins that are savory.