This authentic Lebanese squash recipe, also known as kousa mahshi, is stuffed squash filled with a spiced meat and rice mixture. Once cooked in a tomato broth, these clean & simple ingredients are transformed into a healthy and comforting meal.
As a third generation Lebanese American, I am thrilled to share this family recipe with you!
It was fun to collect all our family stuffed kousa recipes and test them. Some of my Aunties don't like to use allspice or 7 spice because they simply don't like the taste. My Dad started to use finely chopped onion in his hashweh (Lebanese for stuffing) mixture. One of my cousins uses ground chicken instead of beef. But other than subtle nuances, it was reassuring that all the recipes were the same.
I think my family still is in disbelief that it's spelled kousa and not cousa (thanks Joey). Some other common mis-spellings are koosa & coosa.
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Why you'll love this
- It's the ultimate healthy yet satisfying dish
- Great for make ahead or meal prep
- Unique dish to impress your guests
How this recipe fits into your specialty diet
This Lebanese kousa recipe is designed to be…
- Gluten Free
- Dairy Free
- Refined Sugar Free
Always be sure to check your ingredient labels if you have a food sensitivity, allergy or preference.
Ingredients
- Squash or zucchini: Many prefer to use kousa but zucchini or yellow summer squash work just as well. You'll want to try and find squash that are small, straight and wide. Kousa is a Lebanese zucchini that is light green, straight and small. It can usually be found year round at middle eastern markets - call and ask if they have kousa. You may also be able to find it at international grocery stores or farmers markets. Some other common names for it are Mexican squash, Mexican zucchini, gray squash, Lebanese squash or Lebanese zucchini.
- Ground lamb or beef: buying 100% grass fed beef / lamb that is raised without hormones or antibiotics is the cleanest meat you can buy in most grocery stores today. The animals consume grass as they would in their natural habitat which it is lower in fat than grain fed cows. I buy mine from ButcherBox because it's also grass finished meaning they are never fed any grains, unlike grass fed cows which are typically fed grain in the last season of their life.
- Long grain white parboiled rice: it's important to use parboiled uncooked white rice because it is fluffy and not sticky. Parboiled rice is partially precooked in its husk which retains more nutrients than most refined white rice. My favorite brands are Uncle Ben's Original and Carolina Gold.
- Allspice or 7 spice: I use allspice for simplicity but traditionally this recipe uses a Lebanese spice mix called 7 spice which is a blend of allspice, black pepper, cinnamon, ground cloves, cumin, ground coriander, and white pepper.
- Mint: fresh or dried
- Fresh parsley
- Tomatoes: any type of crushed, chopped, diced or puréed tomatoes will work great.
- Water
- Salt & Ground black pepper
See the recipe card below for exact quantities.
Ingredients Substitutions & Variations
- Squash substitutes: zucchini, baby eggplants or bell peppers.
- Long grain white parboiled rice: any type of white rice is a good substitute, the texture just might be more clumpy and sticky. DO NOT use brown rice, wild rice, or any other grain variations since their cook times are too long.
- Beef/lamb substitutes: ground chicken, ground turkey or ground meat alternative (like beyond beef) for a vegan variation.
- Allspice / 7 spice substitute: you can omit this, it will still taste great.
- Tomato substitute: tomato juice can be used.
- Salt conversions: if you are not using fine sea salt, use this salt conversion chart.
- Variations: Some of my relatives add chopped onions and garlic into the stuffing after sautéing in olive oil. Some also add lemon juice and garlic into the tomato broth.
How to make this Lebanese squash recipe
1. Hollow out squash: slice off the squash stem and the brown spot at the opposite end without removing too much of the squash. If your squash has a skinny neck, remove that too so that your squash is easier to hollow out. If you are using a very large zuchinni, cut it in half and hollow out each side treating each side as it's own squash.
Using a vegetable corer, apple corer, electric veggie core drill or small pairing knife hollow out the squash and remove the flesh without puncturing the outside or the bottom of the squash. I highly recommend investing in a coring tool, I can't imagine doing this with a pairing knife - that requires some serious skill. Only the top of the squash should be hollow, there should be a layer of squash still intact across the bottom.
If you poke a hole in the squash - it's totally ok! You can still use it. The filling will not fall out and it will still taste great. I always poke a few holes, you get better as you go.
2. Create the tomato broth: combine the water, crushed tomatoes and salt in a large pot.
3. Mix the rice stuffing: finely mince the mint and parsley. Combine the mint and parsley with ground lamb or beef, rice, crushed tomatoes, allspice, salt and black pepper. Mix gently until just combined. Be careful not to over mix or your meat will be tough and less flavorful.
4. Stuff the squash: Loosely fill the squash with the rice mixture. Since the rice expands when it cooks it's important to not pack down the stuffing. You can fill them to the top. Wrap the leftover meat mixture in a thin layer of aluminum foil.
5. Cook: Place the squash and aluminum covered leftover stuffing into the large pot with the tomato broth. You can stack them horizontally or vertically, the stuffing will not fall out. Make sure they are covered with the broth, add more water if necessary. Bring to a boil (~10-15 minutes) on medium-high heat then cover and simmer on low heat for 60 minutes or until the meat and rice are fully cooked.
What to serve with Lebanese squash
- Lentils
- Pita bread (contains gluten)
- Leban yogurt sauce (contains dairy)
Expert Tips
- Prevent burning: If you are overcrowding your pan or cooking with too high of heat you may want to ask the butcher for some lamb bones to put at the bottom of your pan to avoid burning. I've never had this issue using a 7 quart dutch oven but some of my family members have with their metal pots.
- Room temperature squash is much easier to hollow out without cracking, it's more flexible.
- It's ok if your squash is punctured or has a crack - you can still use it! The beef mixture will not fall out.
Meal Prep & Storage
- Make ahead: This is the perfect meal to make ahead of time. Fully cook your stuffed squash and reheat when ready to serve. You can also core your squash up to 3 days ahead of time and store them in the fridge.
- How to store: Once the dish comes to room temperature, store in an airtight container in the fridge up to 4 days.
- How to reheat: Reheat the squash in the tomato broth on medium heat on the stovetop until the middle of the stuffed squash is warm. Or reheat in the microwave after putting some slits into the squash to ensure the middle is heated through.
- How to freeze: You can freeze the cooked kousa stuffed squash for up to 3 months when kept in an air tight container or freezer bag, but the texture becomes very mushy so I don't recommend it. However, you can freeze the uncooked cored squash in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. You'll then stuff the frozen squash once you are ready to cook it. Since you are using frozen squash the cooking time will need to be extended until the meat and rice are fully cooked.
FAQs
Parboiled rice is partially precooked in its husk which retains more nutrients than most refined white rice. It's preferred for this recipe because of its texture and short cook time. It isn't sticky like typical white rice, instead each grain is fluffy and does not stick together. Two trusted parboiled rice brands are Uncle Ben's Original and Carolina Gold.
You can substitute short or long grain white rice but the texture will be more clumpy. Do not use any other types of rice or grains, they will likely not cook fully. And no one wants to eat uncooked rice.
In Arabic kousa mahski means stuffed zucchini. Traditionally it is cooked in a tomato broth and stuffed with a spiced lamb and rice hashweh (Arabic for stuffing). Kousa is commonly known as the Lebanese zucchini that is light green, straight and small.
Kousa is a Lebanese zucchini that is light green, straight and small. It can usually be found year round at middle eastern markets - call and ask if they have kousa. You may also be able to find it at international grocery stores or farmers markets. Some other common names for it are Mexican squash, gray squash, Lebanese squash or Lebanese zucchini.
Once you core your squash, you can use the leftover squash insides for squash fritters, quiche, smoothie, bone broth or stir fry.
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I hope you love this Lebanese squash recipe! If you make it I’d love if you could leave a rating & connect with me on Instagram @passthesprouts!
Recipe
Lebanese Squash Recipe
Equipment
- deep large pot at least 7 quarts, dutch oven is best to prevent burning
- corer tool zucchini corer, apple corer, electric veggie corer, pairing knife (not recommended)
- aluminum foil
Ingredients
Stuffed Squash
- 8 (large) or 16 (small) summer squash, zucchini or kousa squash the ideal squash is small (5 inches), straight & wide.
- 1 pound ground beef or lamb
- 1 cup long grain white parboiled rice (uncooked) Trusted parboiled rice brands: Uncle Ben's Original or Carolina Gold. You can also use any WHITE rice but texture will be more sticky.
- ¼ cup mint (fresh or dried) minced
- ¼ cup fresh parsley minced
- 1 teaspoon allspice or 7 spice optional
- 16 ounces crushed canned tomatoes buy a large 32 ounce can and divide in half - half for this stuffing and half for the tomato broth
- 2 teaspoons sea salt fine
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Tomato Broth (to cook the squash in)
- 64 ounces water room temperature, add enough to cover squash
- 16 ounces crushed tomatoes, canned buy a large 32 ounce can and divide in half - half for the stuffing and half for this tomato broth
- 2 teaspoon sea salt fine
Instructions
- Hollow out squash: slice off the squash stem and the brown spot at the opposite end without removing too much of the squash. If your squash has a skinny neck, remove that too so that your squash is more uniform in shape.If your squash is large you may want to cut it in half before hollowing it out. Treat it as if you were hollowing out two separate small squash.Using a vegetable corer, apple corer or small pairing knife (not recommended) hollow out the squash and remove the flesh trying not to puncture the outside or the bottom of the squash. Only the top of the squash should be hollow, there should be a layer of squash still intact across the bottom.
- Create the tomato broth: combine the water, crushed tomatoes and salt in a large pot.
- Mix the stuffing: finely mince the mint and parsley. Combine the mint and parsley with ground lamb or beef, uncooked rice, crushed tomatoes, allspice, salt and black pepper. Mix gently until just combined. Be careful not to over mix or your meat will be tough and less flavorful.
- Stuff the squash: Loosely fill the squash with the rice mixture. Since the rice expands when it cooks, do not pack down the stuffing but you can fill them to the top. Wrap the leftover meat mixture up in a thin layer of aluminum foil.
- Cook: Place the stuffed squash and aluminum covered leftover stuffing into the large pot with the tomato broth. Stack them horizontally or vertically, the stuffing will not fall out. Make sure they are covered with the broth, add more water if necessary. Bring to a boil (~10-15 minutes) on medium-high heat then cover and simmer on low heat for 60 minutes or until the meat and rice are fully cooked.
Video
Recipe Notes
-
- Prevent burning: If you are overcrowding your pan or cooking with too high of heat you may want to ask the butcher for some lamb bones to put at the bottom of your pan to avoid burning. I've never had this issue using a 7 quart dutch oven but some of my family members have.
- Room temperature squash is much easier to hollow out without cracking, it's more flexible.
- It's ok if your squash is punctured or has a crack - you can still use it! The mixture will not fall out.
- Salt conversions: if you are not using fine sea salt, use this salt conversion chart.
- Substitutions: ground beef (ground chicken, turkey, beyond meat). canned tomatoes (pureed tomatoes, tomato juice). squash (hollow out some bell peppers, baby eggplants, tomatoes). parboiled rice (any white rice).
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