Beef taco zucchini roll ups

Delicious, spicy and low carb! This recipe is FULL of hidden vegetables and loaded with flavour...

Beef

• 500g mince beef

• 1 brown onion, chopped

• 2 medium carrots, grated

• 200g mushrooms, grated

• 1/2 cup of corn kernels (frozen is easiest and works very well)

• 4 garlic cloves, minced/chopped

• 1 can chopped tomatoes

• 1 beef stock cube

Seasoning below is homemade version, however a taco seasoning sachet will also work well if you don't have these ingredients.

• 3 tsp chilli powder (this will result in medium heat... lower to 1 teaspoon for lower spice and taste after reduced to modify further)

• 1 tsp cumin

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

• 1/4 tsp onion powder

• 1/2 tsp sweet paprika (smoked if possible)

• 1/4 tsp salt & pepper

• Water for simmering water amount will be based on how long you simmer for.

What else?

• 3 medium zucchinis

• 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese (half for rolls half for topping)

• 1/4 cup of either fresh finely sliced jalapeños or ones pickled ones (again lower quantity for lower spice level) 

• 1/4 coriander, chopped

Sides suggestions

• Sour cream

• Smashed avocado with sprinkle of salt, pepper, paprika and lemon

• Side salad

Mince

• In a hot pan/pot saute garlic and onion in a dash/spray of olive oil for 3-5 minutes until soft.

• Add mince and while cooking break up the mince into small spieces. Cook until brown.

• Add grated carrot and mushrooms. Continue to cook for 5 minutes.

• Add all spices, only half tomato can and 1 cup of water.

• Cover and leave on low simmer for as long as practical. Ideally an hour to soften the mince however if you don't have time this step can be skipped. While simmering, continue to add small amounts of water if required to ensure mince does not dry out. Check and stir every 15 minutes. 

Option here to also use slow cooker (2 hours) or pressure cooker (30 minutes)

• Mince is ready for next step once reduced well.. very well.

• Check this by running a wooden spoon across the bottom of pot and you should be able to still see the bottom after separating mixture. If liquid immediately covers bottom, reduce further. The perfect consistency is in a video below. It's really important to reduce well to keep shape of rolls during cooking process. 

• Once reduced add corn.

Zucchini

• There are several techniques to get thick (2-3mm) ribbons of zucchini. Choose what's best based on your cooking utensils. You need a really sharp knife to get correct thickness of slices, however, you also need a wide/thick enough peeler to get the same result.

• In above video I am using a cheese slicer funnily enough. Its wider than a peeler and works very well. If they're not perfectly even slices, it's ok. Once in the dish it will be hard to tell and they should cook evenly.

• Once sliced I highly recommend lightly grilling zucchini slices in a pan on medium heat. Just a minuted on each side will help remove a lot of the stored water inside of the zucchini. If you are timed pressed this step can be skipped, however I find the result less watery with grilled zucchini.

• Allow to cool on a plate, if you have paper towel use this to take further moisture out by layering in between layers of zucchini.

Rolling

• Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Have an oven proof dish ready.

• Add a tablespoon of remaining canned tomato into dish and coat base.  

• For quick wrapping, I recommend laying several (4-5) pieces of zucchini vertically side by side touching on a chopping board. See below video for demo.

• Ensure your mince has cooled slightly before rolling. It may help the cooling process to remove the mince from what you cooked it in and place in large bowl.  

• Cover with light layer of meat mixture, sprinkle lightly with cheese. I recommend leaving half the cheese aside to use for the top. For a lighter dish you can skip the cheese in the rolls and just put on top. Video below of rolling technique. 

• Roll each zucchini ribbon away from you into a coil and place immediately into your dish. I usually arrange these standing on the side (so you can see the coil from above). This gives 10/10 points for presentation and allows more to fit nicely in dish. You can also lay them flat if you prefer.  

• After rolling and arranging in pan, use the other 1/2 tomato can and spoon on top of dish. Follow by adding remaining cheese, coriander and jalapeños.

• Bake for 30 minutes.

• Use top grill for 5 minutes to crisp cheese if required.

• Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

• Enjoy