Kousa Mahshi (Egyptian Stuffed Zucchini)

Growing up, I'd only heard of kousa mahshi from my father, who often described his mother's stuffed zucchini with passion. I wondered if I could ever find zucchini (which I didn't like) to be the morsels of goodness he was describing. My mother, who had a huge repertoire of intricate recipes that she would make, would give him a funny look, knowing that mahshi (which literally means "stuffed" in Arabic) wasn't one of her specialties.

I remember being so excited to taste them when we visited my grandmother in Egypt. They looked so fun! Yellow-and-green little cylinders filled with lightly spiced rice and ground beef, and cooked in a vibrant tomato-based sauce. They were falling over each other but looked so neat at the same time. I remember thinking the tops looked like the open beaks of baby birds.

There are a variety of stuffed vegetables in Egyptian cuisine, including eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage rolls and—the most popular—stuffed grape leaves. And all of them, in all their glory, were piled up on my grandmother's table in true Egyptian-feast fashion.

I remember that although I loved them all, the zucchini made the biggest impression on me because up until then, I thought I hated them as a vegetable. But prepared in this way, they were unexpectedly sweet, tender and complemented the filling so well.

This recipe is actually surprisingly simple, with the most labor-intensive part being coring the zucchini using a teaspoon or corer, which I came to find was not that difficult, although it does require that I slow down, turn on some music and take my time. I find immense satisfaction in making even wells in each vegetable and scooping out the insides, making sure the zucchini walls aren't too thick or too thin, while also being careful not to break or cut into the skins in the process. As I finish coring each one, I pile them up, which ends up looking like a bit of a construction project, then fill them with the stuffing mixture and stand each filled zucchini upright in the pot.

The whole process reminds me of how fun it was to use my hands the way I used to as a child, doing arts and crafts, building things—making the recipe almost feel like play. In fact, it did wonders for my anxious mind, leaving me feeling calmer and more present. In the age of the air fryer and Uber Eats, I've gotten used to having a meal made in no time, pushed out of the way for the rest of life to continue.

But revisiting this recipe time and time again gives me an appreciation for the process of cooking as an act of living. The satisfaction of taking some time to work through the different steps of this recipe is the joy. The tasty finished product is the cherry on top. And in my grandmother's generation, it also meant community, because these sorts of recipes were always done communally, with aunts, cousins, sisters or friends sitting around the table, catching up and connecting over making the meal.

I think the biggest trick to the deliciousness of this dish is the stuffing, especially the use of the holy trinity of herbs—dill, cilantro, parsley—used in Egyptian cuisine. This combination of herbs is used in other stuffed vegetable recipes like grape leaves and is the secret behind both Egyptian kofta and falafel.

The best thing about mahshi is that it's a full meal in one dish: vegetables, rice and meat. And it's easily adaptable into a vegetarian dish by simply taking out the meat and using vegetable stock, which we often do during the times of vegan fasting in the Coptic Orthodox faith (which can be up to 240 days a year!). The stuffed zucchini also tastes better the next day, so you can make it ahead or just be happy that there are leftovers.