One of the greatest treasures from our little garden space here in the village has been squash blossoms. When I first started planning what to grow, Greek butternut squash (known as γλυκό κολοκύθι | pronounced: glee-KO ko-lo-KEE-thee ) was on top of my list. In strong contrast to our former life in America, availability of produce like butternut squash only exists here on the island if you grow it yourself. Having stayed here during fall and winter about 10 years ago, I knew from experience that growing a small garden would be key to having access to some of our favorite produce. When I told our sweet neighbor Tasoula that I was hoping to grow γλυκό κολοκύθι, she gifted me five seeds that she had saved from her own squash. Thankfully all five seeds germinated and have been producing a plethora of blossoms while we await the ripening of the squash for our enjoyment this coming fall. We usually prepare squash blossoms by stuffing them with herbs and cheese, lightly battering them and frying them. However, our squash blossom bounty has been growing by the day and I found myself with over 50 blossoms in just 3 days! Much to my delight, I finally had enough blossoms to make what is probably the most popular squash blossom dish in Greece – kolokithoanthoi me rizi, more easily described as Greek squash blossoms with rice.
If you have ever had rice stuffed grape leaves, known as dolmades in Greece then you will absolutely love these Greek squash blossoms with rice. Similar to the filling of a traditional dolma; onion, tomato, garlic, rice and a plethora of fresh herbs combine to make an especially flavorful filling despite how simple the ingredients seem. The major difference with rice stuffed squash blossoms is the shredded zucchini that is added to the filling – it lends another dimension that complements the flavor of the squash blossoms in the best way.
While the filling is very important to this recipe, the real star of the show is the squash blossoms. Once stuffed and baked in a vegetable broth and olive oil bath, the squash blossoms become the perfect tender vehicle to transport the filling into your mouth. Unlike grape leaves, the squash blossoms are always perfectly tender and truly reign supreme as a stuffing vehicle in our honest opinion. And let’s not forget the zucchini slices that you line your baking dish with; they soak up all of the flavors from the rice filling, the vegetable broth, and the olive oil while the squash blossoms bake over them and they turn out so good we look forward to them almost just as much as the stuffed blossoms!
This dish is absolutely a labor of love. The amount of time it takes to prepare it will depend upon your access to squash blossoms. As I mentioned earlier, it took me 3 days to collect about 50 blossoms from our garden. To clarify, there are 2 types of blossoms on a squash vine; male and female. The female flowers are attached to a small squash while the male flowers are simply attached to the vine by a stem. At this point in the season, our squash vines are not producing any more squash, so I just simply harvest the male flowers each morning since I am not concerned with leaving them for pollination. I store them in a large plastic bag lined with a damp paper towel and the blossoms will keep for about 5 days in the refrigerator when stored this way. If you don’t have a garden, it is best to source squash blossoms from a local farmer, as grocery stores do not typically carry squash blossoms.
Now, let’s talk about eating these Greek squash blossoms with rice. Our favorite way to eat them is with Greek yogurt, some zucchini slices from the baking dish, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of fresh herbs. From the first stuffed blossom you taste, to the very last one – there is no getting used to how good these are! Let’s just say that hubby and I handled the entire tray in one day ;) So if you have the opportunity to cook with a bounty of squash blossoms, I could not recommend this recipe more highly, for us, getting to eat these Greek squash blossoms with rice is a highlight of our summer <3
GREEK SQUASH BLOSSOMS WITH RICE
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 as an appetizer / 2-3 as a main 1x
Ingredients
- 50 squash blossoms
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil + more for drizzling
- 1 large onion, grated
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 medium zucchini, ends trimmed and grated
- 1 medium zucchini, ends trimmed and sliced
- 2 ripe tomatoes, grated (skins discarded)
- 1 cup (250g) of Carolina rice (arborio is a good substitute)
- 2 1/4 cup (550ml) vegetable stock, divided
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley + 1 tbsp for garnish
- 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint + 1 tbsp for garnish
- 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh fennel frond (or substitute fresh dill) + 1 tbsp for garnish
- 1 tsp salt + more to taste
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- Greek yogurt for serving
Instructions
PREPARE THE SQUASH BLOSSOMS
- To prepare squash blossoms, gently open the petals and use your finger to snap off the pistil.
- We choose to leave a bit of the stems intact to the blossoms because we enjoy their texture once cooked, but you can feel free to snap these off of the blossoms if you choose.
- Finally, use a dry kitchen brush to brush off any debris that may be on the outside of the blossoms and set your blossoms to the side while you prepare the filling.
FOR THE FILLING:
- In a large skillet, add 1/4 cup of olive oil and the grated onion. Cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent. Add in the minced garlic and grated tomatoes, continue to cook for another 5-7 minutes until the tomatoes have reduced down a bit.
- Add the rice, grated zucchini, and 1/4 cup of vegetable broth. Stir to combine and simmer for another 15 minutes, stirring often.
- Add your chopped fresh herbs, stir to mix all the ingredients well and remove from heat. Season with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
ASSEMBLING & BAKING:
- Pre-heat oven to 350F / 175C
- Line the bottom of a baking vessel (a round vessel with a lid is best) with zucchini slices. Gently open a squash blossom and insert a heaping teaspoon of the rice mixture into the cavity of the blossom. Gently fold the tips of the petals inward to seal the filling and place atop the zucchini slices in your vessel.
- Repeat filling with the remaining blossoms, arranging tautly in your baking vessel.
- Add your hot vegetable stock to the baking vessel and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over the top of the blossoms. Place an inverted plate over the contents and place the lid of your baking vessel on. Place into your pre-heated oven for about 45 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked. Remove from the heat, remove the lid from your vessel and allow to cool a bit.
- When you are ready to serve, spread some Greek yogurt on each plate, top yogurt with some zucchini slices from the baking vessel, place some squash blossoms on top of the zucchini and garnish each dish with a pinch of the reserved fresh herbs.
- Serve blossoms warm or at room temperature.
Notes
*since I do not have a baking vessel with a lid, I simply added a bit more vegetable stock to ensure my blossoms would be submerged with liquid once baking and covered my baking dish with 2 layers of heavy duty aluminum foil before placing in the oven
- Prep Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 0 hours
Now I know what to do next time I run across squash blossoms at the market! These sound absolutely divine.
Oh yay! You will absolutely love these! Thank you Alanna!
I have such a crazy love for squash blossoms! This looks amazing
-CK
I know right!?! Thank you Christiann! I can never get over them, they are so good! I could legit eat these everyday!
These look incredible Bella! Such a labor of love for sure! Your work is always spectacular and you do everything with such care…… from gathering the ingredients, to styling and photography, the recipes, the narrative, everything! 💙🇬🇷
Thank you SO much Marilena…these stuffed blossoms are one of our favorite recipes so it means so much to hear your feedback! Lots of love <3
The photos are so beautiful, Bella. I love the little fuzzies on the blossoms. I don’t remember seeing mine as fuzzy but I definitely appreciate the beautiful photographs of them. This dish looks really amazing. I would love to create a lemon sauce to go over them because we don’t eat much dairy. The blossom recipe is phenomenal. One of your best and for sure, I will seek out more blossoms in hopes of trying it this summer before it’s too late! I wish I had known this recipe when I had some earlier this summer! It looks fantastic but if I can’t find any, I will definitely try this recipe with another vegetable or something…. I just wanted to stop and say how impressed I am with this recipe – again and how gorgeous the photos are. Love you! xoxo
Our blossoms are fuzzier than zucchini blossoms because they are actually from a butternut squash vine! They would taste awesome with a lemon sauce! Thank you so so much for your compliments on the photos, I appreciate it so much! Love you too! Cannot wait for you to try these!
This looks incredible! I wish we had access to squash blossoms — didn’t grow them this year!
Thank you Sonja! Yes, they are so much easier to access if you can grow them yourselves! You guys had a very busy summer this year…maybe next year ;)
ALL i can say is freakin WOW!!!
hehe!
wish i could say that it’s just like my yiayia use to make, BUT, i actually never had a single one of my yiayia’s EVER make GREEK SQUASH BLOSSOMS WITH RICE | KOLOKITHOANTHOI ME RIZI. like NEVER, EVER!!!
i have LITERALLY eaten probably tens of thousands of dolmathes in my life but i had NEVER eaten GREEK SQUASH BLOSSOMS WITH RICE | KOLOKITHOANTHOI ME RIZI until my family made your recipe the other day!!!
my wifey followed your recipe to the “T” and it turned out like NOTHING we ever had before!! SO tender and ful-flavored delicious, they just melted in your mouth, couldn’t of eaten them if we had no teefers!!! the zucchini rounds at the bottom were possibly our favorite part, they soaked up all the flavor and essence of the dish and were just to die for!!!
Ooops, forgot to thank you for this gem and to tell you how AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL these photos were that you took of the GREEK SQUASH BLOSSOMS WITH RICE | KOLOKITHOANTHOI ME RIZI, seeing these photos is what sold us on taking on the adventure of making this glorious dish and loving every finger licking minute of it!!! THANK YOU SSOOO MUCH!!!!!!!
These look incredible – so worth the labour of love involved!! I was in awe of all the market squash blossoms on sale when travelling around Europe this summer – back home in New Zealand they don’t really get sold, so I’ve never cooked with them before! Must try to track some down though
Thank you so much Claudia! Yes, they are so worth it! And if you ever have the chance to grow zucchini or squash yourself then you will be rewarded with homegrown blossoms!