In late summer, when zucchini and tomatoes are bursting from their vines, I crave kousa mihshi, one of the great Middle Eastern stuffed vegetable traditions that’s long been treasured across the Levant, and one that I grew up preparing with my mother in our Lebanese American home. We’d hollow out the mildly bitter zucchini (“kousa mihshi” means “stuffed squash” in Arabic), fill it with a mixture of spiced rice and lamb, and slowly braise it in tomato sauce until the meat was succulent and the rice tender. A drizzle of olive oil and a spoonful of cooling yogurt completed the ensemble: a vibrant mix of flavors, textures, and temperatures that to me epitomizes all that is special about Lebanese cooking.
In many households, these “delectable pockets of nourishment and care,” as my Aunty Karen calls them, are reserved for special occasions. My mother also made kousa mihshi for Sunday brunch, presenting it to family at our backyard picnic table in
