When summer squash is plentiful, one of my favorite dishes to make is squash casserole. This casserole is a tasty and full of veggies.
Summer squash are here, and they taste amazing at the peak of their season! Honestly, just grilling or baking the rounds is a great side dish. A little salt and pepper to bring out their flavor is one of my favorite ways to eat squash. However, this squash casserole is a great way to introduce veggies to someone who may not be the biggest fan of vegetables.
Healthy Eating Continuum
Something that always try to stress to people is that there is no one way to eat “healthy.” And really, what does healthy even mean? We know that consuming fruits and vegetables is beneficial for your health. Lots of studies tell us that diseases are correlated with poor diet. So, that doesn’t mean everyone needs to eat organic, locally grown, fresh produce. There is a continuum where all options are good, but some may be better.
For example, let’s say a person eats orange flavored fruit snacks and orange juice. They get some of the benefits of oranges, but those snacks have little fiber and a lot of sugar. A small change could be to eat canned mandarin oranges sometimes. The syrup in the can may still have sugar, but now they are getting fiber from eating the whole orange. Then, maybe they start to like oranges more and sometime buy a fresh orange. Now the fresh orange has a lot of fiber no added sugar.
And this whole process could take months, and a person doesn’t necessary have to get to the “best” option. Canned and frozen produce is just as good as fresh especially if that’s all you have access to. So sometimes, handing someone grilled zucchini may not be the first step to trying a new food. But, if you cover it in cheese and breadcrumbs, they might be more interested.
This squash casserole is also a great way to introduce squash to people who may not be the biggest veggie fan. This casserole is pretty dairy heavy, but you could swap out the dairy ingredients for vegan subs if you’d like to try it without dairy! You can also check out my pepper popper recipe here to try sweet peppers.
Summer Squash Casserole
Ingredients
- 3 medium squash about 2 lbs./ 950g
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup shredded cheese
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- ½ tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1 cup shaved parmesan
- 2 tbsp butter
- ½ cup breadcrumbs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Cut the squash into about 1/4 inch rounds. If the rounds get too big cut them in half, so they will cook evenly.
- In a skillet, add the squash and sauté until they are tender but not too soft and falling apart (since they will cook more in the oven.
- In an oven safe dish, mix the milk, sour cream, cheddar cheese, salt, pepper, onion, and garlic powder. Mix the squash into the dish making sure that the squash is well coated.
- Melt the butter, and mix the breadcrumbs into the butter to coat.
- Sprinkle the Parmesan shavings on top of the squash. Then sprinkle the buttered breadcrumbs on top.
- Bake for about 20 minutes until the top is golden brown, and the squash is easily pierced with a fork.