Easy garden-fresh Zucchini Casserole recipe to celebrate the summer zucchini season.
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What is this casserole?
I adapted this baked zucchini cheese casserole recipe from my aunt who prepares a similar variation with fresh cream the southern french way.
So this is a very french zucchini dinner recipe!
This delicious lighter summer meal is also known as zucchini au gratin, as it is baked golden brown to perfection.
The Zucchini is baked soft in one dish and doesn't need pre-cooking, turn this recipe into a quick and easy zucchini recipe
You will love this healthy zucchini casserole with cheese if you are looking for a lighter gluten free and low carb vegetarian meal.
Choice of zucchini
You can pick medium-sized (8 inch/20 centimeters), large and epic monster large Zucchinis.
The size doesn't matter so much.
Store-bought Zucchini come in small and medium sizes, whereas homegrown Zucchini has a reputation to grow into massive vegetables.
The large ones tend to be less flavorful than the smaller ones but homegrown Zucchini are usually anyway tastier (or so I believe).
You only need to cut out the spongy core in the large Zucchinis and you are good to go.
Try this recipe too with other Zucchini varieties such as yellow Zucchini or round Zucchini.
Frozen Zucchini
If you have a whole frozen Zucchini, you can leave the vegetable to defrost in the fridge.
If you are in a hurry, place the zucchini to thaw in a closed bag and submerge into warm water.
Carefully press out any excess water or else the Zucchini gratin will turn out soggy.
To avoid sogginess, you can also add 1 Tablespoon of cornflour to the batter mixed in.
The cornflour will bind excess liquids and the gratin will turn out the best ever!
How to make it?
This is an easy zucchini casserole meal that comes together fairly quickly too.
The zucchini slices will cook through in the casserole dish making this a one-pan dish.
Follow the steps to prepare your own zucchini cheese bake from scratch.
Step 1
Cut out the center of your Zucchini if it's consistency is spongy.
Cut your Zucchini into slices and arrange in the casserole dish.
Step 2
In a mixing bowl combine the cream, egg, cheese and the seasoning.
Step 3
Pour the cheesy cream mixture over the zucchini in the casserole and drizzle with olive oil.
Bake golden brown.
See all detailed instructions and ingredients listed in the recipe card further below.
More zucchini dinners
- Vegetarian Zucchini Boats
- Chinese Chicken Zoodles by runningtothekitchen.com
- Cheesy One-pan Zucchini skillet by peasandcrayons.com
Dear Reader, do you grow your own zucchini?
Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section further below!
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📖 Recipe
Easy Zucchini Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
- 23 ounces Zucchini
- 1 Egg
- 1 cup Grated Cheese *see Notes
- 1 cup Table Cream heavy or sour cream or half and half
- 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning or Pizza Seasoning
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil to drizze
Instructions
- Rinse your zucchini well to get rid of impurities. Cut your zucchini lengthwise and cut out the spongy seed core.
- Slice your zucchini and arrange in your casserole dish.
- Preheat your oven to 350° Fahrenheit/ 180° Celsius.
- In a mixing bowl combine the egg, cheese, cream, Italian (or pizza) seasoning, salt and black pepper to a combined mixture.
- Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly over the arranged zucchini slices in the casserole dish.
- Drizzle the olive oil equally all over the uncooked zucchini casserole dish.
- Bake your zucchini casserole dish at 350° Fahrenheit/ 180° Celsius for about 25- 30 minutes or until golden brown baked.
- Serve hot with a cold salad.
Notes
Nutrition
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How do you think this would be if I added ground turkey or ground beef to the meal?
I think adding ground turkey or beef sounds like a great idea Madeline. You might just have to cook it for a little longer or until the meat is cooked through too. I would add it as a layer, maybe under the zucchini so that the meat stays moist. Feel free to share what you ended up doing. Others might find the info useful too. 🙂
Used three large zucchini. Subbed out cream for milk. Used basil oregano parsley tyms garlic powder red pepper flakes for Italian seasoning. Mixed olive oil and Pablo Italian bread crumbs and layered on top. Bake longer for 35 mins.
Thanks for sharing your version Gayle!
Great dish
I don't understand why, but mine came out runny. It never firmed up, even after baking it for another 20 minutes.
Hi Paul, did you cut out the center part of your zucchini? The center is watery and that's why I cut it out in the recipe video.
Had mine in the oven for an hour, still a little runny. Finally started getting brown on top....
Hi Staci, I'm sorry it didn't turn out as expected but keeping a dish that long in the oven should have browned it completely. Did you keep it in the right setting and at the right temperature? Did you cut out the center of the zucchini as shown in the video? The center of zucchini can turn the dish watery. Please don't take it personally, but perhaps your oven isn't heating properly anymore?
I don’t have heavy cream. I have Greek yogurt and I have canned evaporated milk. Do you think the evaporated milk would work?
Hi Carole, I have no idea if it will work with evaporated milk, I have never used this ingredient in my life (I only know sweetened condensed milk). But someone else in the comments used greek yogurt and they loved it (but I personally haven't tried it). You could try it with greek yogurt or you do the evaporated milk and you let us know how it worked out. 🙂
Zucchini casserole. Added garlic and finely chopped onions. Sauteed the zucchini first. Very tasty.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing your feedback Johanna. 🙂
This was so good. I used Greek yogurt instead of heavy cream. There wasn't any left!
Great idea with the greek yogurt, thanks for sharing!
Greek yogurt is such a great idea.
A healthier version.
Thank you!!!!!🌻🌻
I added panko crumbs on top and broiled for 3 min before taking it out. SO good.
Adding panko on top is a brilliant idea! Thanks for sharing Heather!
TRiEd this very good.
I made this exactly as the recipe stated, but doubled it as I had 2 large zucchini that needed to be used. I used Italian blend shredded cheese and dusted the top with some grated parmesan and Romano for browning. I did add 5 min at 425 to give it some nice color, but everything was cooked enough at 30 min. My slices were ~1/2cm thick.
Kathryn thank you for your feedback. Others will find all the info useful!
Is this Parmesan or mozzarella cheese I can’t tell and not finding what kind in the recipe?
Hi Sarah, I use something like cheddar, mozzarella, gruyere, Emmenthal. I mentioned the choices in the notes in the recipe card.
So yummy!! I pealed the zucchini, diced them, used sour cream and cooked them a lot longer than called for to make the zucchini more tender
Thank you for sharing your version of the recipe. It sounds great too!
Seriously the best zucchini I've ever had. My husband has requested it three times in the last week.
Thanks for your feedback Miriam. Glad to hear that your husband loves it! 🙂
This turned out good. I was surprised my husband loved it!!!! It was a bit to runny & salty - maybe too salty because of the cheese I used ( 1/2 mozz 1/2 parm) . I will make again but would like to hear feedback on others 🙂
Hi Brenda, Thanks for your feedback! I don't recommend using parmesan. Use something like mozzarella, cheddar, gruyere and Emmenthaler. I talk about the cheese in the post in the recipe card in the note section. The cheese helps in binding the ingredients. Can it be that your parmesan is salty?
When you say cream, do you mean heavy whipping cream or cream cheese?
Hi Madi, With cream, I mean liquid cream but you can use whipping cream too (which is higher in fats) if you have that at home.
Is there a specific reason why you deseeded the zucchini?
Great question Carrie! Yes, I remove that inner part because the dish gets soggy otherwise. The inner parts loose a lot of liquids. That way the zucchini casserole won't turn out soggy.
Turned out pretty good!
Awesome, glad you liked it as much as we did! 🙂
So light and fluffy and delicious!!! Will definitely make again!
Awesome! 🙂 Thanks for sharing
Can I prepare this, freeze, and cook at a later date?
Also, you mentioned freezing a whole large zucchini? You can do that?! Thanks for your time.
Hi Mara, Yes you can prepare this and freeze the casserole dish until you are ready to cook it. Place it into the oven frozen but cook it longer, you don't need to thaw it but you may if you like.
You can freeze a whole zucchini but I would rather freeze the smaller ones and cut up larger zucchinis and freeze those in cubes. A large zucchini would take long to thaw.
My family loves this!
Awesome! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
Fast, easy, & good!
Thanks for your feedback 🙏
Is the nutritional information for the whole dish?
Hi Caitlin,
The nutritional info is per serving. In this case, I calculated an average of 3 portion servings, if served as a vegetarian main course meal.
Delicious!
Love it too.
Love this easy recipe! Perfect dinner with no carbs
Thanks for your feedback Zuzana 🙂
Love the sound of this dish! Could you substitute the cream with greek yoghurt instead?
Hi Chelsea, the cream is rich in fats and that's what keeps the dish together. Greek Yogurt would curdle. I hope this helps.
Oh my, it was so good!
Hi Sue, thanks for sharing your Recipe experience with us. 🙂