Sunday, November 30, 2008

Zucchini casserole - my way

Living in Memphis, it's practically a requirement to make casseroles (sort of a "Southern thing," I guess). Here's one that I’ve made for years. It’s great to take to church suppers, family get-togethers, and that sort of thing, because you can bake it the day before, heat it up right before serving, and I think it’s even better the second day. There’s a million versions of this recipe floating around (take a look in any church cookbook you find), but here’s mine:

Zucchini Casserole

2 pounds zucchini, cut into ½ inch slices, then halved (so you have bite-sized chunks)
2 large carrots, grated
1 onion, finely chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 8-ounce container of sour cream
small jar pimentos, drained well
1 box stuffing mix (I buy whatever’s on sale – this last time I used Stovetop Corn Bread Stuffing)
1 stick of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a saucepan, barely cover the zucchini, carrots, and onion with water. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until crisp-tender, but not too soft (about 6-8 minutes, give or take). Drain well. Mix zucchini mixture with soup, sour cream, and pimentos.

Mix box of stuffing with butter. Add half of stuffing to the zucchini mixture, and place in a 2-quart baking dish. Evenly spread the remaining stuffing on top.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Let set at least 10 minutes before serving. Longer is better.

Now, I’ve made this while doing a much lower carb diet. The changes I made were to decrease the carrot to only one and increase the amount of zucchini. And, instead of stuffing mix, I've used GG Scandinavian Bran Crispbread crackers, or even Wasa Bread (pulsed in a food processor) – they both work great and save a TON of carbs (especially the crispbread).

Here's a link to the GG Bran Crispbread, in case you're not familiar with it:

Anyway, this makes a great casserole and is well worth the time and effort.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ew, green food. This sound's good though, might just pass this to the little woman to see if she's interested in trying this.

btw, you've been tagged. :)

Patty said...

Hey! Haven't you heard...green is good?

:-) Oh boy, let me go see...

Gary ("Old Dude") said...

Sounds like one fine casserole, one that even this old dude should be able to put together. One question---you say mix stuffing with butter, I assume leave out any other fluids, just the stuffing mix with the butter, and then do as the rest of your directions say?

Patty said...

Yes, I nuke the butter in a separate bowl and stir the stuffing mix right into it. If you try it, let me know how it turns out for you...

 
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