Zucchini Casserole

  

  

Zucchini Casserole. This old fashioned zucchini casserole with stuffing mix is possibly one of my favourite things to make and to eat of all time. Not only is it very easy to make, but it is also incredibly delicious.  Another thing which I really love about it is that it is a recipe shared to me by my sister way back when we were both young women with young families.

I am quite sure the original recipe came from the back of a box of stuffing mix or some such, but that doesn't really matter.  It has been made in our family for so long that it is now considered a family recipe and nobody really cares about where it originally came from! 

This is my sister Cindy and I standing at the end of the back yard of our home in Gimli, Manitoba about 1961. I would have been six years old and she would be three. I love this photograph because it perfectly illustrates our relationship with each other.

Side by side. Through thick and thin, this fabulous amazing woman has been making my life better for all of her life.  She has been my best friend for 62 1/2 years. I am always telling my father she is one of the greatest gifts my parents ever gave to me, and I mean that sincerely.

 

This is a recipe she shared with me one time when I was visiting her when she was living in Windsor, Ontario.  I was living in Alberta at the time and we had driven down to Ontario to visit family, specifically my sister and my ex's brother. She made this for us one night for supper and I, quite simply, fell in love with it.

I have always loved to watch my sister cooking.  As with anything she does, she puts great care into it and I could stand and watch her for hours.  She is very methodical about everything she creates, and everything always turns out beautifully.  I just think she is the most amazing person and I hope she knows it.

 

I am a bit more slapdash when I do things and haphazard at best. How anything ever turns out is amazing to me. Oh, I do follow directions, but I am a lot faster when I do things, lacking the patience that she uses in whatever she is doing.

That lack of patience has gotten me into lots of trouble in my life. I can't believe it has taken me 65 years to realize that fact and I am now working hard at becoming a much more patient person in the hopes that my life will be a lot smoother and without too many bumps from now on.

 

But back to this wonderfully delicious zucchini casserole.  It does make use of several convenience foods.  In short, stuffing mix or crumbs and cream of chicken soup.  Everything else is natural and not from a box.

Fresh zucchini.  There was a time when we only had it available to us in the summer months, but these modern days mean that we can enjoy this garden delight all year round. For this casserole I prefer to use smaller zucchini. (Courgette in the UK) 

They are much more tender and look nicer in this casserole and I personally think they are not as watery and have more flavour.

 

You will need roughly four of them, not more than about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. If they are larger then cut them into half moons rather than coins. 

You will also need one medium onion and one medium carrot.  Both peeled.  The onion will be thinly sliced and the carrot grated. I like to cut the onion in half lengthwise and then cut it thinly into half moons.

 

I hand-grate the carrot on a box grater using the large holes.  That gives you the best size I find.  I think anything smaller would get lost.

The zucchini and onion are wilted in a saucepan and then drained.  Make sure you drain it really well or it will add too much liquid to the sauce.  Once you have it ready to go, then you just mix it with the carrot, the soup and some sour cream.

 

And some seasoning of course. We just use salt and pepper.  This delicious mixture then gets layered in a baking dish between layers of buttered stuffing crumbs. You can use a stuffing mix like Stove top if you wish, or the Pepperidge Farm stuffing crumbs. 

In the UK I used crushed herb and garlic croutons because we couldn't get stuffing mix there. At least not any that was an acceptable substitute for North American stuffing mix. The stuffing mix in the UK is made from crumbed rusks and not the same at all.

 

Once you have it all layered in the baking dish you just cover it with some aluminum foil and bake for about an hour, uncovering it for the last 10 minutes or so. That way the top gets all golden brown and crispy.

Oh my, just thinking about how delicious this is makes my taste buds tingle!!  This is a beautiful side dish to serve with most things but also makes a delicious entrée for vegetarians. To be honest I could quite happily eat a plate of this and nothing else! 

Of course if you are a vegetarian you will want to make a sauce instead of using the soup. Just make a cream sauce based on 2 cups of liquid (480ml), with 2 TBS butter, 2 TBS flour and 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of vegetable stock.  Delicious!

You would be surprised at the number of people who think there is cheese in this, but there isn't. Just the carrot, although I am sure you could add some cheese if you really wanted to.

I really hope you will give this tasty zucchini dish a go, and that you will enjoy it as much as we do!

Zucchini Casserole

Yield: 4

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 15 Mincook time: 1 Hourinactive time: 10 Mintotal time: 1 H & 25 M

This tasty casserole is one of our favourites

Ingredients

• 4 medium zucchini, washed, dried and sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 medium carrot peeled and coarsely grated
• 1 tin (10 3/4 oz) of Campbell's cream of chicken soup, undiluted (305g)
• 1 cup of sour cream (120g)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 TBS melted butter
• 2 1/4 cups of bread stuffing cubes, or (In the UK) 2 1/4 cups of lightly crushed seasoned croutons (I like the herb and garlic ones)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Lightly butter a 1 litre baking dish and set aside.
2. Heat a large skillet on top of the stove and add a few TBS of water. Add the zucchini and lightly sauté until crispy tender. Add the onion for the last five minutes of cooking so that it gets tender as well. Drain well in a colander.
3. Put the drained vegetables into a large bowl and mix together with the grated carrot. Stir in the cream soup and the sour cream. Season with a bit of salt and pepper to taste.
4. Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave. Toss with the bread stuffing cubes to coat.
5. Layer half of the buttered crumbs in the bottom of the baking dish.
6. Pour the zucchini mixture over top and then layer the rest of the buttered crumbs on top.
7. Cover tightly with tinfoil and then bake it in the heated oven for approximately 45 to 50 minutes.
8. Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes or until the zucchini is tender and the casserole is bubbly and nicely browned.
9. Remove from the oven and let sit for about 10 minutes before serving. Delicious!

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