Hamburger-Zucchini Casserole—Good Eats at the TEOTWAWKI Café

I’m grateful every year that zucchini plants produce so prolifically.  I love zoodles, deep-fried zucchini, and zucchini hamburger helper.  I truly love pasta even though it’s not so healthy a choice.  And so I appreciate that zucchini substitutes so well for noodles in so many dishes.  I find recommendations to dehydrate zucchini shreds and powder them to substitute for flour a little … ridiculous.  A lot of time, effort, and garden space to grow and process when the time and garden space could be put to better use preparing in other ways.  But to each their own.

And so I grow as much zucchini as I think I can manage each year for fresh eating as well as dehydrating for use through the rest of the year.  I’m always on the lookout for new recipes.  And the following recipe is a new favorite.

Hamburger-Zucchini Casserole

½ pound ground beef

1 small onion, minced

3 ½ cups shredded zucchini, drained*

1 cup Bisquick (or homemade equivalent)

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

4 large eggs, slightly beaten

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon parsley

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon basil

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon black pepper

3-4 paste tomatoes, thinly sliced

 

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

In a 10” cast iron skillet, brown the ground beef and diced onion. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients except for the tomatoes and pour over the browned hamburger.  Top with tomato slices. 

Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the center is set and the top is slightly browned. 

*If you don’t have time for the zucchini to drain, hand squeeze about ½ cup at a time.  Or put it all into a clean flour sack towel and twist it closed until most of the liquid is drained out. 

Family reviews:  Definite keeper.  Instant hit.  We all (well, the adults) were a little cautious with our initial servings, but soon went back for seconds.  It’s almost in the territory of comfort food, but probably needs a crust for that. 

Chef’s review:  Simple, quick, food storage, zucchini, yum.   I love that it’s a protein-packed recipe while only calling for one-half pound of (currently very expensive!) ground beef.  I can use fresh, freeze-dried, dehydrated, or canned ground beef with equal success.  It’s a bit reminiscent of quiche, without the crust, though adding a bottom crust would be a nice touch. 

 

I didn’t have any homemade Bisquick on hand.  I don’t make biscuits very often anymore—Aaron and I both need to reduce our white flour intake.  And yes, I could make biscuits with whole wheat flour, but then Aaron wouldn’t eat them.  And I’m not making biscuits just for myself.  So I turned to my biscuit mix recipe.  It makes a big batch with a lot of ingredients.  Most of it would probably go to waste before I could get around to using it.  So I thought I’d be able to find a smaller recipe on the internet, perhaps one that would make just one cup. 

And I did. 

And here you go:

Small batch biscuit mix

1 cup flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon melted coconut oil (or lard, butter, or shortening)

In a small bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.  Use a fork to stir in the coconut oil until well incorporated. 

 

Links to related posts:

Asian Zoodles

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Zucchini Hamburger Helper