Zucchini Casserole {Heritage Recipe}

My very favorite and much loved zucchini casserole recipe!  This recipe comes from my grandma Beverly Wessman.  It's a great example of a one-dish meal--with vegetables, meat, dairy, and grains all combined in lovely layers.  

My funny story--a few years ago I served this to some dinner guests.  One commented that he didn't know that you could actually just eat zucchini!  His mother always made it into zucchini bread and other baked goods and so he'd never actually eaten zucchini in it's natural form.

Yes, you can eat zucchini--it's quite good actually!

Zucchini Casserole (Heritage Recipe)
1 lb. ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. crushed oregano
1½ lb. zucchini sliced ¼ inch thick, precooked 5 minutes
2 cups cottage cheese
1 cup cooked rice (or instant uncooked rice)
1 cup grated cheese
1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup, undiluted

Brown ground beef with onion. Sprinkle on garlic salt and oregano and toss.  Wash, slice, and precook the zucchini in a pan with water.  Drain off the water.

Layer in pan: half of zucchini

browned ground beef and rice

cottage cheese and remaining zucchini

Spread on the soup and sprinkle the cheese.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes at 350°. From Beverly Wessman.

Tiffany's Notes: For the rice--you can use a cup of previously cooked rice I know Mindy does this--it hadn't ever occurred to me to use it before she mentioned it.  I believe the original recipe had Minute Rice as an ingredient and so I've always used it.  Minute Rice is one brand of instant uncooked rice.  You don't pre-cook it--just sprinkle it on dry and it steams as the casserole bakes. But, this would be a good use for some left-over rice.

I usually cover my dish with a glass lid or with foil as it bakes. 

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