Classic squash casserole made with summer squash, seasoned with bacon and onion, and tossed with cheese, eggs, mayonnaise and seasonings, baked with a cracker topping.
Summer Squash Casserole with Bacon
This Squash Casserole recipe is probably my hands-down favorite way of eating all that great summer squash that grows like a weed in the garden. Growing up, I remember my aunt always having a vegetable garden - a pretty good sized one at that - and plenty of squash!
Most times when I have ever planted squash it has always seems to come under attack of squash bugs and borers and I end up with dead plants and no squash... grrrrrr. This year the squash has been producing! Ah, the joys of the veggie garden! Ya just never know what's gonna happen I guess.
Here's what you'll need to make my Summer Squash Casserole with Bacon:
- 2 pounds (about 4 cups sliced) yellow squash, rinsed and unpeeled
- 4 slices bacon
- 3 tablespoons butter, divided
- 1 cup chopped Vidalia or other sweet onion
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 heaping cup shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, or to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon Creole or Cajun seasoning, or to taste, optional
- 1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
Use a good veggie wash and clean your squash!
Slice the squash into rounds about 1/4 inch in size and I highly recommend using a mandolin to do this. because it's much less important the size of the squash, than it is to make sure they are equal in thickness. You will need to parcook the squash so boil, steam or use your favorite cooking method to cook the squash slices.
My personal preference is to place into 4 cup microwave safe dish, add 1 tablespoon water, cover and microwave for 5 minutes. Stir, microwave for an additional 3 minutes or longer, until squash is soft and cooked through; transfer to colander to drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8 x 8 square baking dish or spray with a light coat of non-stick spray; set aside.
Chop up bacon and sauté in a large skillet until cooked but not crisp. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter to the bacon.
Add the chopped onion to the skillet, cooking until the onion is tender but not browned. Add the garlic and cook another minute.
Remove the skillet from the heat, add squash and toss.
You'll need a sleeve of crackers. I'm using Ritz, which yes, has shrunk over the years in how many crackers they contain. No worries! We will make it work! Use whatever crackers you have on hand, including saltines or club crackers.
Add the crackers to a bowl.
Crush them up. Now some people squish them up in the package and that's fine, but I know me and I guarantee you that package will split on me and I'll have cracker crumbs all over the floor instead of in the bowl, but you do you!
Add cheese to the cracker crumbs and set aside.
Mix together the cracker crumbs and cheese; set aside.
In a separate large bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, milk, eggs, salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning, if using. Feel free to add your own favorite all-purpose seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, whatever you like!
Add the squash and veggies to the bowl.
Turn to coat.
Add half of the cracker crumb and cheese mixture to the bowl.
Toss to coat everything.
Turn out into the prepared casserole dish.
Top casserole with the remaining crackers and cheese mix.
Melt remaining butter and pour over the top of the casserole.
Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for about 30 to 35 minutes or until bubbly and golden brown.
Delicious!
Yum, y'all!
Though Ritz crackers are most traditional, you can also use Club crackers and even regular saltines as a topping here. I also used an 8 x 8-inch baking dish, since I couldn't get The Cajun to eat a squash on purpose no matter how hard I try, so in other words, it'll be ME eating this entire casserole!
If you need to stretch this out just a bit for your family, use a slightly larger pan - about an 11 x 7 inch should give ya about 8 servings - and increase the squash to about 3 or 4 pounds, but you can leave the rest of the ingredients about the same. Otherwise, double the entire thing for a 9 x 13 dish.
Stay tuned because I'll be featuring more squash recipes as the season goes along!
For more of my favorite squash recipes, visit my page on Pinterest!
If you make this or any of my recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!
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