Southern Squash Casserole

This Southern Squash Casserole has a creamy, cheesy squash filling topped with a crunchy, buttery cracker crumb topping. It’s perfect as a side dish in the summer when yellow squash is abundant, but it’s a great dish to make any time of the year, especially for holidays, potlucks, or Sunday dinner. And although Squash Casserole is often served as a side dish, I’ve found that it makes for a delicious vegetarian main dish, too!

Squash Casserole is a bit of an iconic old-school dish here in the South, where it’s long been a staple at church suppers, potlucks, and holiday dinners. And although there are just about as many ways to make this casserole as there are home cooks, it typically contains squash and onions combined in a creamy sauce and topped with a buttery cracker topping. Seriously delicious.

And this casserole is also a tasty way of using up some of those yellow squash in the summer when the bounty gets to be a bit overwhelming (if you have a garden, you know what I’m talking about!) And even if you don’t have a garden, yellow squash is usually inexpensive to purchase from the supermarket or farmer’s market this time of the year, making this also an economical summertime dish.

Let’s talk about a few of the ingredients:

Yellow Squash – Just regular yellow crookneck squash is what the recipe calls for, but you can use any kind of summer squash or zucchini you have on hand or in your garden. You can even change it up by using a combination of squash and zucchini.

Onion – I like to use a Vidalia or other sweet onion, but any onion of your choice will do.

Mayonnaise – Use your favorite store-bought or homemade mayonnaise. If you’re looking to lighten up the recipe, feel free to use light mayonnaise here.

Sour cream – Regular, reduced-fat, or even fat-free sour cream will work fine. You can also substitute Greek yogurt for sour cream.

Crushed cracker crumbs – The recipe calls for using buttery round crackers (like Ritz), but Saltine-style crackers or other crackers will work, too. If you prefer bread crumbs instead of crackers, use an equal amount of Panko bread crumbs in place of crushed cracker crumbs. For gluten-free, use gluten-free bread crumbs in place of the cracker crumbs.

Cheddar cheese – I prefer an extra-sharp Cheddar cheese for this recipe, but you can use any kind of shredded cheese that you prefer. Colby cheese is delicious in this recipe.

Cook’s Tips:

• While steaming the squash, I like to lightly smash the squash with a potato masher to give it a creamier texture. If you prefer more defined squash slices, just lightly steam the squash and skip the mashing, For a little extra richness, skip the steaming altogether, and saute the squash and onion in a little butter before adding to the filling.
• For a slightly different flavor, add some diced pimentos or diced bell pepper to the filling.
• After steaming the squash, be sure to thoroughly drain it so that your casserole doesn’t become watery.
• I find that a 3-quart casserole dish is the perfect size for this recipe. 
• This dish is amazing served hot and bubbly from the oven but don’t be afraid to make it a day ahead. It’s even extra delicious after it has spent a day in the refrigerator. To reheat, just cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes, or until heated through before serving.

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