This zucchini potato casserole recipe is delicious and bound to be a spring and summer favorite. It can easily be made vegan and gluten free so everyone can enjoy it and would make a great dish to serve for an easy weekday meal or family gathering. It’s filled with fresh ingredients like zucchini, potatoes, mushrooms, and homemade spinach sauce.
If you’re not a fan of squash, don’t count zucchini out! There are so many different and delicious recipes that can be made with this beautiful green summer squash. Zucchini can also be a tasty addition in baked goods like bread and muffins. I absolutely love zucchini bread but honestly haven’t found a gluten free version that I enjoy yet so it’s on my list of recipes to create. But I’ll save that for another post. Stay tooned.
Ingredients for Zucchini Potato Casserole
I’ve broken the ingredient list up into two parts. The first is for the ingredients that make up the spinach sauce. The second part is for the rest of the ingredients that go into the casserole.
Ingredients for the Spinach Sauce:
- Spinach
- Olive Oil
- Yellow Onion
- Garlic Cloves
- Lemon Juice
- Basil
- Salt
- Pepper
Ingredients for the Casserole:
- Zucchini
- Red Potatoes
- Marinara Sauce
- Mushrooms
- Bread crumbs - I used gluten free bread crumbs but you could use regular.
- Olive Oil
- Mozzarella - I used vegan but you could use regular.
How to make Zucchini Potato Casserole
There’s two parts to this recipe. The first is to make the spinach sauce. It’s as simple as putting all the ingredients into a blender or food processor and blending until creamy. The second part of the recipe is assembling the casserole itself. This takes a little longer but it’s also very simple to do and just requires some layering.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Make your spinach sauce by blending all of the ingredients for the sauce in a high powered blender or food processor. Blend until the sauce is smooth and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Next, prep the vegetables by slicing your zucchini and potatoes into thin rounds. Try to make the rounds similar in size so they cook evenly. In a large bowl, mix the zucchini and potato slices with all of the spinach sauce.
Then assemble the casserole. Spread about 1 cup of the marinara sauce on to the bottom of a 13x9 inch baking pan. Then add about half of the zucchini and potato slices by overlapping them in rows. Alternating every few slices between zucchini and potato as you go. Then sprinkle the sliced mushrooms on top. Add a layer of shredded mozzarella (about ½ cup) and drizzle some marinara sauce (about ½ cup) on top after that. Repeat the zucchini and potato layer then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Lastly, sprinkle the bread crumbs on the top with some salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
Bake for 20 minutes then remove from the oven and cover with foil. Rotate and add it back to the oven to cook for another 20-30 minutes, until the zucchini and potatoes are cooked through and soft. You can test this by sticking a fork through the zucchini and potatoes, they should be soft enough for the fork to go through easily.
Tips on making the best Zucchini Potato Casserole
Similar Sized Slices - Try to cut the same thickness for each potato and zucchini round. This will ensure that they will cook evenly and at the same rate.
Check Doneness - Make sure to test that the potatoes and zucchini are cooked through before removing from the oven. After making this a recipe a couple times, I’ve realized that oven temp, the type of dish the casserole is in and the thickness of the potato and zucchini slices all make a difference in cooking time. So just make sure the potatoes and zucchini are soft with a fork before removing just to make sure.
Substitutions - If you don’t have red potatoes, you could substitute it with more zucchini slices. I think this dish would taste delicious either way. The cooking time may differ so just keep an eye on it as it bakes.
More dinner recipes to try:
Please feel free to comment below if you've tried this recipe. And also follow @withsweethoney on Instagram for more recipe inspiration!
Zucchini Potato Casserole
Ingredients
Spinach Sauce
- 2 cups spinach
- 5 tbsp olive oil
- ½ yellow onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp basil, dried or fresh
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Zucchini Casserole
- 3 medium zucchini, sliced
- 7 red potatoes, sliced
- 1-½ cup marinara sauce
- 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
- ¾ cup gluten free bread crumbs
- olive oil, for drizzling
- ½ cup+ shredded mozzarella (I used vegan but could use regular)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Make your spinach sauce by blending all of the ingredients for the sauce in a high powered blender or food processor. Blend until the sauce is smooth and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Next, prep the vegetables by slicing your zucchini and potatoes into thin rounds. Try to make the rounds similar in size so they cook evenly.
- In a large bowl, mix the zucchini and potato slices with all of the spinach sauce.
- Then assemble the casserole. Spread about 1 cup of the marinara sauce on to the bottom of a 13x9 inch baking pan. Then add about half of the zucchini and potato slices by overlapping them in rows. Alternating every few slices between zucchini and potato as you go. Then sprinkle the sliced mushrooms on top. Add a layer of shredded mozzarella (about ½ cup) and drizzle some marinara sauce (about ½ cup) on top after that. Repeat the zucchini and potato layer then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Lastly, sprinkle the bread crumbs on the top with some salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
- Bake for 20 minutes then remove from the oven and cover with foil. Add it back to the oven to cook for another 20-30 minutes, until the zucchini and potatoes are cooked through and soft. You can test this by sticking a fork through the zucchini and potatoes, they should be soft enough for the fork to go through easily.
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