Summer Squash Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole (dairy-free)

Who else is bringing in squash by the laundry basket full? Yesterday morning I canned another seven quarts of chopped squash in the pressure canner and followed it up with seven quarts of squash pickles.

If you’d asked me last year if we’d have a huge harvest of squash again I would have said no. The squash bugs were terrible last spring and summer, demolishing all three plantings I tried my hand at. But come fall, we grew a successful crop without a trace of squash bug and I am thankful to say the same thing for this summer. I think a couple of things contributed to the eradication of those pests, which I could talk about in a separate post if anyone is interested.

But yes, we are very grateful for the bumper crop this year. The sixty or seventy quarts will go into soups and stews throughout the year, the pickles are a new preservation method so we’ll see how that goes. And, of course, I am cooking as much as my family can stand.

This recipe, in particular, uses up a ton of squash. I’m not big on multi-step meals such as this where you stand over a frying pan and cook a few different things and then mix them all together. However, this one was worth it. And, I recommend making a double or triple batch all at once and putting a couple of pans aside for another meal. It takes very little extra time to prepare extras in comparison to the work for one. I actually tripled this for a recent potluck meal and it turned out wonderfully. I also think it would freeze beautifully for make-ahead meals

So if you have squash coming out of your ears, get out your cast-iron skillet for this hearty dish. Feel free to add some cheese on top and omit the nutritional yeast. But if you are dairy-free, it’s a good substitute. When purchasing nutritional yeast, I like to look for an unfortified variety such as this one to avoid the synthetic vitamins.

Summer Squash Bacon Cheeseburger Casserole (dairy-free)

Note: The bacon in this recipe is a very generous amount; feel free to halve it and still get some amazing flavor.

Ingredients

• .5 lb bacon, diced
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2/3 – 1 lb grass-fed beef
• 10 cups 1″ cubes of chopped squash
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1.5 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2.5 Tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• salt to taste
• mustard, pickles, and diced raw onion for serving

Directions

Add the bacon to a 12″ cast-iron skillet and place it over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is crisping up and most of the fat is rendered. Remove bacon pieces with a slotted spoon and transfer them to a glass 9×13″ pan. Immediately add the onions to the pan. Turn the heat up to medium-high and fry onions for 3-4 minutes before adding the beef. Fry the beef and onions until the beef is cooked through and the onions are browned. Remove the onions and beef with a slotted spoon and transfer to the dish containing the bacon pieces.

Add half of the squash to the pan and cook 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the squash gets some good deep color on it. Transfer squash to a 9×13″ glass pan and repeat with remaining squash.

Meanwhile, add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, apple cider vinegar, and nutritional yeast (if using). Season everything with salt and pepper and mix it all up. Once the second batch of squash is finished browning, add that to the pan and stir everything together.

At this point you can cover the pan and refrigerate it for up to a couple of days before reheating. When you are ready to serve, drizzle the top of the casserole with mustard and sprinkle over diced pickles and onions, as desired.