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We first made this fantastic Creamy Summer Squash Casserole last summer when our garden was exploding with zucchini and summer squash – and we’ve been waiting all year long to make it again so we could share it here on A Family Feast!
This Creamy Summer Squash Casserole is a great way to get your family to eat their veggies – and a great way to cook with any type of summer squash you might be growing in your garden or buying at your local market.
Adapted from this popular recipe found on The New York Times website, we made this recipe our own by adding cauliflower to the creamy, cheesy yellow summer squash puree, as well as chunks of zucchini. Then we topped the creamy summer squash casserole with a later of crispy light Panko breadcrumbs which bakes up nice and golden brown.
This Creamy Summer Squash Casserole has such a wonderfully light and creamy texture – it reminds me of a soufflé. And among all of the vegetable and cheese is a slight kick of heat from some red pepper flakes, plus a pinch of nutmeg – both are a wonderful addition to the flavors in this dish.
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Creamy Summer Squash Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 pound yellow summer squash, trimmed and cut into chunks
- 1 pound cauliflower, cut into chunks
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups onion, diced medium
- Small pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced
- 1 pound zucchini squash, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
- 24 Ritz crackers, crushed
- 8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
- 4 eggs beaten
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 3/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
- 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
- Bring a medium to large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, add one teaspoon of salt.
- Add yellow squash and cauliflower and boil gently for ten minutes. Drain and place back into the pot. Puree cooked squash and cauliflower with an emersion blender until pureed.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large sauté pan, heat the 6 tablespoons of butter and the olive oil over medium high. Once melted, add onions and red pepper flakes and sauté for two minutes. Add garlic and zucchini and sauté just long enough to take the crunch out of the zucchini. (No more than three minutes).
- Add this to the pureed vegetables.
- Add Ritz, cheese, eggs, cream, salt, sugar, cayenne pepper and nutmeg. Stir to combine.
- Pour into a 2½ quart baking dish.
- Mix the Panko with the melted butter and sprinkle over the top of the casserole.
- Bake uncovered for 50-60 minutes or until the center is hot and the top golden brown.
- Serve immediately.
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This is the second time I’ve made this casserole and it is SO DELICIOUS!! Gave some to my neighbor and she loved it as well. It’s a LOT of work, time consuming, but SO worth it. Really good, even for a rookie
Thank you V!
Very good. Can leftovers be frozen.
Hi Robert – I’m not sure the texture will be as good once frozen and thawed but if that doesn’t bother you, you can.
I made this recipe since I had all the veg on hand. It was tasty, but could definitely use more than 1 cup of cheese. I also only used 2 eggs, 4 seemed excessive and 2% milk instead of heavy cream. It came out good, I’d probably make again.
Hi Sonja – I know you wrote to us earlier, asking if you could use milk instead of heavy cream…I think swapping out the heavy cream and cutting the eggs in half also contributed to your impression that this recipe needed more cheese. You might enjoy the recipe as written one of these days!
Substituting milk is one thing but going all the way down to 2% means you lost the richness that the cream would have given you, which is why you felt it needed more cheese. It did – you have to think of the fats in a recipe and how to balance them out. 3 eggs instead of only 2 after 4 were called for was going too far too. You didn’t make this recipe, but you did make another one of your own, which is ok. Next time you’ll know to add more cheese and voila, you have your own recipe 🙂
Thank you! 🙂
This looks good and I have all the ingredients, but 4 eggs and heavy cream? Would milk be a good enough substitute for the cream? I hope my kids will at least try it, I’ll be making it tonight!
Sure Sonja – you can swap in milk. It will be less rich and creamy and probably a bit softer texture, but it should be ok. (You could consider adding an extra egg too.)