Taking all of our leftover zucchini squash from the garden and throwing it into our favorite taco casserole! You'll love this healthy twist on a traditional Mexican food favorite. Grab some sour cream and fresh limes as toppings and this Zucchini Taco Casserole will be a hit!
This Zucchini Taco Casserole is a family favorite! Even our picky eaters like it!
Let’s talk about vegetables. Do you ever find yourself at the end of the day and realize you didn’t have one vegetable throughout the day!? Or do you have picky kids who might not like eating vegetables?
In this case I have a very super husband which is basically like one of my kids haha.
I have been trying to incorporate more vegetables into our meals to help everyone get in their daily vegetables. This recipe is PERFECT for sneaking them in and packing them with flavor.
Serve this up with your favorite taco toppings and you’ll have a new taco Tuesday (or any day of the week!) favorite!
Related Recipe: Looking for more easy casserole recipes?! Try our Pizza Pasta Casserole!
This recipe is great because you can add just about any vegetables or taco ingredients that you want. Here’s what we used, and a few suggestions for substituting!
- Ground Turkey – you can totally substitute ground beef if that’s the taco meat you prefer. My husband personally hates ground turkey so I’ve made this with both.
- Yellow Onion
- Cooked Quinoa – cooked brown or white rice can also be substituted. You’ll want to keep the measurement the same, so it will be about two cups of cooked rice.
- Chopped zucchini
- Red Pepper
- Black beans – you can add pinto beans if you prefer those instead!
- Salsa – use your favorite salsa! We usually stick with mild, but if you want to add a little spice, go ahead and add a medium or hot salsa.
- Taco Seasoning – we usually just buy this in order to save on time, but if you have a good homemade recipe, that works great too. You’ll want about 2 Tablespoons.
Related Recipe: Cornbread Taco Bake Recipe
Related Article: Still can’t get enough zucchini? Try our Chicken Zucchini Casserole!
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We don’t use quinoa in a lot of recipes, and honestly I’m not sure why! After seeing how quick and easy it was to cook up a few cups, I think I will be incorporating it into my recipes more often.
Here are some of the health benefits of quinoa:
- High in fiber
- Good source of protein
- Gluten free
- Great source of iron and magnesium
- Contains antioxidants
Need to use up some zucchini from your garden? Here are a few of our favorite recipes!
- Zucchini Parmesan Bake
- Baked Zucchini Bites
- Baked Zucchini Fries
- Chicken Zucchini Casserole
- Baked Parmesan Zucchini Strings
Serves: 6
Zucchini Taco Casserole Recipe
Taking all of our leftover zucchini squash from the garden and throwing it into our favorite taco casserole! You'll love this healthy twist on a traditional Mexican food favorite.
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 25 minutes mins
Total Time 45 minutes mins
PrintPin
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 pound ground turkey
- ½ onion chopped
- 2 zucchini diced
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- 1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans (rinsed and drained)
- 1 cup salsa
- 1 ounce taco seasoning
- 1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend
- 1 avocado diced (optional topping)
- 2 Tablespoons cilantro chopped (optional topping)
- ½ cup sour cream (optional topping)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare quinoa according to package directions.
In a large skillet, saute turkey and onion until turkey is cooked through and no longer pink.
In a large bowl, toss together turkey, quinoa, zucchini, pepper, beans, salsa, and taco seasoning until seasoning is completely incorporated.
Dump mixture into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan and top with Mexican blend cheese.
Bake for 25 minutes or until zucchini and peppers have completely cooked through, and cheese begins to bubble on top.
Serve with your favorite taco toppings.
We serve ours with avocado, cilantro, and sour cream.
Notes
Some of the health benefits of quinoa:
- High in fiber
- Good source of protein
- Gluten free
- Great source of iron and magnesium
- Contains antioxidants
Nutrition
Calories: 587 kcal · Carbohydrates: 67 g · Protein: 39 g · Fat: 20 g · Saturated Fat: 7 g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 4 g · Monounsaturated Fat: 7 g · Trans Fat: 1 g · Cholesterol: 69 mg · Sodium: 883 mg · Potassium: 1349 mg · Fiber: 15 g · Sugar: 6 g · Vitamin A: 1734 IU · Vitamin C: 44 mg · Calcium: 223 mg · Iron: 6 mg
Equipment
Large Skillet
Mixing Bowl
9×13-inch Baking Pan
Recipe Details
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican, Tex-Mex
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Join The Discussion
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Teresa Collins says:
This looks like a wonderful recipe! I can't wait to try it. Do you have any nutritional information to go along with this recipe? That would be great.
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Alice says:
Look delicious!! Would I be able to replace quinoa with brown rice and still bake it in the same way?
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Amber Reder says:
I replaced it with brown rice yesterday and it worked great!
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Mickey says:
Are the black beans rinsed and drained?
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Cyd says:
We usually rinse and drain our black beans.
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Maribeth Clarke says:
I made this the other night. I totally expected a mini family revolt, as we tend to not like "things together" i.e. casserole style. The pre-dinner discussion was no one had eaten it, including the cook, so we were "going to try it, and if we didn't like it, we could express that and no one would have hurt feelings. I wanted an easy and fast cooking experience. We changed several things to make this recipe work for our family. We used ground sirloin instead of turkey, frozen brown rice (pre-microwaved for 3 minutes) instead of quinoa (we only used 1 1/2 cups because that is what came in the package), peeled and deseeded, then diced the zucchini and pre-microwaved it for 2 minutes (to jump start the cooking time), left out the red pepper, drained 1 can pinto beans instead of black ones, used the salsa (added it to the meat and wish I had added the taco seasoning to the meat with it to get it to pre-dissolve better; so, as not to have as strong of a chili powder hit as ours had. We also added two cups of frozen yellow corn pre-microwaved for 5 minutes. Added about 3 tablespoons of butter for richness and we did doubled plus the cheese on top and added a dallop of sour cream to each serving (and some even had ranch dressing as a topper). We mixed the ingredient (minus the sour cream all together and baked it for 30 minutes. The vote was to have warmed leftovers in a warmed flour tortilla and to add this recipe occasionally to the dinner lineup. Pleasantly happy with the outcome. Even my picky spouse voted for it again. Happy and surprised indeed!
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Lacy says:
I was hoping for this as well.
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Jacob says:
I can't find the nutrition information on the web page, but it's in the source code. Press ctrl + U and scroll down to about line 400.
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Natalie says:
Is it 2 cups dry quinoa or cooked? Think I added too much!
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Lori says:
I'm wondering if you would be able to add serving size to your recipe. The nutritional values are posted in them but never the serving size. Thank you for sharing your cooking talents with the world. :)
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Jen says:
I was wondering this, too! My quinoa turned into four cups cooked. I only added about 2/3 of it to the mix because it seemed like too much. Any insights anyone?
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Lisa says:
Hi there. Is the 2C of quinoa cooked? Thank!
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Momma Cyd says:
Yes, 2 cups cooked.
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Lisa Foley says:
Can I use cauliflower rice instead?
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Momma Cyd says:
Are you thinking to use cauliflower rice in place of the quinoa? We haven't tried this recipe with cauliflower rice. I'm sure it would work. You would want it cooked before adding it in.
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Heidi Reynolds says:
This was the best thing I have eaten all summer. Used my homemade salsa for extra flavor. Should be on the front page of you website!
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Laura Whitlock says:
Could this be made into a frozen meal? If so, how?
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Momma Cyd says:
We have not yet tried making this into a freezer meal.
About The Author:
Lauren
Lauren lives in Sacramento, California with her husband, Jon, and her little boy, Henson. She coordinates all brand partnerships and collaborations and oversees our menu plans. In her spare time she loves listening to podcasts and spending time with her family.
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