Name: Zucchini Taco Casserole Recipe
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min
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))

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!

Do you ever find yourself realizing you didn’t have one vegetable throughout the day? Or do you have picky kids who might not like eating vegetables?

In this case, our Zucchini Taco Casserole is just for you! This recipe is perfect for incorporating more vegetables into your meals 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!

Recipe Ingredient Notes

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.

How to Make Zucchini Taco Casserole

Preheat oven to 350℉.
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.

Note About Quinoa

We don’t use quinoa in a lot of our recipes, and honestly, I’m not sure why. Quinoa is quick and easy to cook up a few cups. Plus, there are some great benefits of quinoa, such as high in fiber, good source of protein, gluten-free, great source of iron and magnesium, and contains antioxidants.

More Casserole Recipes

If you love the ease and flexibility of a casserole, checkout these recipes:

Serves: 6 servings

Zucchini Taco Casserole Recipe

5 from 4 votes

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

Cook Time 25

Total Time 45

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℉.
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

Add any vegetable or taco ingredients to this recipe that you want. Just note that the nutritional calculations can vary from recipe to recipe depending on the ingredients you include.

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

Recipe Details

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican, Tex-Mex

Cost: $9

Author: Steph Loaiza

Questions & Reviews

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.

Alice says:

Look delicious!! Would I be able to replace quinoa with brown rice and still bake it in the same way?

Amber Reder says:

I replaced it with brown rice yesterday and it worked great!

Mickey says:

Are the black beans rinsed and drained?

Cyd says:

We usually rinse and drain our black beans.

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!

Lacy says:

I was hoping for this as well.

Natalie says:

Is it 2 cups dry quinoa or cooked? Think I added too much!

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. :)

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?

Lisa says:

Hi there. Is the 2C of quinoa cooked? Thank!

Momma Cyd says:

Yes, 2 cups cooked.

Lisa Foley says:

Can I use cauliflower rice instead?

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.

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!

Laura Whitlock says:

Could this be made into a frozen meal? If so, how?

Momma Cyd says:

We have not yet tried making this into a freezer meal.

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.
Alice says:

Look delicious!! Would I be able to replace quinoa with brown rice and still bake it in the same way?
Amber Reder says:

I replaced it with brown rice yesterday and it worked great!
Mickey says:

Are the black beans rinsed and drained?
Cyd says:

We usually rinse and drain our black beans.
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!
Lacy says:

I was hoping for this as well.
Natalie says:

Is it 2 cups dry quinoa or cooked? Think I added too much!
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. :)
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?
Lisa says:

Hi there. Is the 2C of quinoa cooked? Thank!
Momma Cyd says:

Yes, 2 cups cooked.
Lisa Foley says:

Can I use cauliflower rice instead?
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.
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!
Laura Whitlock says:

Could this be made into a frozen meal? If so, how?
Momma Cyd says:

We have not yet tried making this into a freezer meal.