Cheesy Zucchini Bake with Corn and Ground Beef
This cheesy dish of deliciousness is a family favorite pasta bake that we’ve transformed into a plate licking low-carb meal. No lie, I am completely in love with this Cheesy Zucchini Bake with Corn and Ground Beef recipe. Who even needs pasta?!
It might not be the prettiest of meal, but is definitely packs a punch in the flavor department.
As is the norm in Chirpy-ville, this recipe is a simple and easy one and only needs 7 ingredients – PLUS it will only take you about 20 minutes of hands-on time. Can’t complain about that!
I’m pretty sure this meal is going to be a staple in our house, because you can’t beat recreating a childhood favorite that tastes just as yummy as you remember, but infinitely healthier.
Ground Beef is so versatile and a great ingredient to use when you’re feeling lazy. It’s not only a healthy ground beef recipe that uses very few ingredients, but it is also super easy.
And the best part about it is that is a yummy, comforting zoodle one pot meal/casserole that the whole family will love.
I may be wrong, but even though it seems that the “Zucchini Noodle Rage” is dying down a little, it still hasn’t died down enough to NOT give this yummy meal a try.
There is always space for another twist to good old zucchini noodles.
Cheesy Zucchini Bake with Corn and Ground Beef – Pin it!
Cheesy Zucchini Casserole with Corn and Ground Beef
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef (500g)
- 1 onion (diced)
- 2 tomatoes (diced)
- 4 zucchini (spiralized - should be about 6 cups)
- 1 cup sweet corn kernels (optional, leave out if Keto/Low-Carb)
- 1 cup cheese (shredded, we used gouda)
- 1/4 cup cream cheese
- 1 tbsp oil (own preference)
- to taste salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Sauté the onion in the oil over a medium/high heat for about 5 minutes. Use a large-ish pot.
- Add the tomato and ground beef and sauté until the ground beef is cooked through and no longer pink. Season well with salt and pepper. Taste, taste, taste!
- Add the zucchini noodles, corn, half of the cheese and the cream cheese into the pot. Stir until well combined.
- Scrape everything into a casserole dish.
- Top with the rest of the cheese before popping it in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the cheese is golden and bubbly.
Notes
Simple and so delicious! On the weeknight dinner rotation.
I made this today, used yellow squash, added 2 small bell peppers, that needed to be used. Was really good. Was not watery, fixed squash and wrapped in paper towels until ready to add to meat mixture.
Hi Linda! Glad you liked it! Thanks for the feedback 🙂
I’d leave out the Corn Kernels…too starchy, loaded with carb’s1
to prevent some of the soupiness, maybe saute the zucchini a bit or use canned tomatoes, and drain well. Fresh tomatoes have a lot of liquid, as well as the zucchini.
Made this last night and it was delicious…accidentally forgot the corn, but it was still yummy! Mine was a little soupy though. Do you have any recommendations on how to fix that? Also, do you know the nutrition facts for this meal?
Great! Well, zucchini is pretty watery so what you can do if you have the extra time, is to salt the zucchini and let it sit for maybe 20 or so minutes and then squeeze some of the water out! I’ll add it as a note in the recipe as well 🙂
This looks great but do you have any idea on how many calories this is per serving??
I really want to make this recipe, but I don’t like the cream part, could I use just milk with a bit of flour instead? To thicken it up a bit??
Hi Esther! The family recipe that inspired this one is actually made with flour and milk! This recipe is just the low-carb/gluten-free version of it. So, it’ll work perfectly. Unfortunately, I can’t give you the quantities of milk and flour, because we always eye-balled it. Just add enough flour to get it to a nice thick saucy consistency 🙂 Hope it turns out good for you!
When do I add the corn? It’s not in the recipe. Thanks
Hi Courtnay! Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I’ve fixed the recipe to include the corn. When I combine the zoodles with the ground beef and cheese sauce, I just add the corn in as well. Hope you like the recipe!
I made this last night! It was really tasty, but it had quite a bit of juice in the bottom of the casserole dish. Do you have any suggestions for making it no so soupy? Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Jeanette. That’s strange, I’ve made this recipe myself plenty of times and haven’t had an issue with soupiness. I would suggest salting the zucchini and letting it sit for a couple of minutes to draw the moisture out and then draining that before using it in the recipe. That way the zucchini will have a smaller water content and it should prevent soupiness. Hope this helps 🙂
I made this tonight didn’t have corn used cauliflower rice an it was awesome
Awesome idea with the cauliflower rice! Glad it turned out delicious for you!:)