Irresistible Keto Zucchini Casserole with Ground Beef – Low-Carb Comfort Food You’ll Crave!

This keto ground beef zucchini casserole is a perfectly meaty, cheesy, and delicious comfort food dish! When you want an amazingly delicious comfort food dish, this keto ground beef zucchini bake is a perfect choice. It’s a great way to use an abundance of summer squash. Casseroles are a classic family favorite for a reason: they're usually easy to put together, using everyday ingredients and minimal effort.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

If you've ever had keto ground beef casserole, you know how satisfying it can be. If not, you're in for a treat! This recipe is also great if you keto meal prep! After the dish comes out of the oven, simply divide the healthy ground beef casserole into meal prep containers.

Here's what makes this zucchini casserole with ground beef so special:

Delicious and Flavorful: This cheesy beef and zucchini casserole recipe is flavorful and delicious.
Easy to Make: This Keto Ground Beef Casserole is insanely easy to make! It's made with common ingredients like ground beef, zucchini and topped off with cheddar and mozzarella cheeses.
Time-Saving: Another big plus to this zucchini casserole with ground beef is if you or your family are running short on time its not a very time consuming process!
Make-Ahead Friendly: You can make it for dinner, or bake it in advance and store it in the refrigerator until ready to be served. This dish is perfect for meal prep and entertaining!
Versatile: What I love about casseroles is that they can be easily customized. Add your favorite herbs, spices, and cheese to make this dish just right for you and your family. Feel free to customize the casserole based on personal preferences.
Low-Carb and Keto-Friendly: This casserole is completely GRAIN-FREE and makes a wonderful keto or primal dinner.
Nutritious: Kind of like a lightened up lasagna, this low carb casserole has plenty of veggies, lots of protein, and it's low in calories.

Ingredients You'll Need

Here's a breakdown of the key ingredients in this recipe:

Zucchini: If you have zucchini in your garden, this zucchini ground beef casserole recipe is another great way to use them. You can either use one or both if you like the colors and we grew both this year. However, you can buy zucchini year round at most grocery stores. (Called courgette in countries outside of North America).
Ground Beef: I almost always use lean ground beef, which has 15-17 percent maximum fat content. You can use a leaner cut like 93%/7% to lighten this up. You can switch this recipe up with ground chicken, turkey, lamb or pork.
Cheese: To top off the casserole, I use mozzarella and parmesan. You can really use any shredded cheese you want. Other kinds of cheese to try are Monterey Jack, pepper jack, shredded gouda, gruyere or Swiss, or even mozzarella cheese. You can replace one of the mozzarella layers with cottage cheese or ricotta cheese to make this more of a low carb lasagna.
Onion: Use a white or yellow onion.
Tomatoes: For this recipe, I'm using a 28 ounce can of low sodium diced tomatoes.
Garlic: I like to use pure minced garlic from a jar for convenience.
Cream and Cheeses: I used heavy whipping cream in this recipe along with cream cheese and parmesan cheese to make the cream sauce.
Vegetables: I sometimes like to stir in some baby spinach or sliced mushrooms to the meat sauce for added nutrition. Yellow squash can be used interchangeably with zucchini. Sliced eggplant is also great in this recipe, either to replace the zucchini, or combine with it.
Seasoning: Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and Italian seasoning.

Step-by-Step Instructions

This delicious Keto Ground Beef Zucchini Casserole is incredibly easy to make! Here's how:

Read also: Easy Low-Carb Cheese Crackers

Part 1: Preparing the Zucchini

Slice the zucchini into ½" rounds.
Put the rounds in a sieve or colander over the sink or a bowl and sprinkle with salt, tossing to coat. Allow the salted zucchini to sit for 15 minutes to draw out excess moisture. Salting the zucchini slices before cooking will extract a lot of that water. This may seem like an extra step, but zucchini contain a lot of water, which they release during cooking. This can result in a soggy, soupy casserole.
Rinse well under cold water to remove the excess salt.
Pat dry with paper towel.

Part 2: Cooking the Ground Beef and Vegetables

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Sauté the onions for 2-3 minutes. Add in the mushrooms and sauté for 4-5 minutes. Add in the salt, garlic powder, onion powder and stir to coat. Transfer to a plate and set aside.Add onions and cook until they begin to soften, about 2 minutes.
Add garlic and ground beef, breaking up with a spoon, and cook, stirring often, until the meat is browned with no trace of pink, about 5 minutes. Next, in the same skillet add in the ground meat and use a wooden spoon to break up the meat until no longer pink. Add in the salt, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika and stir to coat. Taste and adjust if needed.
Stir in the tomatoes, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Remove from heat.

Part 3: Assembling and Baking the Casserole

Preheat oven to 350°F.First off Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a casserole dish with oil and set it aside.
In a 9×13 inch baking dish, add in the zucchini, sauteed vegetables, cooked ground beef, marinara sauce, 1 cup mozzarella, Italian herb blend, salt and pepper to taste, and mix until combined.
In an 8x8 baking dish, spread half of the ground beef mixture.
Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
Bake for 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted.Lastly, bake for 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Place the entire dish in the oven and broil for 2 minutes until the cheese is browned and melted. Or, add lid to skillet and cook for 3-4 minutes until the cheese melts.

Tips and Variations

Add a Zucchini Crust: We start with an awesome zucchini crust layer, then top it with a ground beef spaghetti sauce layer. Making a zucchini crust layer for this dish contains just a few simple ingredients, but this crust is both delicious and low carb! To make our crust, we start by grating our zucchini. I used a box grater and grated mine using the largest hole side of the grater. Setting the zucchini in a strainer and sprinkling salt over it helps to draw much of the moisture out of the zucchini. We then squeeze as much of the liquid from the zucchini as possible. While the zucchini and salt are setting, we combine our eggs, Italian seasoning, and shredded mozzarella and colby jack cheese in a mixing bowl. Then after squeezing out the excess liquid, we add our grated zucchini. Press evenly onto bottom of prepared baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes.
Make a Ground Beef Layer: I make the ground beef layer for this dish while the zucchini crust is baking. We start by cooking our ground beef with diced peppers, diced onions, salt, and pepper. I used 90% lean ground beef for this dish, but you can use a leaner or fattier mixture for yours. Either way, you’ll want to make sure you drain the grease after cooking. I used a combination of green and red bell peppers for my dish, but you can use any color or color combination you’d like for yours. After cooking the ground beef, peppers, and onions, we add keto spaghetti sauce. You can use any no sugar added sauce or can easily make homemade keto spaghetti sauce.
Spice it up: Add a pinch of red pepper flakes to the ground beef mixture for a little heat.
Add more veggies: Feel free to add other vegetables like mushrooms, bell peppers, or spinach to the casserole.
Use different cheese: Experiment with different types of cheese like pepper jack or Gruyere for a unique flavor.

Serving Suggestions

You have some awesome low carb options for serving this dish.

Salad: You can start your meal with a green salad. A couple of our favorites include a Caesar salad and a wedge salad. I also love to cut up some iceberg or romaine lettuce and put it in a large bowl. Then I place some of our favorite salad toppings into small serving bowls and everyone can choose their toppings. Some of our favorites include diced tomatoes, fried and crumbled bacon, shredded cheese, sliced avocados and hard boiled eggs.
Keto Bread: You can also serve this dish with a side of keto biscuits, chaffles, cornbread, or English muffins.
Low-Carb Vegetables: Another great option is to serve this dish with a side of low carb vegetables.
Taco Filling: Use leftover keto ground beef casserole as low carb taco fillings.
Keto Salad Topping: Add it to a keto salad!

Storage and Reheating Instructions

Storage: Store leftover hamburger and zucchini casserole in glass airtight containers for up to 5 days. This ground beef and zucchini casserole can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days.
Reheating: If you meal prepped this zucchini ground beef casserole in containers like the ones mentioned above, simply remove the lid from the container. Reheat in the microwave.
Freezing: This casserole freezes well. Allow it to cool completely, then store it in an airtight container or freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months.

Make-Ahead Instructions

You can make this dish ahead of time. Get everything ready in the casserole dish, cover the dish, and place into your fridge.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Not salting the zucchini: This is an extra step, but zucchini contain a lot of water, which they release during cooking. This can result in a soggy, soupy casserole. Salting the zucchini slices before cooking will extract a lot of that water.
Using pre-shredded cheese: I always shred cheese myself, because pre-shredded cheese usually contains an anti-caking agent.
Overbaking: Watch the casserole carefully while it's baking to avoid burning the cheese.

The Bottom Line

This keto zucchini casserole with ground beef is an easy, cheesy, high-protein dinner the whole family will love. It's a delicious way to use those summer squash while they are abundant. Simple ingredients. Easy to make. Meal prep friendly. Budget friendly. Nutritious.

Enjoy this cheesy and easy ground beef zucchini casserole!

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