This cheesy and easy ground beef zucchini casserole is about to show you that you can enjoy a skillet hamburger meal without the box mix and without the pasta!
You'll love this easy zucchini hamburger casserole!
This cheesy beef and zucchini casserole is definitely a reader favorite recipe and has been for 5 years.
- The entire zucchini hamburger casserole is a quick and easy 30 minute one skillet meal
- With sour cream, cream cheese, and cheddar cheese, this casserole is both cheesy and creamy.
- This is a low carb, high protein, keto friendly beef casserole since it's made without pasta or gluten.
We have a lot of casseroles on our website and they're some of our most popular recipes. We think you'll want to add our hamburger green bean casserole to your meal plan in addition to our easy taco casserole, and Big Mac casserole.
This is so so good 😊… even better the next day… I know I’m going to cook this more often… ~on Pinterest
Made this for dinner my family loved it! Easy, and quick ❤️
Main ingredients
- Ground beef - we used 80/20 beef, you can use a lighter cut to lighten this up. Ground turkey or chicken are other ground meat options.
- Garlic cloves, minced
- Onion, diced - yellow, white, sweet, or red
- Zucchini - green garden zucchini
- Beef or chicken broth
- Sour cream - full-fat if you're following low carb or keto
- Cream cheese - full-fat if you're following low carb or keto
- Sea salt
- Ground black pepper
- Worcestershire sauce - or coconut aminos for gluten free
- Shredded cheddar cheese- shred your own to keep the carbs down, prepackaged cheese adds starch
Making Zucchini Hamburger Casserole
Step 1. Brown the ground beef. In a large cast-iron skillet, cook the ground beef on medium heat until it's browned. Remove the cooked hamburger meat and set it aside. Drain the grease, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the skillet to saute the vegetables.
Step 2. Saute the vegetables. In the same skillet, saute the chopped onions until they start to soften, which will take about 3 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook for 1 more minute or until fragrant.
Add the sliced zucchini and beef broth to the pan and cook until the zucchini is soft, about 5 more minutes.
Step 3. Add the dairy. Turn the heat down to medium-low and mix in the cream cheese and sour cream.
Step 4. Add the beef back to the skillet in addition to the salt, ground black pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine.
Step 5. Add cheese and broil. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the top of the casserole. Place the casserole in the oven and broil it for 2 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
You can also add a lid to the skillet and brown it on the stovetop. The cheese won't be as crisp this way, but it'll still be melted.
Enjoy!
Expert little notes
- If you don't have a cast-iron skillet or other oven-safe pan, be sure to transfer the casserole to an oven-safe dish before broiling.
- This is a very cheesy casserole, feel free to cut the cheese in half for a lighter version.
- Other veggies that would be yummy to mix in would be chopped mushrooms or diced red peppers.
- Leftover casserole can be store in the fridge for up to 4 days when stored in an airtight container.
Is this a keto ground beef casserole?
Yes, our beef zucchini casserole is considered a keto casserole recipe. Just be sure to buy whole fat sour cream and cream cheese to keep carbs low. You can back the amount of sour cream and cream cheese if you need to to accommodate macros for the day. Shredding your own cheese from a block will keep the cheddar cheese at 0 carbs (packaged cheese adds starch (and hidden carbs) to prevent it from sticking).
Worchestershire sauce has a tiny amount of sugar and 1 carb per serving. You can swap the Worchestershire sauce with coconut aminos if you're strict keto or are following a gluten-free lifestyle.
When prepared as directed, each serving will yield you 7 net carbs per serving. The entire dish contains 6 servings.
More hamburger recipes
Hamburger meat makes for an easy and inexpensive dinner. Here are some of our favorite ideas.
- Crustless taco pie
- Cheeseburger salad
- Chili without beans
- Korean ground beef bowl
- Air fryer Italian meatballs
- Swedish meatballs no breading
- Healthy ground beef recipes (50 ideas)
- Keto ground beef recipes
If you loved our recipe, please leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and leave us a comment too! Connect with us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube!
Recipe
Ground Beef Zucchini Casserole (Keto, Low Carb, GF)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb of ground beef
- 2 teaspoon garlic cloves minced
- 1 cup onion diced
- 3 cups sliced zucchini
- ¼ cup beef or chicken broth
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- 2 tablespoon cream cheese
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce or coconut aminos for GF
- 1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- In a cast-iron skillet, cook the ground beef on medium heat until browned, about 5 minutes. Remove ground beef and drain grease, leaving 1 tablespoon of the grease in the pan to saute the vegetables in.
- In the same skillet, cook the chopped onions over medium heat until they start to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic to the pan and cook for 1 more minute.
- Add the zucchini and broth to the pan and cook until the zucchini is soft, about 5 more minutes.
- Turn the heat down to medium-low add the cream cheese and then sour cream.
- Add the beef back into the pan along with the salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. Stir gently to combine.
- Sprinkle with the cheddar cheese over the top.
- 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. Using the stovetop, your cheddar cheese won't be crispy, but it will melt.
Video
Notes
- Substitute ground turkey or chicken instead of ground beef.
- Use any type of shredded cheese instead of cheddar
- If you don't have a cast-iron skillet or other oven-safe pan, be sure to transfer the casserole to an oven-safe dish before broiling.
- Cut the zucchini back to 2 cups if you want to reduce the carbs
- Add red pepper to give it a spicy kick.
- Be sure to use full-fat sour cream and cream cheese to keep the carbs down
CarolK says
This was pretty tasty. I had almost 1.5 lbs of ground beef, and I sliced two medium zucchini without measuring. I had to add a bit more broth to get the zucchini to soften. I also used 4 Oz. Of cream cheese, and a bit more sour cream. I tasted, and added more Worcestershire sauce. Ottawa mild flavored fish, but good. I will make it again.
Suzanne says
I added a can of fire roasted tomatoes, doubled the garlic, added red pepper flakes, oregano, fresh parsley. Did anyone have an issue with it being very watery? Perhaps I did not sauté the zucchini long enough to draw more water out? I used fresh grated pecorino romano and mozzarella. Next time, I will use rotel and mexican type spices, maybe pepper jack cheese to zip it up. Any suggestions?
The flavors are spot on though!
Brandon McGraw says
Made this recipe today and it was lacking some seasoning, so added 1 can of (Mild) Rotella tomatoes, pepper, grated cheddar and garlic powder. and it really added to the flavor profile of the dish! thank you for the recipe!
one love!
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Brandon, that's a great variation! Thank you for adding feedback. Jen
Rose says
What size of oven safe dish?
Sarah Wheeler says
Can this be made ahead and then placed in the fridge to be reheated later? How would you recommend reheating it?
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Sarah, that should work fine! To reheat it I'd leave it covered with foil in the oven for much of the cooking and then remove the foil at the end to keep from over-browning the cheese. The casserole of course will take longer to reheat since it's starting from cold.
Rehoboth says
Excellent post
Thanks
Frances says
Too much, somehow. Beginning to think I don't care for sore cream in recipes.My daughter proclaimed it "DELICIOUS"!
WholeLottaYum says
You can also cut back on the sour cream if it's too much or use cream cheese as an alternative. I'm glad your daughter loved it! 🙂
Jayne says
I made this last night with a little tweak to it. I added tomatos, bell peppers , hatch chili, and a can of Rotel. Omg so good!
J powell warren says
My husband and I made this with our garden zucchini and we're really glad we did!! It makes a great casserole and the fact that it's low carb is a real bonus. Love, love, love it! We found it worked out well that when we got to step #5, instead of adding the burger back into the pan, we poured the mix into a casserole dish and then added the burger and Worcestershire sauce, and sprinkled the cheese on top and broiled for a couple minutes. Great recipe, so glad I keep searching until I found this one with the "right" ingredients!!
Donna says
I used yellow squash and zucchini, cream cheese (only cheese I had) salsa verde (medium) It smells heavenly!!
Brooke says
Delicious!!! I added some carrots and celery to the onions. I also assembled ahead of time and put in a casserole dish and reheated in the oven.
I fed two friends and they both wanted the recipe. Great way to use up the garden zucchini.
Christine says
Very good. I used 2 cups of shredded cheese.nice flavor.
Linda C says
I made this last night. I am on low sodium, so used no salt broth, didn't add the salt. I had onion & chive cream cheese open so I used that, and light sour cream. I had a ton of zucchini from the garden. Already pre sliced thin, added cremini mushrooms. Added a little extra broth. Yum!!!!! Like a taste of stroganoff with zucchini instead of noodles. I will be making this again!
Alicia says
What do you think about turning this into a wrap? Just spread the beef and zucchini from the pan, onto the tortilla wrap, sprinkle the Cheddar, roll it up and put in on the grill for the cheese to melt. Would it taste good?
Amy Darragh says
Delicious, easy and quick!