Gluten Free Dairy Free Zucchini Gratin Recipe

Well, It is that time of year again when zucchini is so plentiful we rack our brains on how to use up all those lovely squash that are taking over our gardens or that friends and neighbors trust upon us. It’s time for gluten free zucchini bread, zucchini fritters and zucchini muffins.

To change it up I decided to make a zucchini gratin this weekend. I figured I love potato gratin so why not? Plus a gratin made with zucchini instead of potatoes would have a lot less calories, starch and carbs. In that vein I also decided to leave out all those cheese calories gratins are usually so loaded with.

For sweetness and extra flavor I cooked down onions until they were practically meltingly soft and I added some sun dried tomatoes and fresh basil to my gratin to make it more summery then topped the whole thing off with some nutty, parmesan-like, protein packed nutritional yeast mixed with some gluten free panko style bread crumbs from Kinnikinnick.

The result? Oh my! I never thought I would actually wax enthusiastic about zucchini but this stuff is good. Really, really good! I can hardly believe this recipe is dairy free, with that nutritional yeast; I didn’t miss the cheese one little bit!

You can cook the zucchini in a skillet then transfer to a baking dish to finish in the oven but for a more rustic presentation, I made mine in a cast iron skillet. What’s cool about this is that you can finish the dish off on the grill if you like. This does make a really great barbeque side dish.

So this is one way I am using up my zucchini, what’s a favorite zucchini recipe of yours?

Gluten Free Dairy Free Zucchini Gratin Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup rice milk
1 tablespoon tapioca or corn starch
6 tablespoons olive oil – use divided
3 medium white or yellow onions (about 1 pound), cut in half and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons kosher or fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
4 medium zucchini (about 2 pounds)
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes packed in oil, dried and finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, minced
¾ cup gluten free Kinnikinnick panko style bread crumbs
¼ cup nutritional yeast

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix ¼ cup rice milk with the tapioca or corn starch and set aside.

Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over low heat. Add the onions and salt and cook until the onions are very tender but not brown, about 20 minutes. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise then slice about ¼ inch thick. Add the pepper, nutmeg, zucchini, sun dried tomatoes and remaining ¾ cup of rice milk to the onions, raise the heat to medium, cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes or until the zucchini is fork tender.

Remove the cover, raise the heat to high, bring the mixture to a boil and stir in the rice milk starch mixture. Cook the mixture, stirring, until the mixture thickens; about 1 minute.  Remove from the heat and stir in the basil.

Combine the bread crumbs with the nutritional yeast. Put the zucchini mixture into a 9 by 12 inch (or similar sized) baking dish, top with the bread crumb mixture and drizzle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly and browned.

Servings:

A gluten free recipe that serves 6 – 8 people.

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