A BUSY LABOUR DAY WEEKEND! CHEESEY VEGAN PATTY PAN SQUASH & CORN CASSEROLE

My grandaughter Hannah's birthday cake, my New Lower-Fat Chocolate Mudpie Cake with Coffee/Coconut/Pecan Frosting-- recipe here!-- we celebrated her 12th birthday (belatedly) on Sunday night.

We had 8 guests for the weekend-- 2 of my daughters and their spouses, and 4 grandchildren, ages 15 to 6. I simply forgot to take pictures most of the time! When I did, the light wasn't great, but below is a bit of what we ate. On Monday everyone headed home, and DH and I went to one of our vegan potlucks, where 5 couples meet to eat great vegan food and chat up a storm. Again, the light was bad and the pics are not great, but the meal was very yummy and we could hardly walk out of the door! This time we had a rainbow theme and I chose yellow, mostly to use up our homegrown patty pan squash!

Friday night my youngest daughter and her husband and son came from Vancouver, so we were few enough to have a sit-down meal. We had a Middle-Eastern meal of hummous (my lower-fat version), Saniya, a Levantine dish in wish I use ground Field Roast Classic Grain Meatloaf instead of meat, topped with my lower-fat Taheena Sauce (recipes here). They loved the Saniya!

We had a green salad with our own tomatoes, olives, and wholewheat pita bread brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with the wonderful herb blend, Za'atar, and heated in the oven. We used this to scoop up both the hummous and Saniya.

Saniya with hummous

Everyone brought food, of course, and we had Terra chips, homemade blueberry popsicles, homemade banana muffins, lots of fruit, corn, chile and cornbread, and vegan posole soup.  DH made crepes for breakfast one morning and on another morning I made Orange-Blackberry-Pecan Scones (recipe here, but I left out the chocolate chips).

On Monday night, we attended a vegan potluck. I made a very simple patty pan squash (from our garden) and fresh local corn casserole in a creamy sauce with thyme and tarragon, with a topping of my "New, Improved" Okara Parmesan Substitute and Daiya vegan cheese. It didn't look like much (and the picture is bad-- sorry!), but it was really delicious!  The recipe is below.

Cheesey Vegan Patty Pan Squash and Corn Casserole

                                     Homegrown patty pan squash

Printable Recipe

BRYANNA’S CHEESEY VEGAN PATTY PAN SQUASH AND CORN CASSEROLE

Serves 4

A perfect summer casserole—good enough for a main dish!  (I quadrupled this recipe for the potluck!)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

4 medium patty pan squash, trimmed and sliced into thin wedges
(you could substitute just about any summer squash, actually!)

1 ear of fresh sweet corn, kernels sliced off the cob

1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 cup nut milk or full-fat soymilk

salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste

1/4 cup of your favorite vegan parmesan substitute (I used my homemade version)

about 2 ounces Daiya grated white vegan cheese (or your favorite type)

Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sliced onions and sauté them slowly until they are tender and beginning to brown.  Add the patty pan squash and corn kernels and sauté until the squash is almost tender enough to serve, but not quite.  Stir in the herbs and then the milk.  Taste for salt and pepper.

Transfer the mixture to an oiled baking dish (unless your skillet can go in the oven!) and cover with the parmesan sub and then the grated vegan cheese.  Place under your broiler on the second rack setting own from the broiler.  Broil the casserole for 5 to 10 minutes, or until it gets bubbly and hot.  Serve immediately, or you can keep it warm in a low oven until serving time.


Enjoy!