Our garden is one of the best things about summer, we always seem to get a bounty of fresh delicious vegetables. More than likely you, like us, end up with too much zucchini. It never seems to amaze me that even when I plant one or two zucchini plants I still end up with mounds of it. So this year we decided to get creative with the extra zucchini.

This evening I wanted to do a Mexican meal and I wanted it to be vegan because we try to do at least three meatless meals a week.  Tonight is our meatless night and so I created this zucchini enchilada casserole, it turned out fabulous it has no cheese, no Dairy at all, no eggs, nothing animal related at all. If you want to see videos tutorials on how I put this together check below the recipe, there are two.

Here is the recipe, you will need to use your own judgement on some of the amounts to use but that gives you a chance to get creative. This recipe serves four.

1 lb ground meat substitute **

2 tsp ground cumin

1-2 tsp garlic granules

1 tsp sea salt

1 chipotle pepper (canned in mole sauce, diced up)

1 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup diced hot chili peppers of your choice (optional)

2 cups cooked pinto beans (can use canned beans)

1 med zucchini, sliced length wise into thin slices

1 jar Frontera Tomatillo Salsa or Guacamole Mix***

Method

Filling: In a skillet, fry out the onions and chili peppers until just soft add the ground meat substitute and spices. Stir this all together and cook for about 3-5 minutes. You are just getting the flavors to all meld together. Add the beans and stir them in now set it aside. To layer start by pouring just enough of the Frontera salsa over the bottom of a baking pan to cover the bottom. Lay slices of zucchini on the bottom of the pan and top with half of the filling, cover with half of the salsa then repeat with the remaining zucchini slices, filling and salsa. Bake in a preheated 350′ oven for 30-45 minutes it is done when it is bubbly all around the edges. Let it cool for about 10 minutes before you cut it. Serve with fresh Pico de Gallo and a lime wedge.

** There are a lot of options for ground meat substitute, I used frozen crumbles. There is also tofu which can be dried really well and then crumbled into the pan after the beans have been added. You can choose Quorn brand crumbles but they are vegetarian not vegan. You can also use a vegan cheese substitute as a garnish.

*** I like using Frontera Salsas for convenience but if you want to make it from scratch refer to my previous post for Green Chili.