Another Oldie - Stovetop Zucchini Casserole

There are so many tiny McDougall cookbooks out there that were released in the days before the internet and bookstores like Amazon.com. Back then, you had to know a book existed, and if you wanted to pre-order it or even buy it after its release, in some cases, you had to know the exact title, author, and ISBN number. Or be lucky enough to have a bookseller who knew of Dr. McDougall and ordered his books to have on his shelves.

I knew about Dr. McDougall back in the mid- to late 1980's, when our local health food store had 2 battered copies of The McDougall Health-Supporting Cookbook Volume 1 and Volume 2 in their little library nook. Each time I went to that store I brought my notebook and copied a few more recipes from it. The back of the books mentioned the author (Mary McDougall) was co-author of another book called The McDougall Plan, but it wasn't in our library's card catalog (This was also the years before inter-library loans, too), and the only bookstore in town looked in his catalogs and said it wasn't in any of them so if it did exist, he couldn't order it anyway.

Flash forward to 1992 and our first computer and a subscription to the Prodigy Bulletin Board network. It was there I found all I needed to know about John and Mary McDougall, especially their next book, The McDougall Program: 12 Days to Dynamic Health. Since it was a fairly new book it appeared in the catalog the local bookstore ordered from, and from that day on I would purchase every McDougall book released, usually as a pre-order, and thanks to Amazon now, have it in my hands the day of release. In the meantime, I would find out about all the other McDougall books I had missed over the years, and would pick them up when and where I could. Those original Health Supporting Cookbooks I got when the health food store decided to close the book nook and I got them for a total of $5. The New McDougall Cookbook I got at a mall bookstore's close-out department. Books like The McDougall Plan and the Doctor McDougall Health Enhancing Recipe Book would be purchased from vendors on Half.com. And if you're just looking for something to make for dinner, no book is even needed - there's a great recipe section right on the McDougall website.

Anyway, this recipe has appeared only once, in that very first McDougall book I saw, The McDougall Health-Supporting Cookbook Volume 1. It's never been in any other McDougall book or cookbook, nor has it made an appearance in a newsletter or the web site, as far as I know. I recently acquired a half dozen zucchini, and not being too fond of the fruit (Yes, botanically that's what they are), I went looking through my McDougall recipe cardfile to find one that used a lot of this stuff and found this one:

Stove-Top Zucchini Casserole
SERVINGS: 4-6
PREPARATION TIME: 15 min. COOKING TIME: 45 min.

6 medium zucchini, thickly sliced
3 potatoes, chopped
4 celery stalks, sliced
6 green onions, sliced
1/2 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. low sodium tamari
1 cup tomato sauce

In a large saucepan, saute the onions and celery in 1/4 cup water about 5
minutes. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir gently to mix. Cover and cook
over medium-low heat until tender, about 35 minutes.

McDougall Health Promoting Cookbook
page 77

I used a bit more scallions, because I like them, but otherwise made it exactly as written when I tossed it all into the skillet:

As you can (barely) see, the tomato sauce has already been added. I really didn't have high hopes for the meal at this point. But I turned on the gas, popped the lid on the pan, set my timer, and walked away. 

After 35 minutes, I was greeted with about a quarter to third volume of veggies and a very watery, nearly tasteless, pink sauce.

How do I salvage this mess? First, I took out my handy tube of tomato paste from the refrigerator and squirted about half of it into the pan and mixed. In hindsight, I should have just gone to the pantry for a 6 ounce can and put that in. It still needed a little something more and grabbed my jar of Mrs. Dash® Tomato Basil Garlic Seasoning Blend and started shaking and mixing and tasting.

Perfect!

I forgot to take a photo at that point because by now my husband was already sitting there, fork in hand, waiting to eat. Here's a picture of my bowl after a few bites were taken out of it:

Ok, maybe I already ate half of my serving. Unfortunately, that was almost half the entire recipe! I gave my husband the larger half, and after he finished his bowl he took his loaf of Dave's Killer Bread and used 2 slices to sop up any sauce left in his bowl, another slice to finish off mine, and another 2 slices to sop up the skillet. So, a bit more than half the recipe's volume plus 5 slices of bread to satisfy one 6' tall, 160 pound man. About an hour later, I opened up a can of garbanzo beans, rinsed, and ate them. Finally I was no longer hungry!

Now I know why when others posted this recipe on-line they marked it as a side dish. This would be great if served with the Esseslstyn's Grandpa's Eat Loaf or Jeff Novick's burgers, but not by itself like I did it.

Would I make this again? Well, I'll think about it during the late summer, when all the stores are selling zucchini at cut rate prices. I'll either make twice as much or serve it with something else. After I doctored it up a little it really was quite tasty.