Shrimp and Summer Squash Dressing

July is prime time for summer squash and a welcome season for lighter dinner fare. This yellow squash and shrimp dressing is as colorful as a flower garden and offers great contrasts in flavors: just-tender squash rounds, firm flavorful shrimp, and a bit of crunchy crust atop. It’s easy to assemble ahead of time and is a real crowd pleaser. I think of my mom, Buttons, each time I make it, because she introduced me to her own version of it a few years ago..

Buttons has a few filing systems in her house, things like accordion folders for personal papers and decorative boxes for favorite recipe cards. But her most trustworthy file cabinet is a mental one in which she stores the original sources of her recipes. The rice salad I wrote about a few weeks ago? It came via a recipe card that was a party favor at a gathering she actually missed in college. Her friend Janice later brought her the card and the salad has been part of the family ever since. Buttons remembered that this squash dressing recipe originated in the Morning Advocate, Baton Rouge’s daily newspaper. Contributed by reader Betty Starnes, it offered a new take on a vegetable casserole. Mom reworked it to make it a bit healthier, and now I’ve adapted it further.

The flavoring base of the dressing has Cajun aromatics like onion, celery, and garlic with the mild flavor of red bell pepper.

Dressings are a common side dish in the South, and I love how this one mimics the color of cornbread but offers fresh yellow squash instead.  

While the squash steams to a stage where it’s just tender, a colorful version of the Cajun trinity sautés in the skillet. Peeled shrimp add another Cajun component to the dish. Breadcrumbs, eggs, and fresh herbs both tie the ingredients together and further highlight the play among them.

After the squash has been gently folded into the cooked shrimp mixture, it gets flavored with parsley, basil, and Parmesan and everything goes into the oven for a short while.

I love the bright flecks of sweet red bell pepper that peek from the bright yellow squash mixture and the way the Parmesan topping makes a crust that everyone wants a piece of. The fresh parsley and basil bring a fresh green note to the final dish.

I’ve been visiting my family in Louisiana recently and will make this dish for them before I leave–probably with peeled crawfish tails in place of the shrimp.  We’ll celebrate being together and Buttons’s filing cabinet for good foods.

Shrimp and Summer Squash Dressing

Dawn Dobie

A light entrée that combines bright rounds of squash with shrimp and Cajun flavors.

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

• 2 pounds yellow squash sliced in 1/4-inch rounds (about 6 cups)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 red bell pepper chopped
• 1 stem celery chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning mix such as Tony Chacere or to taste --or more to taste
• 2 dashes red Tabasco --or more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• ¾ cup chicken broth (or more)
• ¼ cup thinly sliced green onion tops
• 1 pound raw medium shrimp peeled and deveined
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
• ¼ cup minced fresh parsley
• ¼ cup minced fresh basil
• 1 egg beaten (or 2 egg whites, beaten)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (2 tablespoons set aside—see below)
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Spray 10 X 10 X 3 (or 9 X 13) casserole dish with nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Place sliced squash in microwaveable dish. Add 1/4 cup water and cover. Cook yellow squash in microwave for 5 minutes. Stir. If needed, cook another 2 minutes or until slightly tender. Drain. (Or you can  cook the squash on stovetop if you wish. Combine squash with 1/2 cup water in a Dutch oven and bring liquid to a boil. Cook for 5-7 minutes, or until squash is just tender. Drain. Then you can use the empty Dutch oven for the next step.)
• Meanwhile heat butter in Dutch oven over medium high heat and sauté onion, bell pepper, celery for about 7 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Add garlic and cook 1 more minute.
• Add chicken broth, Cajun seasoning, dried thyme, Tabasco and green onion tops. Lower heat to medium and cook 10 minutes.
• Raise heat to medium high. Add the shrimp. Cook 5 more minutes, stirring from time to time. Remove from heat.
• Add breadcrumbs, parsley, and basil. Mix well.
• Add beaten egg and continue to mix.
• Fold in drained squash.
• Stir in all but 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese.
• Pour mixture into prepared casserole dish, sprinkle with reserved Parmesan cheese, and bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes or until golden brown on top.
• Allow to cool for 5 minutes and serve.

Notes

Can substitute 1 pound of peeled cooked crawfish tails for the shrimp.

You can also omit the seafood and make this a vegetarian dish.

Adapted from Betty Starnes' Seafood and Squash Dressing in the Morning Advocate (2011).