Rich squash casseroles are a favorite at holiday gatherings, church socials and family get-togethers. While tasty and a good source of certain vitamins, squash casseroles can also pad your diet with unhealthy fat and salt. Before you permanently shelve that recipe card, however, look for ways to alter your favorite squash casserole and make it a more heart-healthy dish.
Identification
Recipes vary, but most squash casseroles follow the American casserole style fom the first half of the 20th century: a heavy dish designed to make a core ingredient go further in servings. Generally, you chop your squash, sauté it with onions and other vegetables, and then bake it in a mixture that might include mayonnaise, eggs, sour cream, cheese, stuffing, cracker crumbs or butter. Bacon and ranch dressing mix are not essential to the dish but are extras you can add for richer flavor. Most recipes call for several pounds of squash and yield many servings suitable for a family or group dinner.
Benefits
Since many casseroles are based on ground meat or other fatty foods, squash makes a healthy central ingredient. A cup of yellow squash, uncooked, contains only about 18 calories and is packed with vitamins A and C. It is also a good source of the essential mineral potassium and of beta carotene. Like most fruits and vegetables, it is high in fiber and low in fat. While the unhealthier ingredients in casseroles counteract some of these benefits, a tasty casserole might be a way to convince a finicky child or stubborn spouse to give squash a first try.
Drawbacks
Most squash casserole recipes coat the otherwise healthy squash in a mass of saturated fat and sodium, increasing your risk of heart disease and high blood pressure. A cup of sour cream, for example, has about 20 g of fat, most of it the unhealthy saturated variety, and a serving of canned soup alone can contain about 800 mg of sodium, more than a third of what most people should eat in an entire day. Bacon and ranch dressing mix also improve flavor at a modest cost in nutritional benefits. The ranch mix adds sodium, and a single slice of bacon adds another gram of saturated fat and nearly 200 mg of sodium.
Considerations
If you adore squash casserole or can't get your family to eat squash any other way, you can adjust your favorite recipe to make it healthier without significantly altering the flavor. Look for low-fat versions of the cheese, sour cream or mayonnaise you use. Remember that "low fat" and "reduced fat" are not the same; reduced-fat versions of fatty foods can still contain unhealthy levels of fat. You can buy low-sodium versions of ranch dressing mix, as well as the soups used in most casseroles. And if you switch to turkey bacon, you'll cut the amount of sodium and saturated fat to about half.
References
- WAFB: Applewood Bacon and Three Squash Casserole
- Food Timeline; FAQs: Ambrosia to Creamed Onions; Lynne Olver; 2000
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: National Nutrient Database
- Eat Right for Your Type; Squash/Summer/Winter/All Varieties; Peter D'Adamo, M.D.
- MayoClinic.com: Heart-Healthy Diet: 8 Steps to Prevent Heart Disease
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