Layers of cheesy vegan béchamel sauce, thin sliced Creamer potatoes, and sliced broccoli florets, all topped off with a toasty, herb and garlic bread crumb topping. Bake and Serve. This Cheesy Vegan Potato & Broccoli Casserole is a great side dish and perfect for those chillier months.
December’s a pretty good month for casseroles, isn’t it?
While casseroles were a big part of my childhood, they’re not something I make very often these days. But with my head occupied with the flavours of Christmas, I started thinking about holiday entertaining, and the practicalities of it all. Aren’t casseroles kind of a lifesaver this time of year? I mean, they’re perfect for taking to holiday potlucks and family get-togethers: they serve plenty of people but they’re SO easy to prep ahead of time. Win-win!
This cheesy potato and broccoli casserole is loosely inspired by classic scalloped potatoes. For the base, I went with a veganized “cheesy” béchamel sauce, just a simple roux, onion and garlic, vegetable broth, unsweetened non-dairy milk, and plenty of nooch. If you prefer things a little cheesier, just stir in some mozzarella or cheddar-style Daiya shreds. This creamy cheesy vegan sauce is perfect for mac & cheese, pasta, soups, steamed vegetables, and of course, this cheesy potato & broccoli casserole!
This casserole is perfect for your average week-night winter meal, or as vegan-friendly side for all of your holiday dining needs! Happy holiday eating!
If potato casseroles are your thing, you’ll love our Vegan Potatoes au Gratin recipe! If you love potato recipes, check out all of our Little Potato recipes.
This post is sponsored by The Little Potato Company. We love them for their commitment to simple, healthy whole foods like their delicious Creamer potatoes. Thanks for supporting the brands that support I Love Vegan! Learn more about why we love Little Potatoes SO much at www.littlepotatoes.com
Cheesy Vegan Potato & Broccoli Casserole
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 8 servings
Layers of cheesy vegan béchamel sauce, thin sliced Creamer potatoes, and sliced broccoli florets, all topped off with a toasty, herb and garlic bread crumb topping. Perfect for holiday potlucks and entertaining!
Ingredients
Cheesy Vegan Béchamel Sauce
- 2 tbsp vegan butter/margarine
- 2 tbsp unbleached flour
- 1/2 small red onion, cut finely
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 2 cups unsweetened non-dairy milk (I used soy)
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
- 1/3 cup Daiya cheddar or mozzarella style shreds
Potato & Broccoli Casserole
- 1.5 lb bag of The Little Potato Company's Baby Boomers
- 1 head of broccoli, cut into florets, and sliced thin
- 1/2 cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs
- 1 tbsp melted vegan butter/margarine
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp oregano
- salt, to taste
- pepper, to taste
Instructions
Cheesy Béchamel Sauce
- In a medium sized saucepan, heat 2 tbsp of vegan butter or margarine over medium-high heat. Add the chopped red onion and cook until translucent and tender. Whisk in the flour, garlic powder, turmeric, paprika, and salt. Cook for 1 minute.
- Very slowly whisk in the vegetable broth, followed by the unsweetened soy milk. Stir in the nutritional yeast and Daiya cheese (optional). Turn heat down to medium and simmer for a few minutes, until the cheese is melted. Set aside.
Potato & Broccoli Casserole
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Combine bread crumbs, melted butter/margarine, garlic and onion powder, oregano, and a sprinkle of salt.
- Lightly grease a 9" pie plate with butter/margarine. Begin with 1 layer of thin sliced Creamer potatoes, slightly overlapping. Sprinkle with salt. Add a thin layer of sauce. Layer sliced broccoli florets, slightly over lapping. Sprinkle with salt. Add a thin layer of sauce. Repeat as many times as necessary (1-2 times). Be sure to salt each layer of raw potato or broccoli. Finish with a hefty layer of sauce. Top with seasoned bread crumbs.
- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 50 minutes. Uncover, and bake for another 10 minutes. If crumbs aren't toasted, set under broiler until just toasted. Do not burn.
- Let sit for 15-20 minutes before serving.
Notes
Be sure to slice the broccoli and potatoes thinly and evenly. The cooking times listed are for thin sliced potatoes and broccoli. I used my food processor for quick and easy, evenly sliced potatoes and proper broccoli "slices". Sliced broccoli, rather than florets, are a lot easier to try and wrangle into a layered casserole.
Courses Side
Cuisine Vegan
Can I confess…I’ve never made a casserole. Pretty wild seeing as I love making simple dinners! I love all this cheeeeeeeziness! Pinned
Haha, this is like my second casserole ever 😛
Holy lovely! This looks delightful! Broccoli and potatoes are two of my top vegan comfort foods, and this is a beautiful recipe! Thank you for sharing!:)
Thank you Heather! I totally agree, broccoli and potatoes are some of my favourite foods. Why not combine them, right? 😛
the ingredient list is missing the non dairy milk and the broth.
Oh my goodness! Thanks for pointing that out, fixed!
Wowee, I must pin this! Been looking for a dish for a vegan potluck this weekend.. my search may be over!
Perfect! Thanks Dylan 😀
This one is a winner. Made it last night. Gorgeous! I was skeptical once I’d made the cheese sauce, as there was so much of it and it was so thin. But after baking for an hour in the oven, it was the perfect creamy cheesy texture. Lovely. Thank you!
Yay!! Thanks for the feedback Jordan, I really really appreciate it!! 😀 So glad you enjoyed the recipe 😀
genious, your recipes are amazing
Aw man, you are too kind! Thank you!! 😀
Do you know if I can make ahead and freeze for later? Or should I assemble uncooked, freeze, then bake? I’m trying to do a better job at cooking ahead for the week.
You know what Dianne? I’m not really sure! I haven’t tried freezing this recipe. I think if I were to give it a try, I’d prebake it for about 2/3 the time, freeze and then bake for about 45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the sauce is bubbling.
I made this today for Christmas lunch! I used mashed butter beans instead if vegan butter
You’ll have to let me know how that worked out, I can’t imagine that would be a very effective substitute but who knows!
That’s a great substitute. I am also butter and oil averse, so many times I’ll use aqua faba as a replacement and it works great!
The next time I crave some hearty, delicious comfort cuisine—this will work wonderfully. Looks so good.,,still wish you had take out online Brittany! Thanks so much for all of your wonderful ideas and suggestions, especially over the holidays.
Come visit! We’ll serve you all the vegan goodies you can eat!!! 😀
During a visit to the UK, after eating tons of hummus and falafel, I was ready for some comfort food. They had this in one of the pubs, vegetarian though. It was delicious comfort food – exactly what I needed! After years of thinking about this dish (becoming vegan), I decided to do something about it and google it. This recipe is exactly what I was looking for!
It is a little time consuming to assemble, which is not a bad thing. It’s also fool-proof! I ended up with a very tiny bit of the sauce for the top so I did the next best thing: crossed my fingers, hoping it would turn out ok. It turned out beautifully! The dish also tastes great as leftovers – even cold!
Thanks so much for posting this – I will definitely be making it again.
Thank you so so much Dawn! Do you have a food processor? That can seriously cut down the preparation time if you use a food processor for the slicing. I’m so so glad you enjoyed this recipe. THANKS!! 😀
This is delicious – I added black beans to this dish to make it a one-pot, well-rounded meal.
This looks delicious! Do you think I could sub the onion powder and garlic powder for the real thing. I had never used these ‘powders’ before and tried a recipe last week (not one of yours) and really disliked the flavours,it tasted fake.
Hi Sara! Feel free to sub real garlic in the sauce and the topping. I would just leave out the onion powder all together or use just a little bit in the topping. Just a thought, it might be the onion powder you don’t like. I find it’s the one of the two with the “faker” taste.
Hi! Could this be pre-made a few hours before cooking it in the oven or no?
Yep! That should be no problem, just ensure that your potatoes are well-coated with sauce to prevent them from discolouring before baking. Enjoy!
This recipe is amazing. I’ve made this two nights in a row. I’m obsessed!
That’s awesome Kim! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it!
This was an excellent recipe! I made it for dinner last night, and we loved it. For my taste, it needed a n additional something, like a layer of spicy vegan sausage crumbles maybe, or a side of BBQ tofu. But my husband loved the mellow flavor, so I think that’s more an individual taste thing.
I totally get where you’re coming from, this is a super mild side dish. A side of BBQ tofu sounds absolutely delicious to me! (Some crumbled tempeh bacon between the layers would be delicious too!)
Can’t wait to try this out for my vegan daughter. As she is headed to college this fall, I’m trying to find some homey-comfort dishes to make in advance and freeze. I see you posted once that you thought it might be a good idea to cook two-thirds and then freeze… Have you tried this since or have you had any feedback re: freezing?
Hi Tracey! No, I haven’t tried freezing this casserole. This recipe is similar to typical scalloped potatoes and I found some really good info by googling “freezing scalloped potatoes”. Maybe try that? Sorry I couldn’t be of more help!
I admit I have been wanting to make this for my little girl and I but will use russet potatoes instead. I guess I’m a bit nervous as I have never thinly sliced potatoes and broccoli before.
Oh you don’t need to be nervous! Do you have a food processor? That reeeally helps and they can be super cheap! A mandoline is another great tool for slicing but a food processor would be better for this recipe.
About to try with sweet potatoes– let me know if you have any suggestions!
Oooh, exciting! I’d love to hear about the results 😀 Just be sure to slice those sweet potatoes nice and thin (if you have a mandolin or a food processor with a slicing attachment, definitely use it!)
Just made this adding some rehydrated, seasoned TVP with each layer. It turned out awesome!! The kids scarfed it down in no time flat. Posted pics on IG and tagged you! Thanks!
Jennifer, that sounds like such a delicious addition! Thank you for tagging me on Instagram! 😀
Mine is in the oven now! I can’t wait. Sounds like an amazing combination. Thank you,
I hope you love it Karen! Thanks for commenting ♥
I have a question. I have made this my baking and I loved it!! However, could I cook this in the slow cooker instead? Thanks!
Hi Lindsay! I’m not very familiar with cooking in a slow cooker but I think this could work! I’d refer to a slow cooker scalloped potato recipe to compare and see if you need to make any changes. I’m wondering if you might need a bit more sauce?? Can you let me know if you give it a try? I’d love to know how it works out!
I wish I knew how many calories where in each serving. But I’m making this dish this week and I can not wait!! Your website has really been helping me out with this Vegan life style. It’s not as hard as I thought
Yay! That’s great to hear, congrats on going vegan!! You can use sites like myfitnesspal.com to figure out the nutritional info for recipes 🙂
Uh duh, this is an oxymoron. Cheesy Vegan, it might as well be non-alcoholic alcoholic scotch.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Very creative how you have it layered.. My daughters and husband thought that it OK. I thought it needed a little extra something. Maybe next time, I add more onion powder??? It just needed a bit more flavor. Thanks for the recipe 🙂 !
Some people added things like vegan sausage crumbles to the layers. Maybe you’d like something heartier like that in there? A sprinkle of vegan cheese between the layers and some green onion on top would be nice too!
Oh wow that sounds delicious! I’ll give that a try. Thanks again 🙂
I really appreciate your feedback, thanks again Holly!
THANK YOU for this fabulous recipe. I made the casserole for the first time tonight, and my omnivorous husband (who is neither prone to emotional outbursts nor to using swear words) GOBBLED his portion like there’s no tomorrow, exclaiming: “This is not just good. This is F#%@^*& GOOD!!!” He then asked me to make it regularly from now on. As you can see, your recipe is a keeper!! 😉 Thanks again!!
Ahahaha!!! Thank you so much Christine, I’m SO glad your husband loved this recipe so much!! That is so wonderful to hear 😀 You made my morning!
Ummmm…..this is AMAZING!!!!!!! We are newly vegan and my husband is having a hard time adjusting to tastes and textures and flavors. This was the first time he went back for seconds!!! I’m so excited. I know it was the sauce that got him going so I’ll be sure to use it in MANY more recopies. Side note: I switched out turmeric for cumin powder and added about 1/2 more of each of all the sauce ingredients so the casserole was extra creamy. SOOOOOOO good! OMG.
Unfortunately there wasn’t enough sauce to cook all the potatoes and broccoli, otherwise it’s a really nice dish (I made the non-vegan version).
I’m about to make this now and I’m pretty excited about it. I just have one suggestion in regards to the recipe. Under the ingredients list, I would add “sliced” after the potatoes. It isn’t until the recipe is being read that the reader knows to slice the potatoes (which then tacks on more time). Anyway, I have a food processor so it’s not a big deal. But just for the ease of other readers! Thanks for the recipe and I’ll post a follow up after I make it!
So I made it and it turned out great! I did add some zhoug sauce on top. I’m just that person who feels the need to always add some extra sauce even if it doesn’t necessarily call for it. I also skipped the Daiya used more nutritional yeast instead. Thanks for the recipe. Will be making this again.
I can’t seem to print this, the page prints out blank…please help 🙂
Hmm… Let me have a look here. Here’s the link to the printable recipe: http://www.ilovevegan.com/easyrecipe-print/17826-0/ Please let me know if that doesn’t work. Do you have an adblocking technology on your browser? Sometimes they can mess with things like this, so if you are using one, I’d just disable it when you go to print the recipe. Let me know if you need a hand, I can always email the printable recipe to you as well. In fact, I think I’ll just do that as well. Sorry for the inconvenience!
I know I’m 3 years late but I made this today. I’m a broke millennial and the $20 Walmart spice kit I bought doesn’t have turmeric or paprika (now I know why it was so cheap) so I put in some crushed red pepper instead and it was BOMB! I also do not own a pie plate so I used a loaf pan and it turned out pretty good, a little soupy but not bad and I know it’s my own fault. 10/10 will make again! Think I’ll double the breadcrumbs though, they were SO GOOD! Also I used coconut milk and no daiya. My non-vegan boyfriend went back for seconds. This is good. Thank you!!
I just made it today and although the recipe is from 3 years ago, it was bomb! I was craving something warming and comforting, but still not too unhealthy, and this is definitely it! I substituted the soya milk for a bit more broth and did not add the breadcrumbs or the dayia cheese and it still turned out delicious. Not really cheese-tasting but extremely delicious nevertheless. Next time I’d half the potatoes and double the broccoli, for me the potatoes were a bit much, which did not stop me from devouring a second serving even though the first one totally filled me up! Thank you for the recipe and hope you’re having an amazing day!
Thank you so much Julia! I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe and your alterations sound great. Thank you so much for commenting!
What’s your opinion on substitution the shredded cheese for a sour cream? I’ve never used that shredded cheese brand before, but does it melt better than other non-dairy brands?
I’m really not sure! You could try it and tell me how it works out! These cheese shreds melt beautifully!