As a (mostly) vegan, my predominant plant based diet means that our meals almost always carry an array of nutritional value. And this recipe is no different! The word casserole, is traditionally thought of as meat-filled ‘goodness’ to many, but for us vegetarians we need to get a little creative in our casserole fillings. That’s why cauliflower, broccoli and chickpeas make the perfect base!
Surprisingly, the leading vitamin found in cauliflower is actually vitamin C. While you would mostly expect this from fruits like oranges, cauliflower will provide you with over 70% of your recommended daily intake (RDI) from just one cup of cauli! Vitamin C covers a multitude of health benefits including improving immunity, heart health and the production of collagen for youthful looking skin!
Broccoli has to be one of my favorite vegetables, mostly because of its ridiculous mineral content. The vitamin C content is actually richer than cauli, but vitamin K takes the lead with 245% your RDI found in one cooked cup of broccoli. Vitamin K is necessary for proper circulation.
It is also responsible for multiple functions within the body, including maintaining health bones (it works in turn with calcium) and the formation of new cells. Broccoli is a rich source of chromium, folate and fiber, along with scores of multiple other trace minerals.
You’ll see I’ve also included another incredibly nutritious super green, which I’m sure you’re already very familiar with. Kale has been dubbed as being one of the world’s healthiest foods. It contains a mind boggling level of vitamin K (I mean over 1000% your RDI per cup). I guess it’s lucky that vitamin K is rapidly metabolized in the body!
Just 1 cup of kale contains hearty levels of vitamin A (98% RDI), vitamin C (71% RDI) and manganese (27% RDI). Manganese in particular is what your body needs for healthy nerve function as well as optimal brain function. It carries out various roles related to the formation of new cells, tissue and even hormones.
This cauliflower casserole could be the best option for a healthy Thanksgiving dinner! Alongside with a beautiful plate of mashed purple potatoes.
Loaded Cauliflower Casserole {Vegan}
Ingredients
- 1 medium cauliflower head cut into florets
- 1 small broccoli head cut into florets
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas drained
- 1 cup fresh kale leaves chopped
- 1/2 cup raw cashews overnight soaked into 2 cups purified water
- 2 tsp nutritional yeast
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
- 2 bunches fresh parsley chopped
- 2 tsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175C/350F, and grease a cooking pan with olive oil.
- Lightly steam the broccoli and cauliflower florets (until cooked but still crunchy). Transfer them into the cooking pan, together with the chickpeas and kale.
- Add the cashews and water into the blender, and pulse to obtain a creamy sauce.
- Add the nutritional yeast, garlic and Dijon, and pulse to incorporate.
- Pour the resulted sauce over the vegetable mix, and mix.
- Add the breadcrumbs, parsley, nutritional yeast, olive oil and black pepper into the food processor and pulse to obtain a sticky mixture.
- Spread it on top of the vegetables, and bake for 15 minutes.
- Serve warm.
Notes
For this recipe to work you need to probably quadruple the cashew sauce and double the breadcrumbs. This was so bland. Needs tweaked quite a bit. A little disappointing as I was really looking forward to it. Made it as per recipe to see how it turned out.
Will use this as a base to loosely base something else on.
Sorry it didn’t work out for you! I’ve re-read the recipe and there is one ingredient I forgot to add, and that is salt. Other than that, nutritional yeast, garlic, Dijon mustard and black pepper provide a beautiful flavor combination so I really don’t know why yours turned out bland. If you still have it, try adding some salt 🙂
I made this but added a lot more dijon mustard and nooch to the cashew sauce, needed more flavoring. I also used gluten free Italian breadcrumbs instead. Very good!
That’s great, Emily, thank you for the feedback! Gluten-free breadcrumbs sound like a good idea, and I can always welcome more Dijon in my life 🙂
I did this recipe today and it was super good! Thanks a lot, it’s already the second recipe i do from your website and both of them turned out absolutely delicious. The first one was the Blueberry cheesecake…loved it!
Kiss
Ana
Ana, there’s so lovely to read this! Thank you for the feedback. Kisses 🙂
This is not an original recipe. Minimalist Baker did almost identical version before you and it seems like you didn’t do too much work to make it either original or make it actually work. I cooked “your version”. It is way too thick, too dry, and really bland. Just as per Amy’s comment above, really disappointing.
This is simply untrue.
It may come as a shock to you but there were lots of cauliflower casserole recipes on the internet long before Dana published hers. Plus, the two recipes are not the same at all, everyone who can read basic English can realize this.
And FYI, when I post a recipe that was inspired by another author I always quote the source.Feel free to check this example out, Minimalist Baker included, and post a hateful comment there too: https://www.theawesomegreen.com/easy-diy-coconut-yogurt/
Doubled cashew sauce but still did not seem like enough — is it just supposed to line the bottom of the dish or cover all the veggies? Sauce is delicious — not too bland for me . . . but I wish you’d incorporated salt into the recipe once you knew you’d left it out.
So many questions . . . especially when uses ingredients that could go wrong so easily.
Hi Shelley, the cashew sauce is supposed to evenly coat the ingredients. I actually try to stay away from salt, and I consider that adding just a little when serving the dish is just fine.
This looks delicious! Do you think it would freeze well? We’re expecting our first child and are looking for fun and delicious recipes with lots of vegetables that would freeze well and I have no experience with freezing! If not, what would you recommend?