This vegetable casserole is easy to make and healthy too! Crispy veggies and tofu are baked to perfection and topped with a simple sauce.
I love dinner meals that you can throw together pretty easily but still taste great.
This vegetable casserole is definitely that. It tastes fabulous and it’s healthy too. Now I know we often have different definitions of ‘health’ but honestly this is one that most people would probably agree on.
Lots of veg, healthy protein in the form of tofu, and we serve it with quinoa which is not even a grain, it’s actually a seed, so it’s even healthy for those folks who don’t like grains.
And for lazy folk like me, this is a good one as it doesn’t require you to do too much.
Just chop up the veg, press the tofu (or don’t, it’s not essential), throw it all in the casserole dish and bake it. Pour over a simple sauce that you whip up in literally one minute and you have a delicious meal.
And for more awesome vegan casseroles, check out our vegan green bean casserole and our vegan sweet potato casserole.
How To Make Vegetable Casserole
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Press a block of tofu, ideally using a tofu press, or by placing it on a plate, with another plate on top of it and something heavy on top of that (like a heavy pot) and let it press for 20 minutes.
- While the tofu is pressing, prepare your veggies.
- When the tofu has pressed, cut it into cubes.
- Now add peeled and chopped butternut squash, chopped red bell pepper, chopped carrot, sliced zucchini, sliced mushrooms, broccoli florets and the cubed tofu to a mixing bowl.
- Add sesame oil, crushed garlic, dried basil, dried thyme, sea salt and black pepper and toss the vegetables and tofu so that they’re lightly covered with the oil and spices.
- Transfer the veggies to a 9×13 baking dish and spread them out. Cover with foil and bake for 35-45 minutes at 400°F.
- While the veggies are baking, cook up some quinoa to serve with the veggies.
- Mix up a sauce by adding toasted sesame oil, maple syrup, soy sauce and crushed garlic to a measuring jug and whisking it to combine.
- When the veggies are cooked, pour over the sauce and toss the veggies to mix.
How To Serve It
You can serve this as a main course alongside some quinoa with a sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley on top and some lemon wedges.
If you prefer to serve this with brown rice that also works great. Cauliflower rice also works well if you want to really up the veggie component.
Alternatively you can serve this as a delicious veggie side dish.
Make Ahead and Storing
This is a great option to make ahead of time as you can prepare all your veggies and tofu and get your casserole ready to bake, but instead of baking, cover with foil and refrigerate. Then when you’re ready, you can just preheat the oven and bake it!
Leftovers keep very well in the fridge for 4-5 days.
More Easy Vegan Dinner Recipes
Vegetable Casserole
Ingredients
- 12 ounces Extra Firm Tofu (340g) Pressed, Cubed
- 3 cups Butternut Squash (450g) Peeled and Cubed
- 1 Medium Red Bell Pepper Chopped
- 1 Large Carrot Chopped
- 1 cup Zucchini (100g) Sliced
- 2 and ½ cups White Button Mushrooms (240g) Sliced
- 2 cups Broccoli Florets (160g)
- 2 Tbsp Sesame Oil
- 1 Tbsp Crushed Garlic
- 1 tsp Dried Basil
- 1 tsp Dried Thyme
- ¼ tsp Sea Salt
- ¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper
For the Sauce:
- 2 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil
- 3 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 tsp Crushed Garlic
For Serving (Optional):
- Cooked Quinoa
- Fresh Chopped Parsley
- Lemon Wedges
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Press the block of tofu, ideally using a tofu press or by placing it on a plate, with another plate on top of it and something heavy on top of that (like a heavy pot) and let it press for 20 minutes.
- While the tofu is pressing, prepare your veggies.
- When the tofu has pressed, cut it into cubes.
- Add the peeled and chopped butternut squash, chopped red bell pepper, chopped carrot, sliced zucchini, sliced mushrooms, broccoli florets and the cubed tofu to a mixing bowl.
- Add the sesame oil, crushed garlic, dried basil, dried thyme, sea salt and black pepper and toss the vegetables and tofu with the oil and spices so that they're lightly covered.
- Transfer the veggies to a 9x13 baking dish and spread them out. Cover with foil and bake for 35-45 minutes until the veggies are soft and cooked.
- While the veggies are baking, cook up some quinoa, according to package instructions, to serve alongside the veggies.
- Mix up your sauce by adding the toasted sesame oil, maple syrup, soy sauce and crushed garlic to a measuring jug and whisking it to combine.
- When the veggies are cooked, pour the sauce over the top of the veggies and toss the veggies to mix it in.
- Serve alongside the quinoa with a sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley on top and some lemon wedges on the side.
Notes
- Gluten-free. If you'd like this meal to be entirely gluten-free then use a gluten-free soy sauce or use tamari instead.
- Make Ahead. This is a great option to make ahead of time as you can prepare all your veggies and tofu and get your casserole ready to bake, but instead of baking, cover with foil and refrigerate. Then when you're ready, you can just preheat the oven and bake it!
- Storing. Leftovers keep very well in the fridge for 4-5 days.
- Nutritional information is for the vegetable casserole only and excludes quinoa.
Thanks Alison. I had tofu and veg that needed to be used up and this casserole really hit the spot for a cold winter’s night in Oz. Easy and tasty. I didn’t have sesame oil so used olive oil and threw in some sesame seeds. I served with brown rice. Will be making this again.
Awesome, thanks Sue!
Looks so good! Can I use frozen broccoli florets? How would I go about that? Thanks in advance!
I’m sure that would be fine! I don’t think anything would need to change in the recipe.
Yum. Pretty quick and easy to whip together. So much flavor! Amazing. Thanks much! I have already been sharing the recipe around and I just made this lastnight!
Thanks so much Kortneii! So glad you enjoyed it.
Another super gluten free meal! Thanks for this bright, healthy recipe. Its also so interchangeable with different veggies so certainly a hit with me!
Thanks Anna!
Would love to make this but I measure and weigh all my servings so it’s hard to figure out your serving sizes. But it sounds really good.
I made this recipe and it is just fabulous. I also followed it to the letter. The ingredient combination for the sauce with the quinoa is perfect and tastes fantastic. This is another recipe that will be used often. Thank you so much, Alison, for sharing.
Yay! Thanks for the great review! 🙂
This was delicious! I made this recipe for a large gathering of friends and it was a big hit. I made a double batch with an extra portion of the sauce for good measure. It is definitely going into my regular rotation!
Also, I cooked the squash, tofu, and carrots separate than the other ingredients. This was partly becuase a double batch was so large but also so that the squash could cook longer and not overcook the broccoli, mushrooms, and bell pepper.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for the great review. 🙂
Has anyone tried this & cooked the quinoa with the dish? What adjustments did you need?
I just used your recipe to prepare tofu to be added at the last minute to a stir fry of onions, garlic, ginger and several large sweet peppers in a sauce of combined soy sauce and oyster sauce. The crispness of the tofu cubes was retained and they had absorbed some of the flavors of the sauce. I served it on fried noodles. Excellent!
This was delicious! I doubled the recipe (for lots of yummy leftover lunches) and baked for longer (the butternut took a while to cook through, so I’ll cut that up much smaller next time). I had never considered steaming quinoa before, but it worked perfectly. Thanks for yet another great recipe!
Fantastic Heike! Thanks for sharing! 🙂 Yes, the steamed quinoa is great and it’s so easy!
This was SO good, and so quick and easy to prepare. Will definitely serve this again!
Wonderful stuff!! Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
I’m going to try this recipe this weekend. Could I substitute cauliflower for mushrooms?
It looks sooooo good! I’ll rate it after we’ve tried it.
Sure! Just bear in mind that mushrooms have a lot of water content so they make the whole dish a bit more saucy. You might like to use a little bit more sauce to compensate, but otherwise that would be great! Any veggies will do great here!
Thanks for responding so quickly! I was going to double the sauce anyway just because it sounded so good.
Have you ever made this without the oil?
No, but I’m sure that you could without any adverse affects.
Um, yum! Definitely going to give this one a try
Cool! Let us know how it goes when you do!
Healthy hearty and yummy
Absolutely!