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Cheesy Vegan Potato Broccoli Casserole

Talk about comfort food! This casserole is insane. Gooey, cheesy, tons of rich umami flavors and yet it’s also a meal you can feel good about. Plant-based, One Ingredient, made entirely of real food with virtually none of the saturated fat or junk you’d find in a dairy-based cheese casserole.

What really makes this recipe work is the miso-tahini cheese sauce. Over the years, I’ve learned a thing or two about making vegan cheese and this sauce has beautiful, rich, sharp-cheddar flavors from one of my favorite trios of cheesy ingredients: tahini, nutritional yeast, and miso, along with some spices and broth to turn it into a sauce.

Drench the hash browns + broccoli + beans with the sauce and bake until golden. The top is crispy. The inside is full of melty, starchy textures with bits of soft cheese-coated broccoli. Dude. It’s really good.

Like most casseroles, the process couldn’t be easier. You can use frozen broccoli and hash browns to cut the prep time to about 15 minutes. Give it an hour to bake and you’ve got an amazing, balanced, one-pan dinner that everyone will love.

Makes: 4-5 entree servings

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1/3 cup tahini
  • 3 tablespoons white miso paste
  • 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 32 oz frozen hashbrowns
  • 1 small white onion
  • 3 cups broccoli
  • 2 15 oz cans black beans
  • 3 green onions, for garnish

Prep: Preheat the oven to 350ºF

Step One

Make the cheese sauce by blending the first list of ingredients: broth, tahini, white miso, nutritional yeast, garlic, black pepper, and turmeric (which is optional, but gives an orange color).

Step Two

Thaw the broccoli and/or hash browns* if using frozen. You don’t want to start baking this dish with frozen ingredients because the top layer will burn before the insides cook. The easiest way to do this is in the microwave** until they’re room temperature or slightly warm.

*Measuring the hash browns can be tricky tough because it can vary so much between fresh/frozen. I used 1 1/2 packages of Trader Joe’s frozen hash browns which is about 32 oz by weight. If you end up with a little more or less, it should be fine.

**A lot of health nerds balk at using a microwave, but it’s actually one of the safest, fastest, easiest ways to warm ingredients and in most cases it preserves more nutrients than any other cooking method, so don’t be afraid of your microwave!

Step Three

In a large casserole dish (much larger than the one pictured) throw in the hash browns, broccoli, 2 cans of rinsed black beans (or any other variety you like), and one small diced white onion. Then drizzle on the cheese sauce and toss everything to coat thoroughly.

Step Four

Bake in a 350º F oven, uncovered, for about an hour. The top will form a beautiful golden crust and seal in some of the moisture below. For optimal crust, you’ll want to leave this in for as long as possible, removing just before the top burns.

Sprinkle some chopped green onions on top as a garnish and enjoy!

23 Comments

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  1. Hi Andrew ! Wow, using tahini in cheesy sauce is brilliant (i am in love with tahini…) and with white miso, nutritionnal yeast and garlic, it will undoubtedly be delicious 🙂
    I will do it as soon as possible, thanks a lot for sharing it !
    Your previous posts were very interesting too, it’s nice to know a bit more about One ingredient chef author 😉
    Have a very nice week-end !

    • Hi Claire! I love tahini too, I drizzle it on everything! I think it works really well in this recipe, I hope you like it – and I appreciate the comments about my other posts. I always feel like my life is too boring to share, but I’m glad to hear that others are enjoying it, so I’ll keep bits of my life as well 🙂

      • Tahini is sooo addictive… Sometimes I eat it with a teaspoon directly from the jar (I am crazy :-D). I love also pasta with stir-fry leeks, smocked tofu and a sauce with tahini, peanut butter, tamari, cider vinegar and smocked paprika 🙂
        I love it too in Halva, do you know this oriental sweet? A vegan version is easy to make, replacing honey by raw sugar 🙂

        • That sauce sounds amazing, Claire! Especially on pasta. I have never heard of Halva, I’ll have to look that up. It sounds like Baclava…

  2. Hi, Andrew,
    Please forgive my ignornce, but what are hash browns?
    I live in Switzerland and we don’t have them here. Maybe they are potatoes…??
    Shall try this recipe when I know…
    Greetings,
    Madeleine

    • Hi Madeleine, oh yes hash browns are simply shredded potatoes. They may go by a different name in Europe, but any kind of fresh or frozen potato shreds will work!

  3. If I made a smaller portion of the recipe – less hash browns, 1 can of beans… Will the extra cheesy sauce do well in the refrigerator for a different use, or would it separate?
    Looks delicious!

    • Sure, the recipe does seem HUGE when you’re making it, but it’s not very calorie dense so it goes pretty quickly. But if you want to make a half batch that’s totally fine and the cheese sauce is awesome with other things! I had a little left over and dipped broccoli in it. So good!

  4. I just made this for dinner and it was great! I didn’t have shredded potato on hand, so I used cubed potato and sweet potato and pre-cooked them in my air fryer before assembling the casserole. I loved the recipe and will definitely be making this again.

    • Oh nice! It’s great to hear that it works well with cubed potatoes as well. I’m really glad to hear you liked it, thanks for letting me know 🙂

  5. Hi Andrew, I made this the other day and it was fantastic – it’s a great comfort food dish. I used fresh potatoes and steamed the broccoli I had on hand. I sliced the potatoes like for an au gratin and boiled them before adding to the sauce. And that sauce is really good, I don’t think anyone would know it’s not cheese. I ate it for breakfast one morning:) Thanks!

    • Hi Janet, very cool! I like the idea of slicing the potatoes… I think I’ll try it that way next time I make them!

  6. Loved this recipe. I never would have thought to use the tahini and miso to make a cheesy sauce.
    Thanks for sharing.

  7. Delicious! I made this with fresh potatoes because I was trying to avoid a trip to the store in the rain. I only had one can of black beans so I added in some soy chorizo and then layered the top with Daya vegan cheese blend. My god, it’s so good I could possibly hurt myself! Thanks for a great recipe. I have another, thicker recipe for mac & cheez that I love. I might have to add a little miso and see how that works. It’s brilliant!

    • Great! That sounds delicious. I’m glad you liked it, Christi. Yes miso is an overlooked ingredient in vegan cheese sauces 🙂

  8. Thank you! We made this for our Thanksgiving meal and it was delicious — but I think it was even better the 2nd day as leftovers.

    • Ah very cool! I’m glad to hear that. I bet this would be great as part of a Thanksgiving dinner… I’ll have to try it next year 🙂

  9. Hello! I will be using this recipe for my nieces’ who are vegan and for the family to try out for Christmas. Thank you for this great recipe!

  10. I made this twice. Both times I followed to the letter. Both times, epic fail. It looked nothing like the picture. There was no “cheesy” looking topping. If you’re drizzling on the sauce and then mixing, why not mix in a big bowl and then dump into the pan? I don’t know what I might have done wrong, but it didn’t work for me 🙁 Sorry.

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