This vegan broccoli rice casserole makes such a great side dish! You won’t believe how cheesy and creamy it is completely without dairy products. And it’s so easy to make!
Why This Recipe Works
This recipe is much healthier than traditional broccoli rice casseroles that are often loaded with cream, butter, and cheese.
It’s 100 percent vegan, gluten-free, and super comforting.
Instead of dairy products the recipe calls for a combination of unsweetened almond milk, cashews, nutritional yeast, and miso paste that are blended into a creamy sauce.
Cashews are the perfect base for dairy-free cream sauces. Nutritional yeast and miso paste provide the sauce with a cheesy and nutty taste.
Vegan cheese shreds add a creamy crust that makes this recipe even more comforting. It’s perfect for the whole family and kids love it!
Ingredients That Go Into This Recipe:
- Cooked Brown Rice – for example from the day before
- Cashews – unsalted and not roasted
- Almond Milk – make sure to use unsweetened milk. You could also use soy milk
- Nutritional Yeast – it has a cheesy and nutty taste and is perfect for this recipe
- Miso Paste – you could use white or yellow miso paste
- Mustard – I recommend Dijon mustard
- Vegan Cheese – use your favorite vegan cheese shreds
How To Make This Recipe
The recipe is pretty easy! The actual preparation time is rather short. It takes about 10 minutes to prepare and another 15 minutes in the oven.
1. Step: Preheat your oven to 350 °F. Grease a large baking dish with vegan margarine. Heat some oil in a pan and sauté the chopped onion until it’s translucent. This should take about 3 minutes.
2. Step: Place all of the ingredients for the sauce into a high speed blender.
3. Step: Process until smooth.
4. Step: Wash the broccoli and cut it into florets. Cook the broccoli either on the stovetop or in an Instant Pot (choose “0 minutes” on manual).
5./6. Step: In a large bowl, combine the cooked rice, the cooked broccoli, the sautéed onion, and the sauce.
7. Step: Stir carefully until well combined.
8. Step: Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
9. Step: Add the shredded vegan cheese and bake for 15 minutes.
10. Step: Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley and serve immediately. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
- I used brown rice for my casserole to make it healthier. However, it also works with regular white rice.
- It’s best to make the rice the night before. This way the preparation time will be much shorter.
- I highly recommend using a high speed blender to make the sauce. It won’t get as creamy in a regular blender as the cashews are hard to blend.
- As I used my Vitamix to make the sauce, I did not soak the cashews. I don’t think it’s necessary if you use a really good high speed blender. However, if you want to make it a bit easier for your blender, you could soak them in hot water for 30 minutes or even overnight.
Related Recipes:
- Tomato Rice
- Thai Pineapple Fried Rice
- One Pot Vegetable Rice with Bell Peppers and Peas
- Vegan Mexican Rice Casserole
- Vegan Jambalaya with Beans
I Love to Hear From You!
I hope you like this vegan broccoli rice casserole as much as we do around here.
If you give this recipe a try, I’d love to know what you think about it. Just leave me a comment and a star rating below. Your comments really make my day!
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Sina
Vegan Broccoli Rice Casserole
Ingredients
For the casserole:
- 1 teaspoon vegan margarine
- 4 cups cooked brown rice (equals 2 cups uncooked)
- 3 cups broccoli florets
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup vegan shredded cheese
- fresh parsley, chopped
For the sauce:
- 1 cup raw cashews
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond or soy milk
- 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 2 small cloves of garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1 teaspoon white or yellow miso paste
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 °F. Wash the broccoli and cut it into florets. Cook the broccoli either on the stovetop or in an Instant Pot (choose "0 minutes" on manual).
- Grease a large baking dish with vegan margarine.
- Heat some oil in a pan and sauté the chopped onion until it's translucent. This should take about 3 minutes.
- Place all of the ingredients for the sauce into a high speed blender and process until smooth.
- In a large bowl, combine the cooked rice, the cooked broccoli, the sautéed onion, and the sauce. Stir carefully.
- Transfer to the prepared baking dish, add the shredded vegan cheese and bake for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley and serve immediately. Enjoy!
Notes
- I used brown rice for my casserole to make it healthier. However, it also works with regular white rice.
- It's best to make the rice the night before. This way the preparation time will be much shorter.
- I highly recommend using a high speed blender to make the sauce. It won't get as creamy in a regular blender as the cashews are hard to blend.
- As I used my Vitamix to make the sauce, I did not soak the cashews. I don't think it's necessary if you use a really good high speed blender. However, if you want to make it a bit easier for your blender, you could soak them in hot water for 30 minutes or even overnight.
Nutrition
This was so good! I stirred in about 1.5 cups of Violife Colby and made a butter and panko mixture on top. The kids really liked it!
I tweaked a couple of things-my cup of cashews was half raw and half salted and roasted because that’s what I had. I only had 2 cups of broccoli so I added a cup of mushrooms when I was sautéing my onions. I also added a leftover packet of red pepper flakes from our last takeout pizza order because I like some heat. No parsley so I put green onions on top. It’s baking now, along with Gardein chick’s tenders. I expect my husband to be wowed. Thank you for this recipe!!!