Creamy Vegetable Bake
If you’re looking for a comforting, crowd-pleasing dinner, this Creamy Vegetable Bake is exactly what you need. Packed with colourful vegetables, smothered in a rich white sauce, and topped with crispy, cheesy breadcrumbs… it’s hearty, delicious, and the kind of dish that has everyone going back for seconds (or thirds, fourths… you get the idea).
Whether you’re a committed vegetable lover or someone who needs a little convincing, vegetables don’t get much better than this! The variety of colours, textures and flavours really allows the veggies to shine, the creamy sauce brings everything together beautifully, and the cheesy breadcrumb topping is absolutely irresistible.
🥦 What’s in this Creamy Vegetable Bake?
This easy vegetable bake has three main components:
- a variety of colourful veggies
- a rich, creamy white sauce
- a crispy, cheesy breadcrumb topping
It’s all cooked up together to give a seriously tempting creamy bake. This vegetable bake is perfect served on its own as an easy weeknight dinner, or as a tasty side dish as part of a vegetarian roast dinner.
You could also try…
Cheesy Vegetable Potato Bake
Cheese and Tomato Baked Orzo with Lentils
Vegetable Cobbler (with cheesy scone topping)
🫑 What Vegetables Can I Use?
The great thing about this creamy vegetable bake is how flexible it is – everything is just cooked up in the pan together, so you can add whatever you like. I used broccoli, sweetcorn, peas, peppers, and mushrooms – but you can swap in whatever you have to hand. A good mix of colours and textures always works best!
A few other vegetables that would work well:
- onion
- aubergine (eggplant)
- courgette (zucchini)
- sweet potato
- green beans
- cauliflower
- leek
To be honest, most vegetables will be great in this – just make sure that you parboil harder veggies like carrots and potatoes before adding them to the pan.
🧊 Can I Use Frozen Vegetables?
Yes, definitely!
Frozen vegetables are just as nutritious as fresh, and they’re brilliant for reducing food waste. I regularly use frozen peppers, onions, mushrooms, peas, and sweetcorn straight from the freezer, and several of those went into this recipe.
That said, some vegetables are just better when they’re fresh – I’d recommend fresh broccoli over frozen for example, as frozen broccoli can sometimes be a little mushy. It’s worth experimenting to find your preferred combination, and a mix of fresh and frozen works really well.
🥛 Creamy White Sauce
Next, the simple white sauce. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s absolutely delicious – you can’t go wrong! You might be surprised to hear that I didn’t add any cheese to the sauce itself, and honestly, it didn’t need it. With so many flavourful vegetables in the mixture, the sauce has plenty of flavour already, and I’d rather save the cheese for the crispy topping!
Just mix the cooked vegetables with the sauce, transfer everything to a baking dish, and you’re nearly there.
🧀 Cheesy Breadcrumb Topping
To finish off, top your vegetable bake with a layer of fine breadcrumbs and a generous handful of grated cheese, and pop it in the oven. As it bakes, the topping turns golden and crispy, while the creamy sauce bubbles up around the edges. It’s irresistible!
This veggie bake is one of those dishes that really makes the vegetables the star of the show, and lets you appreciate just how much flavour vegetables actually have.
🍽 How to Serve Creamy Vegetable Bake
This creamy vegetable bake works brilliantly as either a main course or a side dish. Here are a few serving suggestions:
- With crusty bread and butter, for mopping up the creamy sauce.
- Alongside a simple green salad for a light weeknight dinner.
- As part of a vegetarian roast dinner alongside roast potatoes and a vegetarian main dish (don’t forget the gravy!).
📹 Recipe Video
🖨️ Printable Recipe
Creamy Vegetable Bake
If you’ve cooked this recipe, don’t forget to leave a star rating!
Print Pin Comment(if you suffer from allergies, please double check all ingredients before eating)
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp oil
- 225 g (~ 2 cups) frozen sliced peppers (or 3 fresh bell peppers, sliced or diced)
- 100 g (~ 1 cup) frozen sweetcorn
- 100 g (~ 1 cup) frozen peas
- 1/2 small head broccoli (or ~ 2 cups prepared broccoli)
- ~ 6 medium mushrooms, sliced or diced
- 35 g (~ 2 1/2 tbsp) butter
- 2 1/2 tbsp plain flour
- 250 ml (~ 1 cup) milk
- 250 ml (~ 1 cup) vegetable stock
- Black pepper
- 75 g cheddar cheese, grated (~ 3/4 cup when grated)
- 50 g (~ 1/3 cup) fine breadcrumbs (I used shop-bought)
- Spray oil
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan, and add all the vegetables. Cook over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until almost entirely cooked. You can use different vegetables if you like, just bear in mind that vegetables that are particularly hard (e.g. carrots or potatoes) will need parboiling before adding to the frying pan.
- In a small saucepan, melt the butter over a medium-low heat. Add the flour, and mix well to form a paste. Cook for a minute or so, stirring constantly, then add the milk a little at a time, stirring until smooth each time before adding more. Then add the vegetable stock (again, it may help to add it a little at a time). You can see more detailed instructions for how to cook a simple white sauce here.
- Add the white sauce to the cooked vegetables, and mix well. Season with black pepper, and some salt if needed (you may find the salty stock is enough). Transfer to a suitably sized baking dish (mine measured 9 x 7 inches).
- Sprinkle some grated cheese and fine breadcrumbs over the creamy vegetables, and spray lightly with oil to help the topping crisp up. Bake at 190°C (Gas Mark 5 / 375°F) for around 25 minutes, or until the vegetables are piping hot, and the topping is crisped up to your liking.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
Hi, I really love the sound of this recipe. I am wondering if you could let me know, could I freeze it?
I’ve not tried freezing this one but I don’t see why it wouldn’t freeze and reheat just fine :)
I added a bit of goat cheese and used cheddar and Parmesan on top. Also, sprinkled on a slightly hot African spice mix with fresh summer squash, eggplant, corn, red sweet peppers, onion and broccoli. Skeptic of vegetarian fare hubby loved it! Thinking of serving over buttermilk biscuits next time.
That all sounds incredible! You could bake it like a cobbler :) https://www.easycheesyvegetarian.com/vegetable-cobbler/
I was thinking that this is some kind of lasagna but using veggies haha. Anyways, it turned out great! I also tried to add a few more bits of other veggies like beans and carrots and it still went great with it. Good find :)
Thanks Jamilla! You can add all sorts of veggies to this one :)
Love bright colours vegetable but like fresh vegetables cauliflower broccoli mushrooms leeks red pepper
Thanks Rosemary, glad you enjoyed it!
Hi, will this freeze ok?
Hi Sophie, I haven’t tried freezing it, but I think it’s definitely worth a try – can’t see why it wouldn’t work! :)
I made this vegetarian bake today , very nice , my husband enjoyed it . And I did . Enough left for tomorrow and I never used frozen veg fresh is best .
Thanks Johanna, glad you enjoyed it :)
I tried this tonight and it didn’t turn out for me. I clicked the link to the white sauce and saw how it was supposed to be creamy. I did the steps as listed to make the white sauce but when adding the broth it was too much liquid so it wasn’t thinking up anymore. Any suggestions?
Hmm strange! Was it combining into a smooth sauce, or was the liquid not mixing in fully? It might be that it just needed a little more time on the heat to come together properly – and it will also need a good stir to help it come together. Otherwise if it is too runny because there was too much liquid added, you can just leave it over the heat for a few minutes and it will gradually thicken up :)
So delicious and worth the time to make your own white sauce. I made this with two bags of froz veggies (cauliflower, carrot, and broccoli blend) and my hubby and I devoured it. I’m embarrassed how many times we both went back for seconds! But hey, when’s the last time you ate an entire bag of frozen veggies? LOL. A winner for sure.
Haha! That’s what I like to hear! So glad you enjoyed it :)
I was looking for a non pasta/rice recipe when I stumbled across this.
I sprinkled the top with a little bit of parmesan on top instead of normal cheese (as I was out) and it turned out amazing.
I had to fight the temptation to eat it out of the pan when I taste tested to see if needed more seasoning
Plus a sneaky way to get the kids eating vegetables “they don’t like”.
Haha! Definitely one of those recipes you want to eat straight out of the pan :D Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for the lovely comment!
This looks and sounds delicious. I agree that leaving the cheese out of the sauce is good, I more often than not also now do this. I’m also a huge fan of frozen vegetables. No babies to work around here but they’re such a good way of a) making sure to always have veg on hand and b) it’s a great way of minimising good waste as you only use what you need!
I’ve fallen in love with frozen veggies! I use frozen way more often than fresh these days!