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.
Delicious! The whole family loved this. I couldn’t resist adding cheese to the sauce though I’m sure it’s great as written. Easy good comfort food.
Thanks so much Katie! Glad you all enjoyed it :)
Hi we love this dish can it be frozen please or how many days will it keep in the ftidge
Fridge for 3 days, or it will freeze well too :)
The vegetables made the sauce watery after baking. More like a soup than a creamy veggie bake.
Interesting, I didn’t find that! Usually baking a little longer will thicken sauces up a bit if you’d like to :)
Can this recipe reheated without compromising the flavor?
Absolutely! I’d personally reheat in the microwave. It will lose a little of its crispiness on top, but it will still be nice and saucy underneath. Alternatively you could reheat in the oven to re-crisp the topping, but the sauce might dry out a little.
Just made this recipe ,but didn’t put sweetcorn, I used frozen peas, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and French beans, it was gorgeous. My son ate 3 platefuls , and my grandson said it was lovely.😊 thanks for sharing.
Oh wow, even the kids! Thanks Susie!
Made this recipe as written, just delicious
Thanks Deborah!
I absolutely LOVE this recipe, not only is it super easy to make but it also tastes fantastic. I have many health issues and allergies, so finding tasty and budget friendly recipes can be a struggle. However, this recipe meets all my needs; I will certainly be making this again along with her other recipes.
That’s so lovely to hear, thanks Kinsey. Glad you enjoyed it :)
Another lovely dish! Easy to make and clean plates
Thanks Donna!
This was so comforting, especially with us being hit with such an unusual harsh winter in southern California. I used this recipe as an inspiration to do my own thing so I did not follow it exactly. First, I doubled it for 8 servings to last the entire week. Instead of a roux, I used Progresso Mushroom soup and Campbell’s condensed mushroom soup along with 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese to thicken it further. It turns out it was less calories and less carbs than the butter, flour and milk…and breadcrumbs. I didn’t use the breadcrumbs eiter. Instead of the frozen sliced peppers, I used 14 oz of tater tots, sliced onion, chopped leeks, Trader Joe’s frozen fire roasted corn along with a small can of corn, 16 oz of sliced mushrooms and a can of French style green beans, black pepper, all purpose seasoning and shredded cheddar cheese. All in all it turned out quite tasty. I like peas, but not that much and I’ve overdosed on broccoli as it seems it’s quite ubiquitous in most veggie dishes so I didn’t use them in this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the lovely comment! Sounds like you changed the recipe quite a lot but I’m glad this recipe could be the starting point to inspire you :)
I’m making this recipe today for the third time in a month. I add potatoes, carrots, baby spinach, celery, and green beans instead of the peas. I use canned cream of mushroom soup instead of the sauce from scratch. Because I’m lazy and I like mushrooms. I’ll eat it for the next three days. 😊
Sounds good, enjoy!