Vegetable Cobbler (with cheesy scone topping)
Photographing this vegetable cobbler was absolute torture – I was desperate to dig in! It smelled so amazing, with heaps of different vegetables in a creamy sauce, topped with fluffy, cheesy scones… I know I cook a lot of comfort food, but you really can’t get much more comfort food-y than this.
You might also like: Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie; Creamy Vegetable Bake; Mushroom and Chestnut Pie.
🥦 Savoury Cobbler
A cobbler is usually a dessert, but I’m not usually much of a dessert person (unless it’s chocolate. I am definitely a chocolate person). A savoury cobbler is more my thing. The sweet filling is replaced with loads of veggies (bringing plenty of different flavours, textures and colours to the dish), all smothered in a creamy sauce. And the sweet scone topping instead becomes flaky, cheesy scones – crispy on the outside, and soft and flaky in the middle.
👵🏻 My Granny’s Recipe Book
I know it’s a bit of a cliché for a food blogger to talk about how a recipe came from their grandmother… but seriously. This recipe was inspired by one I found in my late Granny’s old handwritten recipe book – from back when there were no computers, and recipes had to be copied out of magazines and cookbook by hand, or given to friends on random scraps of paper… how beautiful is this?! It’s perfectly imperfect – spelling mistakes, scribbles, pages torn out – there’s even a recipe scribbled on the back of a letter from the DVLA! And just look at the handwriting!
There’s a whole section in the book for vegetarian recipes (my lovely Granny was obviously ahead of her time), so maybe I’ll share some more of her recipes another time. But first, this delicious vegetable cobbler!
I have simplified the original recipe a little, in order to make it work better for my busy life (ain’t nobody got time for two different kinds of flour), but the most important elements – the luxurious creamy sauce, the fluffy cheese scones, the colourful veggies – are all still there.
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🥗 Ingredients and Substitutions
Here’s what you’ll need to make this vegetable cobbler recipe. See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.
- vegetables – obviously the vegetables are the most important part of this recipe! Choose a variety of colours and textures. I used broccoli, peppers, frozen green beans, and frozen corn (I love frozen vegetables for convenience, and to reduce waste). You can use different veg if you prefer – see below for some more ideas.
- milk
- grated cheese – I’m not generally against buying pre-grated cheese, but for this recipe it’s best to use a nice mature cheddar, and grate it fresh from the block.
- egg
- flour – just plain flour / all-purpose
- baking powder (to make the scones super fluffy)
- butter
- garlic granules – for convenience
- dried herbs – I used regular mixed herbs
If you fancy using different vegetables in your veggie cobbler, there are lots of things that would work well:
- leek
- onion (red or white)
- asparagus
- frozen peas
- mushrooms
- courgette (zucchini)
- cabbage
- sweet potato
To be honest, almost any vegetable will work well – this recipe is a great way to clear out the fridge!
Becca’s Top Tip
If you’d like to up the protein content of this vegetable cobbler even more, you could also add a can of chickpeas, lentils, or your favourite kind of beans.
🖨️ Printable Instructions
Vegetable Cobbler (with cheesy scone topping)
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Print Pin Comment(if you suffer from allergies, please double check all ingredients before eating)
Ingredients
For the creamy vegetable mixture:
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 1 head broccoli
- 2 bell peppers (I used orange and red)
- 100 g (~ 3 1/2 oz) green beans (I used frozen)
- 130 g (~ 1 cup) sweetcorn (I used frozen)
- 30 g (~ 2 Tablespoons) unsalted butter
- 2 Tablespoons plain flour (all-purpose)
- 450 ml (~ 1 3/4 cups) milk
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic granules
- 1 teaspoon dried herbs (I used mixed herbs)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
For the scone topping:
- 165 g (~ 1 cup) plain flour (all-purpose)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 70 ml (~ 1/4 cup) milk
- 100 g mature cheddar cheese, grated (~ 1 1/4 cups when grated)
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- Dried parsley, to garnish (optional)
Instructions
- First, wash any fresh vegetables, and cut into bitesized pieces. Heat a dash of oil in a large frying pan, and add the vegetables. Cook over a medium heat, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables are fairly soft (the broccoli should still have a bit of bite to it). If you find that the vegetables are starting to brown, turn the pan down a little.
- While the vegetables are softening, prepare the creamy sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium-low heat, and add a couple of Tablespoons of flour. Combine to make a paste (called a roux), and cook for it a couple of minutes, stirring regularly, just to cook the flour.
- Add about a quarter of the milk at a time, each time stirring the mixture until it comes together into a smooth, cohesive paste before adding more milk. If you’d like more detailed instructions, including photos showing the sauce at each stage, you can check out my simple white sauce recipe.
- When you’ve used all of the milk and you have a smooth white sauce, add the garlic granules and dried herbs, and season with salt and pepper. Mix well to combine.
- Add the white sauce to the cooked vegetables, and mix well. Set aside.
- To make the cheesy scones, add the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper to a large bowl. Mix with a fork.
- Add the lightly beaten egg, milk, grated cheese, and olive oil, and use the fork to bring the mixture together. You should end up with a slightly sticky dough – you can add another splash of milk if the mixture seems too dry.
- Transfer the creamy vegetables to a baking dish (mine measured approx. 8 x 8 inches), and scoop rough dollops of the scone mixture on top. I made 4 rough scones in total.
- Bake at 190°C (Gas Mark 5 / 375°F) for around 25 minutes, or until the scones are firm, and golden brown and crispy on top. As soon as the cobbler comes out of the oven, I like to add a sliver of butter to the top of each scone – it melts right onto them, and really brings them to life. I also like to add some dried parsley for colour.
- Serve the cobbler straight from the oven.
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.
💭 Recipe FAQs
If you need to, I would recommend constructing the recipe fully, but waiting to bake it until just before serving. Store it in sealed container in the fridge until you are ready to bake. It may take a little longer to bake if the mixture is cold from the fridge.
Leftovers can be reheated in the microwave – although bear in mind that the cheesy scones taste best fresh from the oven.
This veggie cobbler is a complete meal, and doesn’t really need any side dishes. However, if you would like some variety, a few good side dishes could be a green salad, or some crispy potatoes.
I’m here after seeing this on BuzzFeed this evening. I’m thinking about trying the recipe but I’m wondering what size baking pan did you use? From your photos, I’m guessing an 11×7 or an 8×8 would work? Or are those scones bigger than they look and will I need a 13×9? Thanks for your help!
Hi LaLa! Yes I think mine was around 11x7ish, I can’t remember exactly. Any similar size should be fine, you might just end up with smaller or larger gaps between the scones :)
Tried this out tonight after I saw it on Buzzfeed and LOVED the way it looked! It came out soooooo good! Thank you!
Amazing! Thanks so much, glad you liked it :)
I’m a year late to the party on this one. Today was a snowy day in New England, and the perfect day to finally try this dish. We loved it! Totally agree that simmering the milk with onion added a ton of flavor.
I just found some of my Grammy’s cookbooks too. Thanks to a magazine idea, I had the front page with her signature copied onto tea towels. Can’t wait to give them to my sisters for Christmas.
So glad you enjoyed this one Liz – cobbler on a snowy day sounds absolutely perfect :) Love the tea towel idea! So thoughtful.
Grandma’s old recipes are always fantastic! This one is great, perfect for now when the chilly evenings have truly set in :)
I always add a bit of garlic powder and ground white pepper to the sauce at the roux stage, and often some grated parmesan in the end as well. That way it’s never too bland, but it doesn’t overpower the dish either.
Thank you for the recipe!
I made this today. It’s quite hearty, isn’t it? We are super-full.
I did make a substitution, though (don’t I always?), in that it was raining so I couldn’t be bothered to go down and pick beans. Instead we had half a red cabbage in the fridge, so I used a chunk of that instead. I was a bit worried after it had come out of the steamer and was still like biting leather, so I thought we might have just had to eat around it. It cooked up nicely in the oven, though, and the cabbage was just the right side of firm but tender. :) I imagine you can probably make this with loads of different veg combinations. Personally I’m definitely using red cabbage again if available. :)
As for white sauces being a bit bland, I like to add a teaspoon or so of whole grain or dijon mustard to a plain white sauce along with some nutmeg. I think the mustard adds a bit of interest without taking away from the primary ingredients in the recipe. Dijon can be quite strong, though, so a bit of caution is advised. Personally I prefer the whole grain mustard. The seeds look nice in the sauce as well, I think. :)
Yes super hearty! Proper comfort food :) Red cabbage sounds like a great addition – I’m sure you can use whatever veggies you have in the fridge. Mustard sounds brilliant too, thanks for the idea!
What a lovely thing to find and recreate some of her recipes. I hope one day my grandchildren find my book of scribbles and enjoy it! This cobbler looks hearty and comforting!!
I need to start writing more stuff down – as it stands, my grandchildren will just need to scroll through my Pinterest board, which is a lot less interesting haha
How delicious, and how lovely to have that recipe book.
It is such a hot mid September day today that I cannot believe we are thinking about winter and autumn food.
I know, this recipe does seem a little out of place during this heatwave but I’m sure the cold will come soon! :(
So envious, because I don’t have any granny cookbooks infused with rich memories. The cobbler certainly looks like a meal on its own. Meat lovers, take note!
Haha absolutely, if you make things this hearty and filling, nobody could complain about the lack of meat :)
This looks a lovely recipe. Very comforting and perfect for the coming autumn. I am sure your Granny will be really happy of your version of her recipe
Reminds me of chicken and biscuits with veggies used instead. Pure comfort food, great recipe. Aren’t the old family recipes the best? Thanks for the share.
It’s really similar to that! The ultimate comfort food.