Vegan Cauliflower Casserole

This vegan cauliflower casserole makes for a great side dish everyone always loves. It has a delicious flavor and is perfect for your next special occasion meal. 

After making this recipe, my husband said this will be the new dish at Thanksgiving. It's that tasty!

This is a rich dish even my kids loved. If you're looking for some other vegan side dishes check out these delicious recipes like vegan broccoli and rice casserole, or my favorite vegan corn casserole!

Why you'll love this recipe

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• It's a great meal addition.
• It has an entire head of cauliflower in it
• Delicious recipe
• It's easy to make despite making homemade cream of potato soup.

Ingredients and substitutions

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Check out the recipe card at the bottom of this blog post for the full recipe.

Condensed Cream of Potato Soup

• Vegan butter- helps make this potato soup creamy. You can also sub in olive oil or another mild oil if that's all you have. But I much prefer this with vegan butter.

• All purpose flour- this helps make a roux for the soup. If you need to make this gluten-free, you can use gluten-free all-purpose flour in a 1:1 ratio.

• Vegan chicken broth- the flavors come together when you use my homemade vegan chicken broth. You can just vegetable broth, but I prefer it with the homemade recipe.

• Non-dairy milk- it's best to use higher-fat plant-based milk here, like soy milk, but I have used unsweetened almond milk or oat milk, which still tastes good. Make sure whatever you're using is unsweetened and not vanilla flavored. I wouldn't use coconut milk because of the coconut flavor.

• Instant potatoes- this a must to make this a creamy sauce and bring in some tasty potato flavor. I've never tried substituting mashed potatoes but it would work fine if you don't have instant potatoes on hand.

• Onion powder- there isn't really a good substitute for this, but this helps bring the flavor you need in the soup and isn't overpowering.

• Garlic powder- I prefer to use garlic powder instead of fresh garlic here because it's easy and it's such a small amount of garlic needed.

• Celery seed- this gives it a perfect hint of celery flavor. I've used celery salt in half the amount when I've run out of celery seed.

Casserole

• Fresh cauliflower chopped into florets- this is the star of the show in the cauliflower casserole recipe. It's important to plan ahead for this recipe because the roasting (although easy) does add 30 minutes to the recipe. You want the cauliflower roasted well. It only cooks a little in the oven, and no one wants crunchy cauliflower in their casserole.

• Vegan sour cream- helps turn this into a vegan cheese sauce. It's creamy, slightly tangy, and perfect for this. I often use the Kroger; Simple Truth vegan sour cream because it's affordable and works great. There are lots of brands out there these days. You could also make your own. I've often seen people make some with cashews. I've never used it in this specific recipe, but you could try vegan unsweetened, unflavored yogurt with a little bit of vinegar to replicate the sour cream.

• Vegan cheese- this is a must to complete the cheesy sauce. You can use whatever brand you want. I prefer Violiife or Chao, but there are a lot of good vegan cheese brands out there these days.

Topping

• Ritz crackers- You can use any similar cracker, panko breadcrumbs, or regular breadcrumbs.

• Vegan cashew parmesan cheese- This really ties the flavor together. You can use a store-bought vegan parmesan cheese if you need to keep this nut free and don't want another step. But this homemade version brings a perfect cheesy flavor that I love.

How to make vegan cheesy cauliflower casserole

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Step 1-

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.

Step 2-

Take your chopped cauliflower florets and place them evenly in the 9x13 pan; spray them with cooking spray or sprinkle with a little oil and stir them around. Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon pepper and ¼ teaspoon salt evenly on the cauliflower and stir again.

Step 3-

Place the cauliflower in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, stir, then cook another 20 minutes; remove from the oven and set aside.

While your cauliflower is roasting, start your condensed cream of potato soup.

Cream of Potato Soup

Step 4-

Get all your ingredients ready; this happens really fast. Melt your vegan butter in your pot on medium heat, whisk in the flour- this will thicken quickly, add your broth and whisk (this thickens really fast as well), add the rest of your ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Once it's thick and creamy (which happens in about 30 seconds to 1 minute), it's ready, and you can set it aside.

Step 5-

Add the vegan cheese and the vegan sour cream to this and stir, then set it aside.

Make the topping

Step 6-

Combine the Ritz crackers and the vegan cashew parmesan cheese, stir, and set it aside.

Put the casserole together.

Step 7-

Take the roasted tender cauliflower pan and pour the soup mixture over the roasted cauliflower and stir until it's coated.

Step 8-

Take the topping and sprinkle it evenly over the top of the casserole.

Bake

Step 9-

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes until the top is nice and crispy.

Expert Tips and Tricks

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• Make sure to roast the cauliflower long enough but not too long to where it's mushy.
• If you want the cauliflower to roast faster, you can place it on a roasting pan instead of piled on top of each other in the 9x13; however, you dirty one more dish.
• This tastes best with a really good vegan broth. I prefer my homemade vegan chicken broth.

How to Serve cheesy vegan cauliflower casserole

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This makes the perfect side dish. We love this on our holiday table, and our entire family enjoys it. You could eat this as a main dish if you wanted to; it's great comfort food.

This is best served warm.

How to store and freeze

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Store-

Place leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can reheat in the microwave or crisp the top back up in the oven.

Freeze-

I've never had leftovers long enough to freeze this. If I were to freeze it, I would let it cool to room temperature, then place it in a freezer-safe container in the freezer for up to 3 months.

I would reheat it in the oven when you want to cook it again.

Variations and Ad-ons

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You can add vegan bacon bits, different kinds of vegan cheeses, chunks of cooked potatoes, cooked vegan ground beef, some white beans, pieces of cooked sweet potatoes, or whatever sounds good to you.

Recipes you may like

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• Easy Vegan Green Bean Casserole
• Classic Vegan Mac and Cheese
• Vegan Cornbread Stuffing

If you loved this recipe, then give it a 5-star rating and leave a comment! I love to chat with you all. Please feel free to share on social media and tag #courtneyshomestead. I would love to see you over on Instagram or Facebook.