This vegan potato casserole has layers of Yukon gold potatoes, cauliflower, and spinach smothered in a creamy cashew sauce and topped with a crunchy toasted walnut breadcrumb crust.
This vegan potato casserole is layered with vegetables, covered with a vegan cream sauce, and sprinkled with a gluten-free breadcrumb and walnut crust.
It may seem like a tall task to create a vegan version of classic comfort food without the dairy, oil, gluten, or animal protein, but creating a vegan casserole is really quite simple and easy to do.
I’ve made many classics such as my vegan breakfast casserole, dairy-free green bean casserole, and even a fantastic vegan sweet potato casserole! Today, I’m bringing to you another winner! This potato casserole has it all! It’s layered with thinly sliced potatoes, cauliflower, and spinach then smothered in a creamy dairy-free sauce and topped with a crunchy gluten-free breadcrumb crust. It makes a great main dish for any special occasion, Sunday night dinner, or anytime you’re craving comfort food!
💗 Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- Great for adults who grew up on casseroles
- Perfect holiday side dish recipe for Christmas and Thanksgiving
- Belly filling and satisfying
- Ready in under 60 minutes
- Creamy dairy-free sauce
- Vegans and Non-vegans will ask for seconds!
🥣 Ingredients and Notes
Casserole Layers
Yukon Gold Potatoes: You can also use russet potatoes and other varieties, but I find that the Yukon Golds are creamy and buttery and compliment the other ingredients nicely.
Cauliflower: This helps add dimension and depth to the casserole while adding a little more vitamins and nutrients.
Spinach: Brings a beautiful green accent color to the dish, and works really well with the creamy sauce.
Vegan Cream Sauce Ingredients
Dairy-Free Milk: I like to use Almond Milk but you can use another dairy-free milk alternative like coconut milk, cashew, oat milk, or soy milk work well too. I prefer unsweetened almond milk in this recipe.
Onion: Always a good ingredient to use in casseroles because it provides delicious flavor.
Vegetable Stock: Organic low sodium vegetable broth from Whole Foods is what I like to use. But if you don’t have stock, you can also use water.
Spices and Herbs: Can’t go wrong adding garlic, salt and pepper to bring out the flavor.
Cashews: Be sure to use raw unsalted cashews for the sauce. When soaked or boiled cashews add a creamy element to the sauce and also helps it to thicken.
Nutritional Yeast: This brings that umami cheesy flavor to the sauce.
Breadcrumb Crust:
To make this fantastic breadcrumb crust you’ll need gluten-free panko breadcrumbs, walnuts to help get that crunchy crust, hemp seeds (optional, and Italian Seasoning to tie all the flavors of the entire dish together.
📋 Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400 F. Thinly slice the potatoes, and line the bottom of the baking dish with one layer of the potatoes.
Step 2: Cut the cauliflower into thin slices. Layer the cauliflower on top of the potatoes.
Step 3: Add the layer of fresh leaf spinach.
Step 4: Repeat with a layer of potatoes, and a layer of cauliflower for a total of 5 layers.
Step 5: Prepare the Vegan Alfredo Sauce: Sauté onions in vegetable stock until soft. Bring water to a boil in a small pot. Add the cashews and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the cashews from the water.
Step 6: Combine almond milk, sauteed onions, boiled cashews, garlic, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a blender. Blend until smooth, about 45 seconds to 1 minute. Pour sauce over the vegetables.
Step 8: Cover with aluminum foils and bake for 40-45 minutes. Remove foil and broil for 2 minutes to brown the top. Serve while hot! Enjoy!
❓ FAQs
Potatoes are a good source of minerals such as potassium and fiber, vitamin C, and B6. While many think of them as just carbs, in moderation they can be quite beneficial for your health.
Absolutely! If you’d like to add more vegetables to this casserole, try carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, or yellow squash.
Yes, you can. I recommend prepping the ingredients ahead of time and then waiting until you’re ready to cook it to assemble it so nothing gets soggy.
👩🍳 Serving Suggestions
This is the perfect side dish recipe to accompany various Thanksgiving and Christmas meal main dishes. It pairs nicely with a meatless meatloaf too.
It also makes an excellent main course as it has healthy carbs, fat, protein, and vegetables. Serve with a light side salad.
❄️ Storage
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days.
Reheat leftovers in a baking dish in the oven or in the microwave.
You may also freeze this dish once it’s cooled. Transfer it to a freezer-safe container, label it, and it should keep for 2-3 months. If possible, wait to add the breadcrumb mixture until you reheat it.
💭 Expert Tips
- Cover with aluminum foil while baking to seal in the heat and cook potatoes.
- Before broiling insert a fork or toothpick to check that the potatoes are cooked through. If the potatoes aren’t yet backed through, replace the foil and bake until potatoes are thoroughly cooked.
- You can double this recipe and make a second batch to freeze for later.
😋 More Vegan Comfort Food Recipes!
Recipe
Vegan Potato Casserole
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 Yukon Gold Potatoes sliced thin
- 1 cup cauliflower
- 1 cup fresh leaf spinach loosely packed
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
- ¾ cup raw cashews
- 1 small yellow onion chopped
- ½ cup vegetable stock
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ cup Panko Gluten-free breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoon hemp seeds optional
- 2 tablespoon walnuts optional
- 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Thinly slice the potatoes. Line the bottom of the baking dish with one layer of the potatoes.
- Wash and cut the cauliflower into thin slices. Layer the cauliflower on top of potatoes.
- Layer the fresh spinach on top of the cauliflower. Then add an additional layer of potato slices and cauliflower on top for a total of 5 layers.
- Prepare the vegan cream sauce. Sauté the onions in vegetable stock or water until soft.
- Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the cashews and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the water from the cashews.
- Combine the unsweetened almond milk, sauteed onions, boiled cashews, garlic, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a blender. Blend until smooth about 45 seconds to a minute. Pour over the casserole.
- In a food processor combine the breadcrumbs, walnuts, hemp seeds (optional), and Italian seasoning. Pulse until combined Sprinkle on top of the casserole.
- Cover the casserole with aluminum foil. Bake for 50-55 minutes in the preheated oven.
- Remove the aluminum foil and broil for 2 minutes to brown the top. Serve hot! Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Cover with aluminum foil while baking to seal in the heat and cook potatoes.
- Before broiling insert a fork or toothpick to check that the potatoes are cooked through. If the potatoes aren’t yet backed through, replace the foil and bake until potatoes are thoroughly cooked.
- You can double this recipe and make a second batch to freeze for later.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days.
- Reheat leftovers in a baking dish in the oven or in the microwave.
- You may also freeze this dish once it’s cooled. Transfer it to a freezer-safe container, label it, and it should keep for 2-3 months. If possible, wait to add the breadcrumb mixture until you reheat it.
Laura Plant Based Private Chef
Fantastic dish. Before making this for a gal I chef for, I had to make it for my husband & myself to make sure it’s a winner. It is! I brought some to my dad & we gobbled up the rest so today, while I make it for my client, I’m making us another batch too. I always do half white beans with all cashew based sauces to cut down on fat & it really doesn’t take away any flavor or consistency. And I layered in yellow onion too. Otherwise I did recipe as is. I think it’d be excellent also w/ mushrooms layered in. Great dish! My new client says she loves potato casseroles & I just happened to find this one. She’s going to LOVE it.
Janice Stanton
We are really getting into Plant Based eating. I am reading everything I can get my hands on. I love your website and all of your printable recipes. I need to get a few more things like cashews and the yeast. I am definitely going to try this potato recipes. I am make one of you pasta recipes tonight.
Thank you
Alison Corey
I hope you enjoyed the pasta dish. The potato casserole is very creamy and good too!
MaTaylie M Beganovic
I plan on making this tomorrow, and have everything on hand except Walnuts. Can I sub out for pecans?
Alison Corey
Yes, you can certainly substitute pecans!
Daniela Barrientos
I don’t have any cashews, is there something else i could use to substitute for it?
Alison Corey
Hi Daniela,
Unfortunately, to make the sauce the cashews are a key ingredient. It is what makes the sauce thick and creamy. Using another type of nut will not result in the same texture. However, you could try using silken tofu instead. I haven’t made this recipe using that method, but I’ve seen it suggested by others.
Mary
Delicious and easy to make; my sister went plant based and I needed something for main course. This with relish was perfect-thanks!
Alison Corey
Hi Mary!
I’m so happy to hear that you and your family enjoyed this dish!
Danielle Lucido
I made this tonite for father’s day for my husband. It was yummy but I agree with prior comments that 45 minutes is not long enough at 350. I put it in for 55 and it still could have gone longer. My potatoes were sliced quite thin, too. I think next time I will cook at 400. Thanks for the recipe!
Alison Corey
Thank you for your suggestions! I made this recipe again this week to test out the times, and have made some adjustments to both the time and temperature.
Melanie
When I made it, I increased the temperature and baked it longer so that the potatoes on the bottom were soft. In the future, I will add a bit of sauce to every layer instead of just on top.
Delicious!
Alison Corey
Glad you enjoyed it!
Valerie Broman
Made this tonight. I wish I would have read the recipe through before I started as I didn’t realize the cashews needed an overnight soak. I did a quick simmer and the sauce turned out well. I had to cook for 1 hour as it wasn’t done when cooked for the time in the recipe. It was worth the wait. Very tasty. My son and husband also loved it.
Alison Corey
Hi Valerie! I’m so happy to hear your husband and your son enjoyed the casserole! You can make the cashew cream sauce two ways. If you have a high speed blender you can soak the cashews overnight or at least for a few hours, but if you don’t have time to soak the cashews you can use my short-cut method which is to grind the cashews in a coffee or spice grinder. It makes for a creamy consistency. I’m sorry to hear the timing didn’t quite workout. How long did you end up needing to cook it for in the oven?
sheenam @ thetwincookingproject
This looks really amazing!
Alison Corey
Thank you!
Jess
Oh yum! This looks and sounds so darn good! I am pinning this recipe so that I can come back and make it later. YUM!
Mindy Fewless
Great way to eat more veggies!! Thank you!
Veena Azmanov
Potatoes are one delicious option which goes with anything. I love this creamy texture and awesome dish.
Dahn
This looks delicious, I love potatoes and Yukon Golds are really good. They are creamy and buttery tasting compared to others
Emese @ My Pure Plants
Yes!!! I love veggie-loaded casseroles. It will be a perfect addition to my Thanksgiving menu.