This easy cheesy vegetable bake is simple comfort food at its finest. It is the perfect vegetarian meal or decadent side dish.
I mean, would you just look at all of that cheesy goodness right there? *Swoon* And even though this looks really good (if I do say so myself), it didn’t start out that way. You know how some days the kitchen is actually the worst place? Yeah, I have those days. Quite often, to be honest. Days where the last thing I feel like doing is looking into the fridge to find inspiration or turning on the oven. I suppose, that’s what happens when food is your job. Some days it is actually preferable if we just get in the car to buy some food that comes in a brown paper bag and a soda-machine coke.
But then I remember that I do actually have a fridge-full of food and that even though the brown-paper option is one hundred thousand percent easier (that’s a real percentage, yo), I do actually like to cook. And so, I look into the fridge (sometimes for prolonged periods of time) until the beeping noise drives my husband crazy and sometimes inspiration strikes and other times my children eat salad sandwiches for the 11th time in a row.
Luckily for them (and me), inspiration hit on this day and I grabbed all the vegetables that were very close to going off in the vegetable drawer. I had a few sad looking peppers, a handful of mushrooms and two heads of cauliflower. I knew I wanted to use it all up and I knew that if I covered all of this in a rich, cheesy bechamel, everyone would be having a good day.
So that’s exactly what I did. I roasted the vegetables with a splash of basil oil (because I’m fancy like that) and a sprinkle of salt to concentrate their flavour and got the cooking going before covering them in a blanket of creamy white sauce. A sprinkle of mozzarella followed because, well no explanation necessary, and into the oven it went. 20 minutes later this beaut of a vegetable bake came out and seriously, it was just so absolutely moreishly (again, not a word I just made up) delectable.
I love when I can use up sad-looking vegetables, reduce our food wastage and provide my family with a wholesome lunch all in one go. Now I’m going to carry on pretending to have all my shizz together and that I’m a great grown-up while you go and gather the ingredients for this fantastic vegetable bake.
Cheesy vegetable bake
Ingredients
- 4 cups cauliflower florets approximately 2 small-medium heads of cauliflower
- 1 punnet 250g mushrooms, quartered
- 1 large red pepper seeded and chopped into bite-size chunks
- 1 large yellow pepper same as red pepper
- 1 red onion peeled and chopped into chunks
- 2 tablespoons olive oil I used basil flavored
- large pinch salt
- black pepper to taste
- 2 cups cheese sauce
- 1 cup grated mozzarella for topping
- grated parmesan optional
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°c.
- Place all the vegetables on a baking sheet then drizzle with the oil, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat.
- Place in the oven and allow to roast for 30 minutes until golden brown and starting to caramelise.
- Transfer the roasted vegetables to a suitable baking dish and pour over the cheese sauce.
- Add the mozzarella and parmesan then place back in the oven for 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and is golden brown.
- Remove and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Can you prepare or part cook this recipe the day before and finish it off the following day? Thank you.
You can complete it up to the baking point and then cover with foil and keep in the fridge to bake off the next day.
Do you mean up to the point of roasting the vegetables or can you refrigerate the roasted vegetables with the cheese sauce on overnight and finish cooking the next day?
You can make the entire thing, with the cheese sauce the day before and then just bake the day of.
I make this all the time and it’s SO good. Everyone always asks me for the recipe, which is thankfully quite simple. A real winner.
Yay! I”m so glad to hear that!
Thanks for sharing this yummy and delicious recipe. Keep it up.
Looks good but very confusing to use Celsius instead of farenheit.
So sorry for the confusion. I am based in South Africa and we use the metric system.
The recipe calls for cheese sauce, but does not give a recipe for it. Strange.
If you click on the words “cheese sauce” it takes you to my cheese sauce recipe. 🙂
Can this be frozen ?
You could definitely freeze it, just make sure to bake long enough to make sure the vegetables are thoroughly heated through.
Wow Alida! This is my kind of dish! All that cheese!! Indulgent!
That cheese is everything!
This was just the ticket on a comfort food mandatory night. The vegetarians loved it as a main and the omnivores as a side dish. So simple, and so adaptable too. Thanks so much!
Oh, I’m so pleased!
Hi Alida,
Like as you, most of all experience the same while opening the fridge, but it is really good that you can find out the way how to make it delectable!
We will give it a try & if it meets to our standard, we will include in our club restaurant list.
Thank you for sharing here.
Bwaaahahahaha….you’re so funny. I’m a Mom of 7-year old twins too….and have nothing to do with food as my day-job…and often have those beeping fridge episodes!! Glad to know I’m completely normal!!!! Thanks Alida for making my day xxxx Linda
Thanks for your lovely comment Linda. Yay for twin moms! 😉
HELLO comfort food!! Cheesy vegetables are the best!
Aren’t they just?