We cooked different versions of this Vegetable Medley Casserole at home. The process was always the same but the quantity and type of vegetables varied based on season and availability. Often we used leftover vegetables from other dishes to create a vegetable casserole like this one. It’s basically a perfect way to use all vegetables in your fridge before they go bad. This dish is also perfect for a detox meal after vacations or Meatless Mondays.
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History of Vegetable Casserole
I grew up in a multi-generational home. I learned to cook from my mom and my grandparents. Meal planning for the week usually involved the type of protein we were going to use, while the sides or vegetables were bought fresh daily in local farmers’ markets. That meant that sometimes certain vegetables were not available and others you hadn’t planned on buying had good offers we couldn’t pass on. So, we were flexible in how we cooked and this dish is a typical example.
This dish is healthy for the whole family. It has many great health benefits. But above all, I love it because it teaches my kids to eat vegetables.
Casserole Preparation Overview
Usually the Vegetable Medley is prepared in two steps. The sauce is prepared on a deep skillet with onions, peppers, parsley, seasonings of choice, crushed tomatoes and a little bit of tomato sauce. While other vegetables like eggplants, potatoes, carrots, zucchini are chopped and arranged in the baking dish. Then once the sauce is cooled off a little bit, you pour it on top of the vegetables and bake the dish. I’ll explain everything step by step in the recipe below.
This Vegetable Medley Casserole is a vegan dish. However you can serve it in different ways to adapt to your family’s way of eating. To read more on different diets, please read my post on Eating Lifestyles. The dish can be served with a side of protein of your choice. Also, the dish can be served over rice if you like having a more filling meal.
Vegetable Medley Casserole Recipe
This is a very easy vegetable casserole to prepare. However, I’ll share some notes and alterations below to help you in case you want to adjust quantities and ingredients:
- Please note that the quantity of water you’ll need might vary greatly. It depends on how soft the vegetables are and if you use tomatoes or canned tomatoes. Adjust water carefully depending on the vegetables you are using.
- Feel free to add more eggplants or squash or replace squash with zucchini.
- I love using parsley for this recipe, I tend to chop the whole bunch, i just leave a bit for decoration on the side. But you can use other cooking greens.
- Baking time might vary too. It usually takes 30-40 minutes, but depending a bit on potatoes used it might go all the way to 1 hr. If the potatoes need to bake longer, but you’re afraid the rest of the vegetables will overcook, you can cover the whole dish with aluminum foil at around 35 minutes and continue baking until potatoes are done.
- This recipe is non-spicy because I often cook it for my family and I have 2 young kids, however you can add your choice of spicy and it is delicious too!!
Vegan Vegetable Medley – A Mediterranean Casserole
Ingredients
- 2 small eggplants
- 2 yellow squash
- 1 medium sweet potato
- 1 baking potato
Sauce Ingredients
- 1 large white onion
- 3 bell peppers preferably different colors
- 1 parsley bunch
- 1 can crushed tomatoes (the can i use is 14.5 ozs) or 3-4 fresh tomatoes
- 3 oz tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp salt adjust accordingly if you swap vegetables or quantities
- 0.5 tsp black pepper other options are paprika or spicy small peppers
- 5 tbsps olive oil
- 2 cups hot water
Instructions
- Chop onions, bell peppers and parsley.
- Saute onions in olive oil until translucent.
- Add chopped peppers and continue mixing occasionally until peppers start to cook too. Keep heat in medium range.
- Add chopped parsley few minutes later and mix well while continuing to saute.
- Add crushed tomatoes or fresh tomatoes to the mix and continue to stir. Add the tomato sauce too. In the absence of tomato sauce, add more tomatoes. The dish won’t look as red at the end, but it will still taste delicious.
- Add 1 cup of hot water, salt and pepper or other seasonings of choice. Lower the heat to low, cover it up and let the sauce cook for several minutes. Check occasionally so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the skillet, if so that means that it needs a bit more water and lower the heat even further.
- While the sauce cooks, chop eggplants, squash, potatoes and arrange them in the baking dish. Alternatively, you can use more vegetables like carrots and zucchini.
- Turn the oven on at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Pour the sauce over the vegetables in the baking dish. Be careful because it is very hot, you might want to use a ladle to spread the sauce evenly instead of just pouring it. If the sauce is very thick, add a bit of water as needed. Usually at this stage i add about 0.5-1 cup of water if needed.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or longer if needed (potatoes are the ones that take more time)
- Let it cool then serve as desired. This dish can be eaten alone or with a side salad, protein or rice. Enjoy:)
Notes
If you would like to save this recipe for later, please pin the below image to your boards in Pinterest. Thank you:)
Other Meatless Recipes:
Full disclosure for those who are first landing in my blog through this recipe. We are not vegans or vegetarians, but I do cook a lot of vegan and vegetarian dishes for Meatless Mondays. If you would like to check some of my other meatless recipes, please see below:
Dwight Kealiher
I have prepared this recipe twice. It takes longer than the recipe says for the potatoes to cook. The 2nd time I par-boiled both the sweet & baking potato. After 45 min some chunks of baking potato and eggplant were still not fully cooked. If I try it again, I think I will prepare the sauce as prescribed, and will roast the potatoes, squash & eggplant separately. I will then combine all into a casserole dish and warm in the oven at 375 for 20 minutes.
Sonila
Hi Dwight, thank you for the feedback. I’ll test it again or have someone from my family test it too. The only thing I can think of is maybe size of the chunks and type of potato specifically. If cutting in not too thick chunks and using gold potatoes, those cook a lot faster than russet potatoes etc. Once I test it again, I’ll update the notes on the recipe with the type of potato used and maybe add a little video for the other details.
Another option can be, add the vegetables like eggplant, potato, sweet potato to the baking tray only drizzled with olive oil. Bake at a higher degree like 400 for 15-20 minutes, then add the sauce and continue baking as prescribed.
Thank you,
Sonila
Blair villanueva
I will save your recipe, we prefer eating more vegetables and less meat.
Reginald Page
Since I never learnt how to cook, I value people who knows the in and out of cooking , from your lists and procedures of preparing Vegetable Medley which you have listed here. Am 100% sure that if I give a try, I will prepare an excellent meal.
admin
Even though it’s a dish with a lot of ingredients, it is really very easy to prepare:)).
Ellen
Anything with potatoes is definitely worth trying out! Looks super delicious.
Blushblushtomato
Looks so tasty and easy to prepare. Have always wanted to try vegan meal but do not know where to start!
Neil Alvin Nicerio
I’m staeting to explore vegan diet. This dish would probably be a great start. 🙂
Hop beach today
Lovely simple DIY recipes to follow. I’m in love with your blog!
admin
Thank you so much:))
Monique Tillman
I going to add this recipe to my list of things to try. I am big on textures so I wonder how all this would go together. It looks amazing.
admin
If you try it, let me know what you think:). Thank you
Monidipa Dutta
I am not a vegan but the recipe looks really great. I will try it out.
Alicia
What a great dish for vegans! Or a side dish for any meat. Could you substitute other veggies?
admin
Yes you can, carrots, zucchini, onions or golden honey potatoes can definitely be added in instead of anything you want to replace.
Trigoware
Vagen Vegetable is really looking testy, I surely try this in my home.
Tamieka S
This is perfect for the fall especially with fall on the horizon and all the fresh vegetables. Thank you for sharing.
admin
Thank you Tamieka:)
Zaibel
My husband recently went vegan, I need all the help I can get
admin
I’m not vegan myself but I’m learning too. Basically everything can be made vegan for example stuffed peppers (i have a recipe for it), instead of ground beef add more parsley, tomatoes, chopped peppers and rice. Double up on salads, beans, lentils etc.
Vaibhav Mehta
This is so good. Finally something for vegetarians like me. I feel out of place reading non veg recipes otherwise. Bookmarking this for future!
admin
Enjoy:))).
Juna Kandha
Wow recipes .. i love … thanks for sharing . I will visit your blog time to time
Lauren
That looks so good and so easy to make! Thank you for sharing!
Krish
I enjoy veg dishes…this one looks so beautiful and healthy..worth trying for sure..
Thank you
Ntensibe Edgar Michael
Aaaaahhhhh….almost had my entire list full to the top….only for squash to miss out!! Is there a close substitute for it, Sonila?
Nice recipe, generally.
admin
You can leave squash out, don’t worry. Feel free to add carrots or zucchini if you like them. Or add more potatoes instead of the squash:)
Trish Veltman
This sounds such a tasty meal, and for those who like meat, it would make a great side dish. Very versatile.