Vegan Breakfast Casserole

Also known as Vegan Egg Casserole is the perfect customizable, make-head, savory breakfast recipe with a quick & easy vegan eggy base, SEVEN veggies like hash browns, bell peppers, green peas, mushrooms, tomatoes and vegan sausage. Prepare it a day in advance and serve it hot in the morning.

We love savory breakfasts and this veggie-packed meatless breakfast casserole saved us several times during busy mornings. If you also enjoy savory dishes to start your day, you might also like our Vegan Frittata recipe or our Vegan Egg Salad Sandwich. We love making different vegan spreads to top our toast like Oil-free Hummus, or Tofu Cream Cheese, or this amazing Smoky Roasted Eggplant Bell Pepper Dip.

What is a breakfast casserole?

Casserole is supposed to be any meal that you bake in the oven and serve directly from the oven-safe dish. It usually has vegetables, some kind of protein, and something to bind these together. Oh, and don’t forget the cheesy topping that finishes the casserole off. Here are some vegan casserole recipes you might like to try:

• Vegan Eggplant Parmesan
• Vegan Moussaka
• Vegan Shepherd’s Pie
• Vegan Lentil Lasagna
• Vegan Cabbage Lasagna

So what are breakfast casseroles? They are the perfect savory breakfast comfort food. They have a bunch of ingredients you can take off your shelf, mix without too much preparation and bake in an eggy batter. They are really similar to

• quiche – only this has no crust
• frittata – but this one is entirely baked not cooked on a stove-top
• strata – only this has no bread

And how to make it vegan? Load up your casserole with lots of vegetables, add a bit of protein in the form of veggie sausage and bind them together with a fluffy chickpea flour base.

Eggless base for a vegan casserole

If you would like to a make vegan eggy base, the most well-known egg substitutes are

• chickpea flour,
• silken tofu,
• soaked mung bean (also the base for Just Egg).

Why do we love making an eggless breakfast casserole with chickpea flour?

• pantry staple -> we always have it on hand
• easy to work with -> no soaking and waiting is needed
• allergy-friendly -> soy-free, nut-free

But what else do you need to make the taste egg-like? 

The not-so-secret ingredient is BLACK SALT aka Kala Namak. You can read more about what black salt is here.

Best veggies for a breakfast casserole

When it comes to a breakfast casserole, I don’t want to do a lot of chopping or soaking or peeling or pre-cooking. I want vegetables and ingredients I can grab from my pantry or from my fridge and mix and match.

1. No-prep veggies (only a quick wash and chop is needed)
   • cherry tomatoes
   • bell pepper (red, yellow, green)
   • mushroom (button, cremini)
   • onion (red, purple, green onion, shallots or leek)
   • spinach, kale or other leafy greens
   • green peas, corn or any other legumes if canned
2. Shredded veggies (if you add them chopped, they may remain hard and uncooked)
   • potato or sweet potato (or hash browns)
   • carrots or other root vegetables
   • zucchini or squash
   • eggplant
3. Skip these (they need too much time to get ready even if you separate them into florets)
   • broccoli
   • cauliflower

How to make Vegan Breakfast Casserole?

Prepare the ingredients

1. Peel and chop onion and garlic.
2. Gently wash any dirt off of the button mushrooms by using a colander* or a sieve*. Dry them with a paper towel or clean kitchen cloth. We never peel mushrooms, but sometimes cut out the stem if they feel too dry or too hard. Slice them.
3. Wash and slice bell pepper into ¼-inch (4-5 mm) wide strips.
4. Wash and cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
5. Wash and peel potatoes. Use a cheese grater or the grater add-on of a food processor and make shredded potatoes.

Make the eggless base

Take a large bowl and add chickpea flour, black salt, regular salt, baking powder, and black pepper. Mix them thoroughly. Add apple cider vinegar to help activate the baking powder and half of the dairy-free milk. Mix them well. Then add the other half and mix until you have a smooth pancake batter-like liquid.

Fill your casserole dish

1. Preheat the oven to 390-395 Fahrenheit (200 degrees Celsius).
2. Grease the bottom of your oven-safe casserole dish with oil or vegan butter unless you really have a non-stick one.
3. First layer – Spread shredded potatoes, chopped onion and garlic.
4. Second layer – Add sliced mushroom, frozen (or canned) green peas, bell pepper slices, and vegan sausage bits.
5. Chickpea flour base – Mix the eggless base, pour it on top of your veggies. Don’t left the base rest for too long as the baking powder may lose its power. Use a double acting baking powder so that part of it will only be activated once the casserole is in the oven. More on the different kinds in our baking powder article.
6. Add toppings – Add chopped cherry tomatoes or shredded vegan cheese (optional).
7. Bake in the oven for approx. 40 minutes.

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How to customize it?

If you don’t have all ingredients at hand, here are some tips on how to customize this vegan breakfast casserole recipe:

• Proportions – It is hard to mimic the same quiche-like, eggy texture perfectly in a vegan recipe. Therefore, we consider the eggless base as only a binder rather than the main ingredient. So you really need to pack this casserole with veggies and other ingredients. Otherwise, it can get very dense even if we chose to add baking powder to make it lighter.
• Vegetables – I like choosing a combination of vegetables in terms of texture, color, and taste. This breakfast casserole will taste the best if you have a good variety. So we recommended choosing a handful of several ingredients, rather than a larger amount from 1-2.
• Legumes – This recipe will only work with canned or cooked legumes. You can add green peas, sweet corn, chickpeas, beans, lentils whichever you like and have at home.
• Other vegan protein sources – You can add vegan sausage crumbles, vegan bacon bits, vegan shredded chicken, tofu, TVP, vegan ground beef etc.
• Other toppings – You can also add some vegan shredded cheese at the top. As the baking time in an 8 x 10-inch (20 x 25 cm) sized casserole dish takes approx. 40 minutes, we recommend adding the cheese after 20 minutes.

What to serve with it?

We like to top it with sour cream, mayo, ketchup, hot sauce, or BBQ sauce or any yoghurt-based dip. As for sides, I’d think it goes great with any of the following options:

• Garlic bread
• Baked beans or any other bean salad
• Side salads like this Fresh Garden Salad or this Vegan Coleslaw Salad or this Quinoa Berry Salad
• Stir fried spinach or other leafy greens especially if you haven’t added any
• Roasted or grilled veggies like these Roasted Asparagus or these Sauteed Julienne Carrots with Maple Thyme Glaze
• Vegan sausages
• Vegan bacon
• Veggie breakfast patties or burgers or meatballs (Chickpea Meatballs, Veggie Balls, Mushroom Meatballs, Vegan Meatballs with TVP or Eggplant Meatballs)

FAQs and Substitutions

How to store it?

If you make it overnight, we usually store it in the fridge in the baking dish wrapped in saran wrap. I only place it in the fridge once it cooled down completely. If you have any leftover after breakfast, you store the casserole in slices in an airtight container. It can last for 3-4 days for sure.

Can you freeze it?

Yes, you can. I recommend freezing it in slices for easy access and re-heating it under the broiler or in a microwave.

Why do you need baking powder?

Baking powder helps make the batter lighter and fluffier. The apple cider vinegar helps activate the baking powder so the bubbles they create leaven the batter. If you need gluten-, aluminium-, corn-, or sodium-free baking powder, read our post titled “Is baking powder gluten-free?” for a list of brands you can use.

This Vegan Breakfast Casserole recipe is meat-free, dairy-free, and egg-free. It is also suitable for vegan, vegetarian, nut-free, soy-free and gluten-free diets. It can also be WFPB-friendly (whole foods plant-based) if you have a non-stick skillet or baking dish and don’t need to grease the bottom with oil or butter.

More savory vegan breakfast recipes

You can browse through our Vegan and Gluten-free Breakfast Recipes or our 15-min Quick Vegan Meals collection or check out