You are going to love this broccoli casserole if you are looking for a flavorful, vegetable-loaded casserole.
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TL;DR
I was inspired by my zucchini casserole and broccoli cheese soup when I came up with this broccoli casserole recipe.
The recipe is simple. The broccoli is pre-boiled to retain nutrients the green color, and it also softens it for the baking process. You can use frozen broccoli too.
Then you just need to combine cream, eggs, cheese, and flavoring, which is then poured over the florets.
It's a beginner-friendly vegetable casserole dish.
Ingredient Notes
- Broccoli — fresh and cut into florets. Cut off fibrous parts.
- Salt Water — to blanch broccoli (briefly cook).
- Eggs
- Table Cream
- Black Pepper ground and Salt.
- Italian Seasoning
- Dijon Mustard — optional, but adds a nice flavor to the casserole dish.
- Shredded Cheese — simple Mozzarella will do, but for more flavor, I recommend Swiss Raclette, Emmental, or Gruyère cheese but cheddar and mozzarella are fine too.
- Olive Oil — if you can spare a dime, get a cold-pressed olive oil. All those other labels for extra virgin olive oil are super misleading. The cold-pressed olive oil label is your best option.
How to make it?
Step 1
Keep a pot with salt water to boil. Place your clean broccoli floret chunks into the cooking water and set a timer for 3 minutes to blanch the vegetables.
When done, take the broccoli through cold running water, as this will retain the green color too. Get rid of excess water and keep your broccoli aside.
Step 2
Add to a mixing bowl the eggs, cream, black pepper, Italian seasoning, cheese, and Dijon mustard.
Combine all the ingredients.
Step 3
Place broccoli florets into your baking dish.
Pour the egg-cream mixture over the broccoli in the dish and spread out as well as possible.
Drizzle some olive oil over the dish and bake in the oven.
📖 Recipe
Simple Broccoli Casserole Recipe
Ingredients
To blanch broccoli
- 21.2 ounces Broccoli cleaned + cut into florets, *See Notes
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- Water to blanch Broccoli
For the casserole dish
- 2 Eggs
- 1¼ cup Table Cream
- ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning *See Notes
- 1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard optional
- 1 cup Shredded Cheese *See Notes
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
Instructions
- Keep a pot with water and salt to boil, and place your clean broccoli pieces into the water so that they are submerged completely. Place the timer for 3 minutes to blanch your broccoli, and then take it out to leave in cold running water or a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.21.2 ounces Broccoli, 1 Teaspoon Salt, Water
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit/180° Celsius.
- In a mixing bowl, combine the egg, cream, salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning, mustard paste, and cheese into a well-combined sauce.2 Eggs, 1¼ cup Table Cream, ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground, 1 Teaspoon Salt, 1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning, 1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard, 1 cup Shredded Cheese
- Place cooled broccoli pieces into a large casserole dish. Spread them out so that they fit into the whole dish and that they are on a level.
- Pour the cream sauce mixture all over the broccoli in the casserole dish.
- Sprinkle olive oil over the dish.1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- Bake the cheesy broccoli egg casserole at 350° Fahrenheit/ 180° Celsius for about 30 minutes or until it has a golden crust and is cooked through and done.
Notes
- Use fresh or frozen broccoli. Fresh broccoli needs to be blanched (briefly boiled). Frozen broccoli needs to be thawed, but I don't blanch frozen broccoli. You can skip step 1, blanching, if you use frozen broccoli. Frozen broccoli is usually blanched before it is frozen to retain the vital vegetable enzymes.
- You can substitute Italian seasoning with your favorite dried herb or herb blend, such as oregano, herbes de Provence, spaghetti seasoning (yep, that does the trick too), or even a Mediterranean multipurpose herb blend such as Zaatar.
- The addition of Dijon mustard is optional. It adds some interesting flavors and complements the broccoli. Besides, mustard is an emulsifier, and it will help bind your sauce for the perfect bake.
- You can use a good melting cheese that has flavor and that you enjoy. I like to use cheddar, raclette, Emmental, Gruyère, and occasionally some Parmesan. You can also mix two or three cheeses.
Equipment
- Small Pot to preboil the broccoli
- 9 x 13" Rectangular Baking Dish
Nutrition
Serving
The easy broccoli casserole recipe makes a lovely side dish with roasted turkey or chicken.
That means you can serve this vegetable casserole dish for Thanksgiving or on other holidays, such as Easter, with other amazing side dish meals.
OR you can simply enjoy your casserole as a stand-alone vegetarian dish.
I even make it in the summer when I'm craving a lighter, vegetable-loaded meal.
Variations
You can elevate your broccoli dish to turn it into a wholesome dinner meal.
Here is how:
- with leftover rotisserie chicken or Thanksgiving ham — Just add the meat shredded or cut into pieces over the broccoli before pouring the egg-cream mix over the uncooked dish.
- with bacon — fried bacon chopped into small pieces
- with zucchini or other squash
- with rice — a layer of cooked leftover rice over the broccoli
- with a different seasoning instead of Italian seasoning — you can use only oregano, Herb de Provence or my I like it also with spaghetti seasoning.
Freezing
Prepare the dish as per recipe instructions in a foil-lined casserole dish.
Place into your freezer and allow your casserole to freeze completely.
When hard frozen, take it out (it's easier because we lined it with foil) and wrap the dish completely in foil.
Take your casserole dish back to the freezer, where it can be stored for up to 4 months (I don't recommend any longer).
To thaw your broccoli cheese casserole, place it frozen into the fridge for about 24 hours before you intend to bake it.
Make sure your casserole is properly thawed, or else it might turn out soggy after the baking process.
FAQs
A baked cheesy casserole with broccoli is good for about 3–5 days in the fridge.
I like to use cheddar, Emmental, or Raclette cheese. You can use hard mozzarella cheese and other cheeses, such as Gruyère, too.
You can make two casserole dishes to serve a larger crowd.
More Vegetable Casserole Recipes
This was amazing and my husband loved it 🤩 thank you for a wonderful recipe 😘
Added chicken to this and it was AMAZING!!!
great idea! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Made this one and loved it! All vegan alternatives for me and still knocked it our of the park! 👌🏼 thanks for this great recipe!
Awesome that you turned it into a vegan version. I would love to try that sometimes too.
Thanks for sharing your version Sara 🙂
Tastes awesome and super easy to make
thanks for sharing 🙂
Added some pieces of chicken! This recipe is good!!
Great idea with the chicken! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
I put some garlic sautéed mushrooms in it. YUMMY! Thanks for the recipe.
Great idea, love it and will try that soon too.
Easy, quick and great taste. Paired with some pasta and chicken
Thank you so much for your feedback Joane. Glad to read that you enjoy the recipe. 🙂
We used 3pepper cheese! Amazing.
Taste delicious but the sauce separated. Don’t know why, I did substitute the cream for 2%milk and some butter. Don’t know what happened.
Hi Kim, thanks for your feedback. The sauce won't separate if you use cream instead of 2% milk. Adding butter won't change that. The fats in the cream keep it all together.
I just tried this recipe and subbed out cream with 2% milk, used three eggs, TJ's Honey Truffle Mustard, and bread crumbs. I also used 21 salute seasoning and a little onion salt. I added carrots for more veggies an a little sweetness. My cheese was a low fat blend from TJ's and I omitted the Olive Oil. OMG! This is a keeper as it is ridiculously delicious. I definitely would recommend adding mustard. So, so good. Thank you for the recipe!
Thanks for sharing your version Mary. That gives us some space to try more around. 🙂
Husband loved it! Next time I’ll put less salt though 🙂
Thanks for your feedback Iris. That's great if your husband loved it. 🙂
So good...used frozen and worked out well!!
It turned out great! I would make it again
awesome glad you enjoyed it as much as we did. 🙂
I doubled the chesse it was a success and a big hit .
Is 1 1/4 cups cream liquid light or heavy cream? Thie recipe sounds awesome and I can't wait to try it but I don't want to waste good food. Everything is so expensive nowadays.
Hi Martin, I used liquid cream. You can use any of the two but liquid cream does the trick too because we add eggs. And the eggs help to bind the cream. I have made the changes in the recipe card to liquid cream as an ingredient.
Hi, beside the cheese you said see notes. There wasn’t anything in the notes. So, what kind of cheese did you use? Want to have with Christmas dinner. It looks wonderful.
yep I forgot to add this. Thanks for pointing it out!
So I like to use Cheddar, Raclette, Emmenthal, Gruyere or even mozzarella. It's a flavor choice. You can also mix two cheese or add some parmesan too. 🙂
It should be a good melting cheese that has flavor and which you like.
Bake uncovered or covered?
uncovered 🙂
Because you want it to get grilled on top. You want the golden-brown crust.
Can you use cream cheese or sour cream instead of the cream?
You can use sour cream too. Cream cheese might work if you add some milk to it.