Easy Broccoli Casserole Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the four components to a casserole? ›

In the United States, a casserole or hot dish is typically a baked food with three main components: pieces of meat (such as chicken or ground meat) or fish (such as tuna) or other protein (such as beans or tofu), various chopped or canned vegetables (such as green beans or peas), and a starchy binder (such as flour, ...

Made with broccoli florets, cheddar cheese, bacon, milk, cream, and eggs, this broccoli casserole recipe is great for brunch, lunch, or dinner. Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

The mistake: It comes out soupy or watery

What goes wrong: If your casserole is full of raw vegetables, you can end up with a watery mess as they release their natural juices.

Soft vegetables like broccoli can be quickly par-cooked (aka blanched). If you are using hard vegetables like potatoes or carrots or other hardy root vegetables, you'll want to par-cook for longer. Often a quick 2-5 minutes in the microwave will just give them that great head-start.

A perfect casserole needs one or more binders: cheese, eggs, condensed soup, Greek yogurt or noodles, for example. Next up are good seasonings; you need herbs and spices to make it all sing.

Broccoli: I use frozen broccoli florets for ease, but you can also use fresh broccoli florets if you prefer. The frozen steam-in-bag broccoli florets are a nice shortcut because there's no need to chop the broccoli and you can just cook it in the microwave in a few minutes.

Broccoli can be eaten raw, but blanching it quickly in boiling water helps give it a more crisp-tender texture and bring out its flavor. Broccoli can also be steamed, sautéed, and roasted. You could even throw long spears on the grill!

In conclusion, the current study clearly shows that nutrient and health-promoting compounds in broccoli are significantly affected by domestic cooking. All cooking treatments, except steaming, caused great losses of chlorophyll and vitamin C. Only boiling and stir-frying/boiling caused the loss of total carotenoids.

Generally, casseroles with grains, rice or pasta that will cook during the baking process are usually covered, for at least part of the time. Casseroles made of cooked ingredients are usually baked uncovered. If you like a crisper, browner top, be sure the casserole is uncovered for at least part of the bake time.

Make-ahead meals (especially baked casseroles) are terrific because you can completely assemble them in advance and bake them just before serving. They're the ultimate comfort food as they come bubbling hot and delicious straight from the oven to the table to the delight of family and friends.

How long should a casserole be cooked for? ›

The time a casserole takes to cook will vary from 2-2½ hours for chuck, blade and thick flank, up to 4 hours for shin, leg and neck. Pork cuts for braising and casseroling normally take 1½ hours, and lamb much the same.

The main ingredients for a casserole are protein, sauce, vegetable, starch, and topping. After that, you can just choose from each category whatever food is to your family's liking or what you have on hand. Here are some great ideas from each category.

While certain vegetables can work just fine added directly to simmering soups and stews (say, carrots and celery), other vegetables (onions, garlic, and the like) will almost always need at least a brief sweat in a fat-based liquid before adding the remaining ingredients.

Try different herbs for added flavour: sage or lemon thyme work wonderfully well. For a meatier casserole, add chopped sausage or pancetta when cooking the chicken. Stir wholegrain mustard through the casserole at the end of cooking (to taste); this is especially good if you have sausage in the casserole.

There are 3 main parts that make up a casserole: the starchy base, the filling, and the sauce. The base: The starchy base is the foundation of the casserole. It isn't going to be the most flavorful part of the dish, but it is what will make the casserole filling and satisfying.

According to food blog High Heeled Homemaker, your basic casserole requires five ingredients: a protein, starch, vegetable, sauce, and cheese. If you have those five ingredients in your casserole dish, congratulations; you just made a casserole, whether it's a beloved recipe or a concoction of your own creation.

Casseroles are cooked in a deep ovenproof dish (with a tight-fitting lid) that is glass, ceramic, cast iron, or any other ovenproof material.

Commonly, casseroles include a protein such as beef, chicken, fish, or beans, with a mixture of vegetables and a starchy binder like pasta or potatoes to bring all the elements together into a sliceable meal.