My mom's 45-minute veggie casserole with fried onions and gooey cheese is a cheap lifesaver and an easy holiday meal
Lauren Edmonds
- I made my mother's vegetable casserole for the first time in 10 years.
- The recipe includes three types of vegetables, fried onions, and water chestnuts.
I've never liked casseroles, but my mother's recipe with fried onions and gooey cheese is the only exception.
The veggie casserole recipe has been in my family for at least three generations, starting with my grandmother, who passed it along to my mother. While my mother followed the recipe closely throughout the years, she later added in her own secret ingredient: water chestnuts.
"The water chestnuts add a nice texture and crunch," she said, adding that the neutral flavor doesn't overwhelm the other ingredients.
It's been about 10 years since I've tasted her casserole recipe, and with the holidays cutting into everyone's time and cash, I thought I'd share the joy.
Keep reading to learn how to make Amy's Gooey Veggie Casserole.
You'll need eight ingredients for the recipe, including cream of mushroom soup and Swiss cheese.
2 bags of frozen broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower (10.8 oz each) thawed and drained
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup (10.5 oz)
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp of black pepper
1 jar chopped pimentos (4 oz) *optional
1 box French's Fried Onions (6 oz)
1/3 cup of water chestnuts *optional
You'll also need an oven-safe pan and aluminum foil. The recipe has a 10-minute prep time and a 35-minute cook time, meaning the entire meal takes less than an hour.
Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl.
To start, combine the de-thawed vegetables, soup, 1/2 cup of Swiss cheese, sour cream, pepper, pimentos, water chestnuts, and 1/2 of the fried onions in a large bowl.
While some of the ingredients are options — like the pimentos and water chestnuts — I suggest giving them a try. The pimentos add a sweet flavor to the otherwise savory casserole, while the water chestnuts add texture and crunch amid the gooey-ness.
Pour the casserole into an oven-safe baking dish.
Transfer the casserole to an oven-safe baking dish.
For the sake of the article, I combined the ingredients in a large bowl before pouring it into a baking dish, but this can easily transform into a one-pot meal. Instead of combining the ingredients in a separate bowl, do the process in the baking dish.
Bake the casserole at 350° Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.
Cover the casserole with aluminum foil and pop it into the oven.
Then, add more toppings to the casserole before putting it back in the oven for five more minutes.
Once the casserole's baked for 30 minutes, remove it from the oven and take off the aluminum foil. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 of Swiss cheese and fried onions on top.
Bake the casserole for five additional minutes to melt the cheese and warm the fried onions.
I've made a lot of recipes online, but this is among the easiest — and most satisfying — I've tried.
From deviled eggs to cinnamon rolls, I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen trying different recipes over the last few years. This casserole recipe is a slam dunk for two reasons: time and taste.
This casserole is perfect for people who want a home-cooked meal but don't have the time to devote an entire evening in the kitchen. Aside from the 35 minutes in the oven, my mom's casserole took 10 minutes to assemble with no issues.
Taste-wise, my favorite parts of the casserole as a kid have always been the Swiss cheese, fried onions, and water chestnuts. Not much has changed as an adult, but I found a new appreciation for pimentos this time around. The pimentos are sweet, adding another layer of flavor to the casserole.
I've also discovered why my mother never added salt to her recipe. At first, I thought it was a health thing — which it might be — but the fried onions have so much salt that adding any extra would be too much. The mellow taste of Swiss cheese, water chestnuts, and sour cream helped cut through that saltiness, balancing out the flavors.
It's been a decade since I've last had this casserole, but I won't make that mistake again.
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