It’s spring book release time, and there are a few vegan cookbooks landing this year. One that really intrigued me is Plant-Based on a Budget by Toni Okamoto. Toni promises delicious vegan meals in less than 30 minutes, and for under $30 a week! Now that’s my kind of cooking. And she’s sharing this vegan Zucchini Potato Casserole recipe with us as a sample.
100 Delicious Ways to Enjoy Plant-Based on a Budget
Like many cookbook, Plant Based on a Budget has a personalized introduction. Toni offers her own tips on saving money and time, but she jumps rather quickly into the recipes. There are seven recipe chapters, including Breakfast, Salads, Snacks, One-Pot Meals, Supper Staples, Desserts, and Back to Basics. And within those chapters, you will find 100 simple recipes. Here is a sampling of the recipes that caught my attention:
Five-Ingredient Peanut Butter Bites- Tempeh Hash
- Perfect Potluck Pasta Salad
- Slaw Salad and Avocado Dressing
- Fancy Instant Ramen Soup
- Calzones
- Loaded Sweet Potatoes (cover photo!)
- Totchos
- Protein Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Peanut Milk
Plant-Based on a Budget is launching today, so you can order it now on Amazon! And while you wait for your copy to arrive, whip up this Zucchini Potato Casserole. It really is fast and easy!
Special Diet Notes: Zucchini Potato Casserole
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, optionally gluten-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, plant-based, and vegetarian.
- 3 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 3 large russet potatoes, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
- ¾ cup diced green or red bell pepper (about 1 small bell pepper)
- ¾ cup nutritional yeast
- 1½ teaspoons minced garlic (about 3 small cloves)
- ¾ cup diced red, white, or yellow onion (about 1 small onion)
- ½ cup dry bread crumbs (gluten-free, if needed)
- ¼ cup olive oil
- Salt, to taste
- Black pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes added in step 2
- Pinch paprika added in step 2
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients.
- Transfer the potato and zucchini mixture to a large casserole dish.
- Bake for 30 minutes, mix the casserole, and then bake for another 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it for the last 10 minutes to prevent burning.
TESTERS’ TIPS: “For added flavor, use Italian-style bread crumbs. Also, sliced mushrooms would be a nice addition for texture and flavor.” —Kathryn H. from Concord, CA
This recipe is reprinted with permissions from Plant-Based on a Budget by Toni Okamoto (BenBella Books, 2019).
6 Comments
What is the nutritional yeast for? Could you leave it out? or wouldn’t it taste right without it?
It adds cheesy flavor, and there is a lot of it in this dish. So if you leave it out, it will be a different dish, and you will probably need to add some other flavors, adjust ingredient ratios, etc.
What can I use instead of breadcrumbs (if I can’t get to the store to buy any)? Thanks.
If you have any type of bread on hand or in the freezer (loaves, bagels, buns, etc) you can turn that into breadcrumbs. If not, you can try crushed chips, ground nuts, crushed crackers, or crushed cereal.
Are you not seeing step 2 for some reason on your view? I’m seeing it here. We haven’t altered the recipe. It looks like an error in the cook time noted at top – I’ve fixed that. It looks like the breadcrumbs are stirred in, not used for topping. But you can try that if preferred. If so, then you’ll want to top with the crumbs after you remove and stir the casserole – otherwise you will just be stirring them back in.
Where is step two? Does the nooch get mixed in with potatoes or go in step two? I’m guessing the bread crumbs go on top? this takes one hour to cook in the beginning of listing it says 30 minutes?