Vegan Tuna Casserole Recipe
This vegan take on the classic tuna noodle casserole will take you back! It’s pure comfort food, an easy work night dump and bake dinner that’s completely plant-based, dairy-free, and surprisingly healthy! We use jackfruit seasoned with ground nori and miso paste for the tuna. This is combined with noodles, peas, pimentos, and vegan condensed cream of mushroom soup, then baked to perfection.
Ingredients
- 2 8-oz. jars vegan condensed cream of mushroom soup
- 1 cup plain unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1/4 cup chopped pimiento
- 1.5 cups frozen green peas
- 1 15-20 oz can jackfruit in brine, drained and chopped
- 1/2 - 1 tsp kelp flakes or ground nori sheets
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp white miso paste
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 3 cups water
- 8 oz dry noodles see notes for options
For the bread crumb topping:
- 1/3 cup vegan-friendly bread crumbs
- 2 Tbsp vegan butter melted
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Stir the soup, non-dairy milk, pimientos, peas, chopped jackfruit, spices, miso, and water in a 3-quart casserole dish (most commonly a 9x13 inch dish). Then, submerge the noodles in this mixture. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes or until the noodles are cooked al dente.
- When time is almost up, stir the bread crumbs and melted vegan butter in a small bowl. Remove the casserole dish from the oven and stir the mixture completely. Top this with the bread crumb mixture and bake for 10 minutes uncovered.
- Let the casserole sit uncovered for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or the freezer for up to 6 weeks. We like to freeze our leftovers in our 1 or 2-cup Souper Cubes for easy portioning!
Video
Notes
Noodle options: We used vegan-friendly Pappardelle from Shoprite for this recipe which worked pretty good! Vegan egg noodles, macaroni dumplings, rotini, broken lasagna noodles or fettuccine / linguine pasta would also work. If you’re using long noodles, it’s best to break them in half.
Miso paste sub: Just double the salt if you don’t have miso paste! You can also sub dijon mustard 1:1.
Condensed Soup options: You can use any of our condensed soup substitutes (especially our vegan cream of chicken) to replace the cream of mushroom if you wish. If you can’t wait for the vegan condensed soup to thicken, you can use the soup out of the blender (about 2 cups for this recipe - not the whole thing) and reduce the water in this recipe by about 3/4 cup.
Bread crumb options: Feel free to replace the bread crumb / vegan butter mixture with potato chip crumbs or Ritz cracker crumbs! If using the potato chips, I would wait to sprinkle them on after the casserole finishes baking.
Jackfruit options: Make sure you get jackfruit canned in brine and not syrup. If you can’t find jackfruit, try a vegan tuna like Tun-No or Good Catch. Chickpeas, white beans, or artichoke hearts could also be great options!
Non-Dairy Milk: Make sure you’re using a non-dairy milk that is both unsweetened and plain. A neutral-flavored milk is crucial for this recipe! We like the No Sugar Oat Milk from Chobani, Califia’s unsweetened almond milk, or the unsweetened cashew milk from Elmhurst.
Nutrition
Serving: 1/8 the recipeCalories: 211kcalCarbohydrates: 29gProtein: 8gFat: 7gSaturated Fat: 2gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gSodium: 756mgFiber: 3gSugar: 10g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!