Vegan Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole

If you are in the United States, you cannot travel by car without seeing signs for the Cracker Barrel Restaurant off most major highways. In our many travels, we have passed too many to count and yet each time we pass one we are amazed that they are always packed. For our family, all Cracker Barrel restaurants, like most other breakfast places, are places we don’t even dare to go in to. The prospect of bringing a severely allergic person, like our teen, into a restaurant that serves mostly egg and egg containing items is enough to give me nightmares.

That doesn't mean we cannot enjoy one of their dishes in our own home! One of the recipes they are famous for is their Hash Brown Casserole. There are a lot of recipes for this dish on the internet but I adapted mine from CDKitchen which has over 2300 copycat recipes on its website. This one does not contain sugar or condensed soup (a dairy allergy no-no) that most other recipes have. I first made this casserole two years ago to rave reviews and have made it for our Easter brunches ever since.

Vegan-style Cracker Barrel Hash Brown Casserole

26 Oz Bag of Frozen Country-style Hash Browns

2 C Shredded non-Dairy Cheddar Cheese (or Colby if no dairy allergy)

¼ C Minced Onions

1 C Non-Dairy Milk (soy, rice)

½ C Beef Stock or Canned Broth

2 T non-Dairy Butter, Melted

¼ tsp. Garlic Powder

1 tsp. Salt

¼ tsp. Ground Black Pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine the hash browns, vegan cheese and onion in a large bowl. Next, combine the milk, beef stock, half the melted butter, garlic powder, salt and pepper in another bowl. Once your wet mixture is well blended, pour over the hash browns and mix well. Place the remaining 1T butter in a large, ovenproof skillet and melt over high heat.

Once the skillet is hot, spoon in the hash brown mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cheese has melted (around 7 minutes). Put the skillet in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes. Turn the oven to broil and cook for an additional 3-5 minutes or until the surface is golden brown and slightly crispy.

You can make this the night before by cooking it most of the way, let it cool, cover and place in the refrigerator. The next day, take it out and let it come to room temperature before putting back in the oven. Reheat to warm it and then broil to finish it up.

This is a great casserole for Christmas or Easter brunch.