This breakfast casserole is the perfect fall dish. Earthy sage balances butternut squash between layers of crusty bread, eggs, kale, and cheese. Assemble it the night before and bake the next day to serve for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner.
Breakfast casserole, also known as strata, is a baked egg dish in the same family as bread pudding, but savory. You can assemble it the night before and bake it the next day for breakfast, brunch, a casual dinner, or a fantastic holiday side dish.
For this recipe, toasted pieces of bread are soaked in a sage and garlic egg-milk mixture and layered between cubes of roasted butternut squash, kale, and cheese. The resulting dish is rich and filling.
Using turmeric brightens up the whole affair, but you can leave it out if you don’t have any on hand. There is a lot of beta carotene in there, so it will be gorgeous either way. A sunny-looking meal for the chilly, shorter days of fall and winter.
TIPS, TRADE-OUTS, AND IDEAS
Breakfast casseroles are easy to adapt to personal preferences and what you have on hand. My version is vegetarian and full of fall flavors, but you can swap out some ingredients and add in others to make it your own. Here are a few ideas.
- Once it has been baked and cooled, pan fry the slices of strata with lots of butter. It’s like a grilled cheese sandwich with so much more to love!
- Add two cups of cooked and crumbled chicken, sausage, or vegetarian sausage to the kale layer.
- Try a Southwestern spin—add diced and roasted green chili peppers instead of kale, and use Pepper Jack cheese. Sprinkle a little ancho chili powder or paprika on top before baking.
- Change the herbs to rosemary, oregano, thyme, fennel seed, or coriander. Just keep the amount two tablespoons.
- Include a big pinch of chili flakes to spice things up.
- If you really want to go wild, make it as a holiday side dish and serve it with some warm turkey gravy or a crimson pool of cranberry sauce. It’s already half a Thanksgiving meal anyway.
CARB QUESTIONS! WHAT BREAD WORKS BEST?
For this breakfast casserole, I used half a loaf each of sliced sourdough and whole wheat bread from Manhattan Beach Bagel. You can really toast ANY type of savory bread to change things up or mix and match. It’s a super flexible recipe.
- White sandwich bread
- Baguette
- Ciabatta
- Challah
- Brioche
- Rye
- Pumpernickel
- Italian
- Toasted cornbread would even be a head-turning option
WHAT IS THE BEST CHEESE FOR BREAKFAST CASSEROLES?
I used the very convenient pre-shredded Swiss from my local grocery store and then grated up all the bits and ends I had in the fridge to make it a full cup. That included Monterey Jack, Provolone, and (I confess) a little piece of what I think was Manchego.
As long as the cheese is good, it will work in the center layer. Even some dollops of goat cheese, cream cheese, or ricotta would be delicious. Try to keep it at one cup total and let your creativity flow. Non-dairy cheese works too if you want to stay non-dairy.
NO KALE, NO PROBLEM
If you want to include a bit of green, but kale isn’t your thing, try defrosted and very thoroughly squeezed frozen spinach.
Still not your jam? How about chopped green scallions or some peeled and shredded kohlrabi? Mmmmm. Kohlrabi for the win!
