If there’s one thing that vintage recipes have taught us, it’s that the options for topping a recipe go far beyond breadcrumbs. You can use chips, you can use stuffing, you can use crispy onions! Or, like here, you can use seasoned croutons. I found this old cut-out in a vintage recipe tin and it’s the first time I thought to use croutons this way. It ups the flavor considerably, it certainly ups the crunch, and it makes a simple vegetable side into something crave-worthy.

What Ingredients Are in Broccoli Corn Crunch?

It’s not a long list. You’ll need:

• Frozen chopped broccoli.
• Cream-style corn.
• An egg.
• Some chopped onion.
• Butter.
• Seasoned croutons.

Now, full disclosure, the card called for margarine as it was likely published in margarine’s heyday (the 80s) but I’m not a huge fan, so opted to substitute in butter. It’s an easy enough swap and works just the same in this application, but you’re welcome to use the original margarine if you prefer.

How Do You Make Broccoli Corn Crunch?

You want to start by thawing the broccoli and draining it well. Once drained, you mix it with the egg, the corn, the onion, and some salt and pepper. The cream-style corn basically creates a sauce for this to bake in, which is a very easy way to get some added flavor! (No basic steamed broccoli here.)

Next, you’ll stir together the croutons and the melted butter (or margarine) and stir about a cup of them into the broccoli mixture. That goes into a baking dish and gets topped with the rest of the croutons and then it bakes for just a half hour.

The End Result?

You have broccoli and sweet corn that are tied together with a sweet sauce and the croutons in the bake that break down a bit, and that’s topped with plenty of very savory crunch. It’s a pretty exciting way to eat your veggies.