Pizza Quinoa Casserole

This pizza quinoa casserole is the perfect healthy side dish if you love pizza!  With all the flavors you love, plus topped with cheese(and your other favorite pizza toppings) everyone will love this!

So, I kinda love casseroles.  And not too long ago I realized I love baking quinoa.  Sure, it’s cooked in a pot beforehand.  And you could probably make this whole thing in the pot and serve it right away, without baking.  But quinoa does something kind of awesome when you bake it.  The edges get crispy, the top gets golden and crunchy.  And it just turns out plain delicious 🙂

So, I guess technically this would be a side dish.  But I’m not going to lie, I just ate one of these for lunch the day I made them.  Maybe next time I’d chop up some veggies that we usually get on pizza, peppers, more onions or maybe even some spinach and mix it in to make it a little more veggie-full.  Other than that, I totally recommend this as a meal.  Even though I’ve been craving cheese like crazy this pregnancy I actually really liked the one with nutritional yeast.  So if you’re dairy free or vegan, you are not missing out!  Especially since that one got crispier on top from baking, which I love 😀

Although the cheesy one did photograph nicer 😀  I had a seriously hard time narrowing down the pictures.

In the mood for actual pizza? Check out this fathead dough! It looks delicious.

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Pizza Quinoa Casserole

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

50 mins

Total Time

1 hr

 

Servings: 4 servings, as a side

Author: Heidi @ Food Doodles

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa cooked in 2 cups water or about 3 1/2 cups cooked quinoa
• 1 6 oz can tomato paste
• 3-4 large cloves garlic finely minced, grated or pressed
• 1/2 small onion finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 teaspoon marjoram
• 1 teaspoon basil
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 3/4-1 teaspoon sea salt
• dash black pepper
• 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast optional
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese to top(optional)

Instructions

1. Rinse quinoa well and combine with water in a small pot over high heat. Bring to a boil, cover and turn down to low and simmer for 15 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed, the quinoa is tender and completely cooked. Remove from the heat and leave covered in the pot for 5 minutes while assembling other ingredients.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 4 – 1 cup ramekins, 2 – 2 cup dishes or a larger casserole dish, depending on how you want to bake and serve this.
3. In a small bowl, combine the tomato paste with the garlic and onion, water and olive oil. Mix well. Add all the seasonings including the nutritional yeast if using. Mix well again before adding the quinoa. Once the mixture is completely mixed, taste for seasonings and add more salt as needed. Then divide evenly among the dishes for baking, sprinkle with cheese if desired and place in the oven. I baked mine in two larger dishes, but this could easily be done in smaller ramekins for individual servings, or in one larger dish.
4. Bake 30-35 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbly or until the quinoa on top is golden and crispy. If desired, sprinkle with more nutritional yeast and fresh basil or parsley and serve.

Tagged as: basil, flavor, garlic, kid friendly, mozzarella, nutritional yeast, onion, pizza, pizza sauce, quinoa, recipe, side dish, tomato, tomato paste, vegan, vegetarian