Italian Quinoa Bake – healthy vegetarian dish
If I ask my 4 years old girl what she wants for dinner she always says pizza. It is weird because she never eat pizza crust. That is why I usually make super thin pizza crust – she would eat my low carb Almond flour pizza crust for sure. But, mainly what she likes the most is the tomato sauce and toppings. That is how I came up with the idea of making healthy pizza quinoa bake. It is basically a one dish dinner that taste like pizza with no crust.
We did many quinoa bake recipes lately using different grains and vegetables – mostly vegetarian quinoa bake like this broccoli quinoa bake. Surprisingly, the italian Quinoa Bake had the highest success. I was surprised because I am usually the only one who loves quinoa in this house. Quinoa is such a nutrition gem, full of fiber, plant based protein and it is gluten free. I meant to tell you, over the weekend I removed gluten from my diet and I felt a huge difference.
Can you believe that I am now eating vegan and gluten free. Argh! Who is going to invite me with this diet ! Anyway, I don’t care, it makes me feel so good. Oh, yes the cheese I used in this recipe is vegan cheese, a combo of vegan mozzarella and vegan cheddar from angel food brand. There cheese is made of pea and maize starch and incredibly melt like regular cheese. Plus, kids loves it. I always do small pizza bake for kids, much more fun to eat.
Back to this Italian Quinoa Bake. It is pretty simple to make. All you need is 5 ingredients and a bunch of pizza toppings you like. If you are not into quinoa you can try millet, brown rice, amaranth. Anything works. As you can see below I used a combo of red rice, quinoa and brown rice.
Enjoy this simple 30-minute Italian quinoa bake recipe and thanks for reading the blog. I will have few weeks break from now as I am flying to France to met my family. It has been 3 years that I did not see my mum, dad and sister. My two kids will meet there cousin for the first time as well. I am very excited to go and I can’t wait to be in summer to enjoy more healthy zucchini recipes.
Talk to you soon.
WATCH THE QUINOA ZUCCHINI PIZZA BAKE RECIPE VIDEO AND MAKE IT NOW
Italian Quinoa Bake, it is like your favorite pizza order in one dish ready in 10 minutes and full of healthy protein and fiber.
- 2/3 cup dry quinoa makes or 2 cups cooked quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups water or broth to cook the dry quinoa
- 14 oz passata sauce (400 g)
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 cup grated zucchini - 1 large zucchini
- 2 cup grated mozarella cheese - I used vegan cheese from Angel food in New Zealand
- 1/2 cup topping of your choice -I used black olives, cherry tomatoes, green pepper
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Preheat oven to 200C (392F).
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Cook the quinoa following the packaging instruction. I usually rinse my dry quinoa in a sieve with cold water. Then bring the quinoa in a sauce pan, cover with vegetable broth or water, put the lid on and cook 15 minutes on low heat.
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When cooked, transfer the cooked quinoa into a large mixing bowl and stir in 1/2 cup of passata tomato sauce, dried oregano and salt.
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Spray a baking dish with olive oil - I used a 10 inches round baking dish.
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Spread layers of tomato quinoa, grated zucchini, passata sauce and grated cheese of your choice. I used vegan cheese but any cheese works.
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Repeat the layers until no more quinoa left. Add more grated cheese on the top layer and sprinkle half cup of your favorite pizza toppings.
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Bake 20 minutes at 200C (392F) or until the cheese is fully melted and bubbles starts forming on the sides of the dish.
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Serve hot with a green salad or baby spinach salad.
Quinoa substitute: you can use brown rice, amaranth, millet or even pasta.
Low Carb option: replace the quinoa by cauliflower rice
Cheese: I used vegan cheese in this recipe but any cheese works.
Nutrition Panel is for one serving using vegan cheese. This recipe serve 6 people.
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