Quinoa Recipe with Vegetable Gratin (2024)

I know, I know, Quinoa recipes are notanything to write home to mom about. The truth is my family is more of a chicken and rice kinda family and I decided last night to venture down the trail of a vegetarian meal. I felt like Dorthy visiting Oz for the first time with no protein on my plate. The idea for this quinoa recipe came inspired from Cooking Light, whom had a section on “Everyday Vegetarian” with a “Tomato, Squash, and Red Pepper Gratin meal“. Although I altered the recipe, I give them the utmost credit for getting me there and inspiring the direction to put away the rice and teach me how to make quinoa.

Quinoa Salad

This isn’t a traditional qunioa salad…its more like a gratin as its served warm. Then again, many salads are served warm, so we will go with that. This recipe is good! Piled high with vegetables it makes a delicious side dish that you can feel good about. We had it for dinner and I could feel it more as a brunch dish in the end. It wasn’t hearty but it was very flavorful with all the veggies getting their own line up on your taste buds.

And while its not on my “let’s totally have this every week” list, its perfect for families that need more vegetables in their life and my husband enjoyed it. I served it with a side of french bread because I like to find any excuse whatsoever to eat french bread. Of course if you do need some protein, combining this with my sheet pan chicken is a great way to get a little of both and they should compliment well.

Btw, the veggies in this get so soft that this was also a perfect meal for my son, whom is 11 months. He ate more than his share last night!

Quinoa with Vegetables

(this recipe has been updated for 2017 and was originally published in 2012)

You will need:

• 5 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 of a red onion chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1-2 stalks of squash (do they call them stalks?)
• 1-2 zucchinis
• 1 tbls minced garlic
• 1 box of quinoa (i used the tomato and basil flavored one), cooked
• 2 tsp of dried basil or 1/2 cup fresh
• salt
• pepper
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 block of sharp white cheddar, shredded
• cooking spray
• french baguette

Prep is always the hardest part of any dish- and with this many vegetables, it can take a few minutes to get this quinoa recipeprepped.

First preheat your oven to 375.

Then chop your red onion and red pepper and toss in about 4 tsp of olive oil on a skillet over medium heat.

Slice up your zucchini and squash (about 1/4 inch slices) and throw in there about 3 minutes in.

Cook the mixture for about 4-5 more minutes stirring frequently.

While your veggies are stir frying, if you have to pre-made your Quinoa, get that done. Quinoa takes about 17 minutes so you may want to do this prior as listed in the ingredients above, but I ran it at the same time.

Combine your veggies and your quinoa mix, along with your garlic, basil, salt and pepper.

Take off heat.

In a bowl combine milk, 3/4 of the cheese you grated, and eggs into a bowl and whisk.

Add this mixture to the vegi/quinoa mixture until combined.

Pour into a cooking spray coated casserole dish.

Tear up some of your french bread (you can put in a food processed to make crumbs but I like bigger chunks) and throw into a skillet that has 1 tsp of oil and fry up for about 3 minutes or until they get a little toasty.

Pour over the top of your vegi dish and then cover with the rest of your cheese.

Put in oven for 40 minutes.