Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

I came across this recipe and just knew I had to make it vegan. After a few modifications, it’s now an awesome vegan dish that is even easier to put together than the original recipe.

Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

Recipe Notes

  • I replaced the cottage cheese and eggs with vegan sour cream and Ener-G egg replacer.
  • I left the breadcrumbs out to make it lighter/healthier, and everything still holds together nicely.
  • I added lemon zest, which results in such a fresh flavour. Don’t skip this ingredient!
  • I added nutritional yeast, but feel free to leave it out if you’re not a fan or don’t own any. It’s not a deal-breaker.
  • I used fresh thyme because I happened to have some on hand, and dried rosemary. Fresh herbs are always better, but feel free to use dried if that’s all you have.
  • Rather than blanching the spinach first, I just tossed it into the onions and let it wilt from the heat. Why create an extra step when you don’t need to?

Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

Planning Ahead & Serving Tips

  • If you’re already preparing quinoa for another meal this week, make an extra cup of it and shave the first step off this recipe!
  • This is great served warmed-up, at room temperature, or even out of the fridge (as I’ve been doing all week!)
  • This make 4 mains, 8 sides, or 16 mini bites.
Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake
Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake
Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

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Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

Served as a main or a side, hot or cold, this baked quinoa casserole is bursting with fresh lemon and creamy herb flavors. Vegan / Gluten-Free

  • Author: Angela @ Vegangela.com
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 95 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 50 mins
  • Yield: 4 mains, 8 sides 1x
  • Category: Main, Side

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 cup quinoa (or 2 cups cooked)
  • Olive oil
  • 2 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer + 4 tbsp water
  • 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
  • 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
  • 1/4 tsp crushed red chili flakes
  • 1 pound spinach leaves, picked and washed (or 3/4 cup frozen spinach, chopped and thawed)
  • 1 cup Tofutti sour cream
  • 1 tsp fresh lemon zest
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast

Instructions

  1. If using uncooked quinoa: Bring broth and quinoa to boil. Lower heat to lowest setting and simmer while covered for about 20 minutes or until it is fluffy and the tiny curls stick out from the seeds.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8-by-8-inch glass or ceramic baking dish with olive oil.
  3. In a large medium mixing bowl, whisk egg replacer and water together. Set aside.
  4. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a medium pan. Add onion and garlic and sauté until translucent, about 8 minutes.
  5. Add thyme, rosemary, and red-pepper flakes, and spinach and sauté until just wilted. Remove from heat; transfer to the egg mixture.
  6. Add quinoa, sour cream, lemon zest, pepper, and nutritional yeast to the spinach-onion mixture, and stir until well combined.
  7. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish, and place in the oven. Bake for 60 minutes, until set and edges are brown. Let cool slightly before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature (it’s also good cold).

Notes

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living magazine, September 2001

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Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

Vegan Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake

72 thoughts on “Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake”

  1. This recipe was so good!! I doubled the recipe and had it every day for lunch this week at work. I live in Ghana, West Africa and it’s not easy to find many complicated or specialized health food ingredients here, but your recipes are so good while still managing to use basic ingredients with simple instructions. You’re making my work week meal preparation time and my quest for a healthier lifestyle so much easier, thank you!

    Reply
  2. I made this and followed the directions as posted. I would not make this recipe again. While it has a nice texture, it has very little flavor. I agree with a previous reviewer, the recipe is missing something. I would not recommend this recipe it’s just too bland. The pepper flakes add a little heat, but do nothing for the flavor.

    Reply
  3. This has become my go-to for potlucks and holidays ever since I first made it a couple years ago. Thanks so much! The only change I make is that I add fresh tomatoes for some extra color and nutrition.

    Thanks again!

    Reply
  4. Tried this last night, it was more delicious than I had anticipated! Thank you for sharing! It’s hard finding delicious things to eat when you’re allergic to gluten, dairy, eggs, oats and corn, but this one has definitely made the cut, I’ll be adding it to my recipe book for sure!

    Reply
  5. HI! I stumbled upon your website (thank GOD!) and had a dinner party and made three of your recipes 🙂 I wasn’t a HUGE fan of this one. It was good….but it was missing something. I can’t quite figure out what. I made it the night before and tasted it hot and then again when it was cold and it was much better cold. Maybe it needed a sauce on it or something. That being said, I ddid like it and I did follow the recipe exactly and I have been eating the cold leftovers since 🙂

    Reply
  6. Hi 🙂
    I’m rather new to the vegan business, so I do wonder: what exactly is the deal with nutritional yeast? What is it for, and why do you say it’s not a must in this recipe?

    Reply
  7. Hi, this sounds delicious! I currently do not have any vegan cream cheese or sour cream at home and would like to make this now; is there any substitute for it besides cashews? I am also vegan. Thank you for this recipe!

    Reply
  8. So delish! Last time I made it I replaced the ener-g with 1 tbsp flax seed + 1/4 cup water and let that sit for a bit, and I also replaced the tofutti with a cup of puréed raw cashews. It was so good that I’m making it again a few weeks later (today) for supper tonight! I usually never make a recipe twice but if I do I usually wait like a year. This was that good! I did the cashews n flax seed again this time, and I made it more Mediterranean by adding capers, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, and kalamata olives. I hope it’s as good as I’m imagining it I be! Thanks so much for this recipe!

    Reply
  9. Hello, I would love to try this recipe, but not sure I can find the egg relayer or the tofutti sour cream, is there anything else I can use instead?

    Reply
  10. This was delicious! I made it the other night and used 1 container vegan cream cheese + 1 tbsp vegan mayo in place of the sour cream because I didn’t have any.
    Next time, I want to try putting the mixture in the fridge, then rolling into little arancini-style balls before baking, for an easy appetizer.

    Reply
  11. thx for this recipe. It’s extra delicious, I’ve now made several versions all were yum – hot, warm or room temp. great picnic food. ftw! I used soaked ground cashews, silken tofu and extra lemon zest and juice to sub the sour cream. very moreish

    Reply
    • Lynda! I’m so glad that you made it with cashews/tofu instead of the Tofutti and it worked for you. I’ve been meaning to do that myself! Thanks so much for letting me know. I’ll update the recipe with that as soon as I’ve tried it myself. THANKS again 🙂

      Reply
      • I used 1/2 cup of soaked organic cashews and a 300g pack of silken tofu. I’m making it tonight to take for a beach birthday picnic tomorrow. I use grown-in-tassie (yay!) organic quinoa.

        Grated pumpkin (softened slightly with the onions) a few semi-dried tomatoes and toasted pine nuts is a good combo. I’ve also added black beans, olives, sun-dried toms, celery, different herbs, etc to the bake in various combinations.

        Since we moved to Tasmania we’ve been self-sufficient in fresh organic vegies all year round so I have a super-abundance to play with. It’s not just tourism hype, the food grown down here really is good 🙂

        Reply
        • Oh wow, THANKS for that! And I love all your flavor combinations. So awesome! I try to buy Organic Aussie Quinoa as well 🙂

          Really want to visit Tasmania one day. Seeing a wild Platypus is on my life bucket list!!!

          Reply
  12. Hi. I would like to make this for my son and daughter-in-law for xmas eve… I am not clear on 1cup quinoa or 2cups cooked. Would the 2 cups cooked still be boiled then simmered in the 2cups vegetable broth??

    Reply
  13. just placed this in the oven today…cant wait to try it.. i did not add the red pepper since i cant have it and also i didnt add the egg replacer and since i didnt have a lot of tofutti i added some almond milk towards the end because it looked kind of dry. hopefuly it turns out good.

    Reply
  14. Hi Angela.

    New vegan. Trying out Spinach & Lemon Qinoa bake today. Curious about using 3 cups of broth with 1 cup of quinoa when quinoa is typically a 2 to 1, not a 3 to 1. Is this right?

    Thanks

    Reply
  15. Hi!

    Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. I loved it! I used dry thyme and rosemary, extra pepper flakes and frozen spinach, that’s all I had at home and was available at the grocery at the moment.

    My daughter loved it! She is almost 6. This is great! ^_^ I also shared it with my carnivorous guy friend and he also loved it…said he liked to smell it.

    Once again thank you! Please let me know where I can find more delicious quinoa recipes such as this one.

    Sincerely, Yvonne

    Reply
  16. Wow, this recipe looks amazing! I have a version of it baking right now, and by a version I mean I was so excited to try it, and I had almost everything so I did a little substituting. Barley for Quinoa, Silken Tofu for Sour Supreme, and lime zest (plus a smidgen of lemon juice and lemon pepper for fun) for the lemon. It smells and tastes super yummy!

    Reply
  17. Has anyone tried using chia seeds instaed of the egg replacer? LIke another commenter, I don’t feel like hunting it down, but want to try this recipe! I may also try the flax seeds and water idea above.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  18. Hello!

    Just wondering how you would go about incorporating ground flaxseed rather than the egg replacer?

    Thanks!

    -Sarah

    Reply
  19. This is lovely, just came out the oven. Only baked it for 45 mins it was already brown and set. I used bottled lemon juice as I had no fresh lemons and only had 300 grams (less than 4 pounds) of spinach so I added an extra half a cup of quinoa. Can’t wait to take some to work tomorrow for morning snack. I might add some chilli next time for a bit of a kick. Thanks from South Australia x

    Reply
    • Hi Judy – it won’t be as lemony without the fresh lemon zest, but I think it will still be good. Let me know what you think of it! So nice to have an Aussie visitor – I miss Australia so very much 🙂

      Reply
  20. I just made this for dinner (and tomorrow’s lunch). It’s delicious! So creamy that you won’t even know dairy is missing! I did add lemon juice from the lemons I zested which made it extra lemony. I love lemon so this made it practically perfect!

    Reply
  21. oooh I will be trying this one too, but will try it without the egg replacer as I’ve never used it before and dont feel up to hunting around for it! Toffuti sour cream is hard to get here in Oz, Mrs Flannerys occasionally stock it but havent lately as they are having trouble with their supplier. I’ve bought it online but now that its so hot, I dont want cold things in the mail if I can help it. I will hunt up a cashew sour cream recipe and give it a try. Do you have one handy?

    Reply
    • I don’t have one on hand, but a quick Google search should locate a couple. I think the basic recipe would just be ground cashews, water, salt and lemon juice? Good luck!

      Reply
  22. Recipe is in the oven baking! Smells great! But I didn’t know when to add the vegetable broth. I just added the 3 cups at the end! Hope that’s right. Could you update the recipe with that step included? Thanks!

    Reply
  23. I made this earlier this week and just had some leftovers for breakfast. It was very good out of the oven, but is more delicious as a leftover dish. The concept of this dish could be used with broccoli and daiya pepperjack cheese for a nice casserole-ish dish, I think. Thanks for another fantastic addition to my regular rotation.

    Reply
  24. Sounds very yummy, the lemon zest is a nice touch. Now I’m wondering here whether my body could handle that much quinoa (eating even the slowest and healthiest carbs makes me more hungry instead of satiated, depending on the amount of fat and protein of course). It’s definitely tempting me!

    At least if you use cashew sour cream (as I plan to if I make this) you shouldn’t need the egg replacer. Cashew is great for making bakes and “gratins”, it sets very well.

    Reply
  25. I am making a grocery list of the ingredients and noticed that you left out the spinach! I went back to the original recipe and found it should be 1 pound. That sounds like a lot to me, so I think I will use less. You should definitely update the recipe because I could easily have missed this at the grocery store! It sounds delicious – I’ll let you know later.

    Reply
      • I made this and really enjoyed it! We even froze half of it and then reheated it about 2 weeks later. It was still delicious! I really like the lemony flavor and the fact that it is casserole-like. Thanks.

        Reply
          • At the time, I think I thawed it and microwaved it. But since I no longer have a microwave, I’ll have to try re-heating in the oven and update the recipe. Let me know if you get to it before I do!

  26. Hi Angela, I am vegan and live in India and have been reading your posts often. I had made the raw pad thai from your blog and it was awesome! Today I made the quinoa and vegan bake, it tastes superb, though I havent eaten it yet, just kept tasting it over and over again! I left out the egg replacer, even though I had it, since I think you forgot to write in the recipe when to add it. We dont get tofu cream in India so I just blended some tofu and added the juice of a lemon.
    I have written a book on vegan recipes, the name is The Vegan Kitchen: Bollywood Style! and it is available on Amazon too. The link is here: http://amzn.to/2tdYX7F

    Keep posting!
    Anuradha

    Reply
  27. I also enjoy veganizing non-veg recipes, as well as simplifying them! Sometimes I wonder why things need to be so complicated…usually they don’t. Looks great!

    Reply

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