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.
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 flavor. 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?
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.
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Spinach & Lemon Quinoa Bake
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Served as a main or a side, hot or cold, this baked quinoa casserole is bursting with fresh lemon and herb flavors. Vegan / Gluten-Free
Author: Angela @ Vegangela.com
Recipe type: Main, Side, Starter, Appetizer
Ingredients
- 3 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup quinoa (or 2 cups cooked)
- Olive oil
- 2 tsp vegan Ener-G egg replacer + 4 tbsp water
- 1 medium onion, peeled and diced
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
- 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped (or 1 tsp dried)
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red-pepper flakes
- 1 pound spinach leaves, picked and washed
- 1 cup Tofutti sour cream (or cashew sour cream or tofu sour cream)
- 1 tsp fresh lemon zest
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
Instructions
- 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.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8-by-8-inch glass or ceramic baking dish with olive oil.
- In a large medium mixing bowl, whisk egg replacer and water together. Set aside.
- Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a medium pan. Add onion and garlic and sauté until translucent, about 8 minutes.
- Add thyme, rosemary, and red-pepper flakes, and spinach and sauté until just wilted. Remove from heat; transfer to the egg mixture.
- Add quinoa, sour cream, lemon zest, pepper, and nutritional yeast to the spinach-onion mixture, and stir until well combined.
- 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.
Notes
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living magazine, September 2001
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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!
Thanks Allysia! Ok I’m definitely heading over to your blog now… I need to see what YOU’VE been up to!
This looks delicious, caan’t wait to try it! Been trying to get my quinoa on!
Thank you! Let me know what you think of it :)
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://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Kitchen-Bollywood-Style/dp/9382618007/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355210959&sr=1-7&keywords=the+vegan+kitchen
Keep posting!
Anuradha
Hi Anuradha! Thanks for the kind words, for making the recipe, and for taking the time to let me know what you thought of it. I’ll go fix the missing egg replacer now :) I took a 2-day vegan Indian cooking class (http://www.vegangela.com/2010/11/26/ma-vegan-indian-cooking-workshop/) and absolutely loved it. Such incredible food! I’ll add your book to my “to buy” list. Thanks again for stopping by!
Just checked and step 3 lists the egg replacer… so I think it’s all good? :)
It lists how to prepare it in step 3, but never when to add it! I just made an assumption…
REALLY loved this dish, and the rest of my non-vegan family did, too! Will be making more of this yummy comfort food in the future!
Thanks!
Oh good catch! I’ll fix it now, thank you! Glad you liked the dish, thanks for taking the time to let me know :)
Looks great, I have never thought to make a bake from quinoa. Nice idea.
It wasn’t my idea so I can’t take the credit. But now that I know about it, I’m going to be doing it a whole lot more! Thanks for stopping by :)
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.
Oh my goodness, thanks for letting me know! I’ve fixed the omission! Hope you enjoyed the dish!
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.
Oh I’m so glad to hear that it freezes well. Thanks for stopping by and letting me know – I’ll add that to the recipe’s tags!
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.
Let me know if you try it. You may want to serve it with some protein on the side if that’s an issue for you. Good tip about the cashews – I’ll keep that in mind!
Looks great!. Sadly i don’t have sour cream,spinach and some spices.
Thanks!
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.
(Forgot to rate it!)
Oh thanks for that! I agree that broccoli and Daiya would be great additions. Thanks for taking the time to comment :)
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!
NO!!!!! The broth is used in step 1, when cooking the quinoa! Drain out any extra broth if there’s still time!
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?
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!
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!
Hi Stephanie – I’m so glad you like it! I love the fresh lemon scent and taste too!
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
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 :)
Hello!
Just wondering how you would go about incorporating ground flaxseed rather than the egg replacer?
Thanks!
-Sarah
Hi Sarah, The original recipe called for 2 large eggs, so try 2 tablespoons ground flaxseeds + 6 tablespoons water. Cheers!
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!
I don’t see why this wouldn’t work… I’ll have to remember to try it next time I make this. If it works, I’ll update the post!