Broccoli Quinoa Casserole
Healthy, cheesy comfort food without any of the guilt!
Jason and I have decided to have a mini getaway after his graduation in May. He’s been in architecture grad school for the last 3 years, and seeing that this is the last break he’ll ever have, we will be flying to a gorgeous resort to Cabo for 5 whole days! That being said, I have 2 months to get ready for bikini season, and since I love food too much to “diet”, I’ve lightened up a classic comfort food favorite.
This casserole is made completely from scratch with healthy ingredients – but have no fear – there’s plenty of cheese, creaminess, toasted breadcrumbs for that extra crunch, and an overall balance of veggies and quinoa for that extra protein. And if Jason, the all-time quinoa hater, devoured this without looking up, well, I’m sure your pickiest of eaters will just gobble this up too!
Broccoli Quinoa Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 head broccoli, cut into florets and finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
- ⅓ cup Panko*
- 3 boneless, skinless thin-sliced chicken breasts
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil an 9×13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- In a large saucepan of 2 cups water, cook quinoa according to package instructions. Within the last 5 minutes of cooking time, add broccoli on top and steam until cooked through.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add Panko and cook, stirring, until browned and toasted, about 3 minutes; set aside.
- Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in the skillet. Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper, to taste. Add to skillet and cook, flipping once, until cooked through, about 3-4 minutes per side. Let cool before dicing into bite-size pieces; set aside.
- Melt butter in the skillet over medium heat. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in quinoa, broccoli, chicken, 1 cup cheese and Greek yogurt; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Spread broccoli mixture into the prepared baking dish; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Place into oven and bake until cheese has melted, about 5 minutes.
- Serve immediately, sprinkled with Panko, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
I’m always up for a new way to enjoy quinoa – looks so good!
This is SO good!! I substituted the chicken for seitan, since I’m a vegetarian, and it turned out amazing!
I made this yesterday and its delicious. I substituted greek yogurt for sour cream, skim milk for whole milk and light mexican blend cheese for the full fat cheddar. I think it could definitely use some seasoning but other then that it’s really good!
Oh my, this is divine! Speaking of cheese I have been buying ricotta and mozerrlla because it’s low in calories, but it does still have fat content? I was itching for dessert and fruit wasn’t going to cut it this time, I added honey, lemon juice and mixed it with ricotta it came pretty close to having a slice of real cheesecake! Sorry I went off on tangent there…
As soon as I saw this I knew I had to make it for dinner. IT IS AMAZING!!! I loved it, and now I have dinner for the entire weekend which is amazing!!! Great flavor, great cheesiness! THis reminded me a lot of mac and cheese, which is something I missed since I starting eating better! Thanks for the recipe!
BTW… cook the quinoa in veggie or chicken broth! It adds more flavor than just cooking it with water!
This looks great! I’m going to try to make it even healthier by substituting nutritional yeast for the panko and plain greek yogurt for the sour cream.
I just made this tonight with Greek yogurts I didn’t see in the recipe that it even called for sour cream but I did use the panko and I used whole milk and extra cheese. I counted the full cals of the recipe and divided that number by 8 since it’s 8 servings. It came out to only 305 cals per serving with my ingredients, would be even less with 2% milk and no extra cheese. Really don’t think it’s necessary unless you’re watching get the carbs very closely to substitute the panko. Even with panko, along with all my meals today I stayed under 125 for carbs we are talking 6 meals really very healthy casserole.
Love the idea of healthy comfort food!
Sounds delicious! I might try this in the coming week.
This is like quinoa gone wild! genius! All I want to do is dive into the screen and start eating 😀
My Lynn has a cold, and she was in the mood for something gentle, and I did this up for her tonite and she loved it!
Put in a tbls Dijon to give it a bit of zip. I fried the chicken as cubes too, in butter, iver pretty high heat. Lynn thinks I could have chopped up a jalepeno and tossed it up and in too
But it is really good!!
over, not iver
Amazing comfort food!
Oh. My. Word. This is cheesy, melty perfection!
Loving the quinoa switch up!!
Best use EVER of quinoa! And boy, this is sure nothing like the blah whatever broccoli casserole I grew up with! Broccoli casserole will never be the same 🙂
This sounds delicious! I have tried making a couple of “cheesy” quinoa casseroles that were flavorless but THIS sounds amazing! Must make =)