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Broccoli Cheddar Quinoa Bites

4.90 from 19 votes

Addictively cheesy broccoli quinoa bites for any occasion – they are a super healthy snack!

Broccoli Quinoa Cheese Bites
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These portable broccoli quinoa bites are perfect for meal prep!

They’re also a great option to choose instead of sugary energy bars or processed snacks, especially if you’re the type of person who gets hungry between meals.

It’s a good recipe for kids as well, because they’re fun to make, fit easily into a lunch box, or can be served as a healthy after-school snack.

You Might Also Like: Lentil Soup – Healthy Comfort Food

broccoli quinoa bites

You can customize the quinoa cups to use up whatever vegetables you have on hand – try adding carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, diced red pepper or onions

Leftovers can be frozen so you always have a healthy snack or breakfast option when you’re short on time or don’t feel like cooking, and they’re also great to pack for road trips.

After my parents visited me this summer and were driving back to Texas, I made a batch for them to take in the car as an easy-to-eat and healthier alternative to fast food.

(Be sure to check out the video above, to watch these quinoa bites being made!)

ingredients broccoli cheese cupcakes
broccoli quinoa cups

While I’ve seen many ideas floating around Pinterest for quinoa bites, they always have eggs as one of the main ingredients.

These broccoli cheddar bites are completely egg-free!

Vegan cheddar works to keep them vegan (that’s actually vegan cheddar in the picture), and nutritional yeast also works in the recipe if you’d prefer not to use any cheese at all.

If you make them, be sure to rate the recipe in the comments below!

Meal Prep Broccoli Cheese Quinoa Cups To Go
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Broccoli Cheddar Quinoa Bites

These cheesy broccoli quinoa bites are a super healthy breakfast or snack!
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Yield 8 large or 16 mini
4.9 from 19 votes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (80g)
  • 1 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2/3 cup finely chopped broccoli (I used frozen, thawed)
  • 1/2 cup cheese shreds, such as daiya, or nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • 1/8 tsp garlic powder
  • salt + pepper

Instructions

  • *I've made the recipe both as mini cups and muffin-sized cups. While both ways work, the mini bites firm up more quickly and are much easier to remove if you want to eat them the day they are made. The muffin-sized cups will peel off easily from the liners if you let them sit overnight in the fridge and reheat before eating.
    Line a muffin tin or grease a mini muffin tin very well. Set aside. Bring water to a boil. Add quinoa and salt, cover, and lower to a simmer. Simmer (covered) 35 minutes, then turn off heat and check on it. If quinoa is not yet light and fluffy, put the lid back on and let it sit without heat on for an additional 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 F. Stir all remaining ingredients into quinoa, and add salt and pepper to taste. (I like to add another 1/4 tsp salt.) Portion into the muffin tin, smoothing the tops. Bake on the center rack 22 minutes, then—never opening the oven door (important)—turn off the heat and let sit in the closed oven an additional 5 minutes. Let cool completely before going around the sides with a knife and removing from the muffin tin. Leftovers can be covered and refrigerated or even frozen for another day.
    View Nutrition Facts

Notes

Also be sure to try this easy Veggie Burger Recipe.
 

Have you made this recipe?

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Published on October 2, 2017

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55 Comments

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  1. Kathryn says

    I know what I’m making for dinner this week. These look delish! I am curious, what does the baking powder do?

  2. Anne says

    I really want to make these! Is the broccoli raw or pre-cooked? If I want to use pre-cooked quinoa (I always have some in the freezer) how much does the recipe need? Love your recipes!

    • Chocolate Covered Katie says

      That’s a really good question. I used frozen broccoli. Unfortunately I don’t know about the quinoa or if precooked from a different recipe would work the same, due to possibly different amounts of water being used to cook it. But if you want to use this recipe and make the quinoa up ahead of time and freeze it, you can definitely do that.

    • Candice says

      I just made them tonight using fresh raw broccoli and it turned out perfect – though I could taste that the broccoli almost over cooked. So probably don’t use precooked, I’d say.

  3. L says

    Couldn’t resist trying these this am! Delicious! As far as the quinoa cooking time, I used prob 20 mins but added it to boiling water as per quinoa cooking instructions so maybe that’s the 35 mins. I also added an egg because of past problems with quinoa “ball” type recipes, but it’s a keeper! Delicious!

  4. Anne says

    I just made these today at lunchtime. They didn’t stick together for me at all. They just fell apart. I made these in mini muffin tins. However….the recipe is delicious! I would make this again as a main course and not bother baking them into cups. Or, I would use an egg or egg substitute. My quinoa took about 15 minutes.

    • Jason Sanford says

      I think it’s important to cook the quinoa the full amount of time, which would make it less wet and therefore the results would be more firm and not fall apart.

      • Elizabeth says

        I had the same experience and cooked the quinoa according to the recipe — properly cooked quinoa isn’t mushy like the video shows. That looks more like grits to me. If you cook the quinoa all the way, it’s very grainy and separated, so there’s nothing to hold these muffins together. I liked the flavor, though, so next time I will add eggs or egg whites.

        • Jason Sanford says

          Hmm it sounds like you had the opposite issue then from what I guessed and that you want quinoa that is actually MORE wet than yours was. So if you try again, just don’t cook as long – time of cooking will depend greatly on your own specific stove, because different stoves will have different “low” and “simmer” heat power so unfortunately it will vary by stove. But it sounds like yours just needs to be less cooked, if that makes sense!

  5. Candice says

    I’ve just made these and oh boy are they good! My partner and I ate 13 – oops!
    I used nutritional yeast as that’s what I had handy – it made the mixture much thicker and stickier than in the video, but it was kind of fun rolling it into little balls to squish into the muffin tin. The flavour was fantastic, and the bites actually shrank away from the edges of the holes, which made them so easy to remove (and taste hot fresh from the oven! Naughty haha).

  6. Pat says

    made these tonight and loved the flavor. i added an egg and finely sliced scallion greens. the only thing was they stuck to the muffin paper. i used zucchini.

  7. Jobodkin says

    Made these in large muffin bites and they were delicious. Made them again using chop thawed spinach, scallions, fresh parsley and dill. Great flavor too! My guestion, how long to bake the miniature muffin cups? 22 minutes for the large but how long for the small?
    Thank you so much for the yummie recipes!
    Jo

  8. Penny says

    This is one of my fave recipes! (I use nooch.) I’m not usually a huge quinoa fan, but these are so crispy & delicious! I love them fresh, but I’ve made them for to-go snacks as well. Thanks!

  9. Deborah A Tuszkiewicz says

    My before picture does not match the one in the recipe. I have a much drier mixture. They are in the oven now. Fingers crossed.

  10. Lucia says

    Thank you for the recipe the flavor is goid but mine did not hold together. I did bake in the mini muffin pans. What could I add to help them bind? Thanks.

  11. Lucia says

    I forgot to add that I added minced onion and minced garlic instead of the powder. I also added a tablespoon of ground flaxseed. I did one third of a cup nutritional yeast flakes, one third of a cup of shredded vegan Gourmet cheddar. So after letting it sit for one hour it has held together not very firmly it will still fall apart if you’re not careful. But by letting it sit has helped firm it up. And it has a really good flavor. I really like this recipe. Thank you!!

    • Jason Sanford says

      Hmmm, maybe all the add-ins caused it to be too crumbly? Or maybe the quinoa needed to be more moist? Was your cooked quinoa super soft when starting or kind of dry?

  12. Crystal says

    Our whole family, young kiddos included, loved this savory snack! Our little one has lots of food sensitivities; and this was one of the few recipes I could use as-is without modifying any ingredients!
    I used half Daiya cheddar and half nutritional yeast; they were plenty “cheesy” and super savory-delish!
    Thanks so much, Katie!

    • Crystal says

      Forgot to mention that mine were pretty soft after following the exact baking directions; another 6-7 minutes in 350, as well as completely cooling in the pan, did the trick.

  13. Milt says

    The recipes on this website are great.
    That being said, I’m tired of having to scroll through piles of garbage just to get the ingredients.
    I don’t care about your stories, who you are, why you made this recipe. Just give me the ingredients. What makes it even worse, is that every time I turn the screen on my tablet off I have to scroll through all of your garbage again.
    Put your ingredients and instructions at the top of the page!

    • Kathy Baxter says

      This is a food blog…therefore you have to expect a certain amount of conversing. When someone is giving of their time, talent and resources to provide healthy and delicious recipes it seems in very poor form to be so aggressive and ungrateful. I am sure no one would mind if you went elsewhere for your free recipes in the future. Good luck finding a food blog that does not contain anything but recipes.

    • Suzanne says

      Maybe your mother forgot to teach you that if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Or were you as rude to your mother as you were to Katie?

      I agree with Kathy, if you don’t like Katie, feel free to use someone else’s recipes.

  14. Lies says

    Waw, these are great! I doubled the original recipe so I could eat some fresh, save some for the next day and I put some in the freezer.
    Will be making these more often!

  15. Susan J Burns says

    I just found your site. Going to make your blackbean chocolate brownies. They look and sound wonderful. Did not see applesauce as a substitution for the oil. Would that work? Im trying to stay on a WFPB live style avoiding all added oil, sugar, and salt. I have signed up for your blog and looking forward to trying many more of your recipes.

  16. Erin says

    Katie,
    We just wanted to let you know how much your recipes mean to our family. We are vegan and have a four year old daughter. She LOVES every recipe we try of yours (and then become staples in our weekly meals). After we had this for breakfast she said, “if Katie made all her food but didn’t write them for people would we not have all these yummy meals?” And I said we wouldn’t. She paused and then said, “I’m really thankful for Katie”. And we really, really are. You make healthy, easy and delicious vegan food that satisfies all of us, even a four year old. THANK YOU THANK YOU. Wishing you nothing but joy and happiness.

  17. Alex says

    OMG I LOVE these!! I’m not even a big fan of broccoli but I eat it. I had some leftover broccoli that I didn’t want to just throw out or eat in it’s own. So glad I found this recipe. I made them in the mini cupcake tins, and I ate half of them before storing the other half in the fridge. These are so good and savory! This was the first recipe I try that was savory from Katie’s recipes and it did not disappoint!

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