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A quick and easy one-pan meal, this Thai Peanut Quinoa Bake makes a flavorful vegetarian dinner recipe for the whole family. Topped with a zesty peanut sauce, your weekday dinners are officially complete!
Sometimes it feels like I’ve spent the majority of my adult life figuring out what balance looks like to me. I basically went from carnivore to vegan and now find myself somewhere in between. I went from buying 100% conventional produce to thinking organic is the only way. I’ve realized I can eat meat and be conscious about where my meat is sourced. I can buy organic when it’s available but not stress when I have to occasionally buy conventional. Healthy living doesn’t fall on one extreme or the other for me… it falls somewhere in the middle.Â
Which brings me to this thai peanut quinoa bake recipe. I used to have very polarizing opinions about Costco but have recently realized, it’s okay to fall somewhere in the middle! This recipe came about when I came across a gigantic bag of quinoa at Costco for $16. $16!Â
Dinner doesn’t get much easier than this – you need a few key ingredients, one baking dish and you’ve got a delicious meal ready in no time.Â
Thai Peanut Quinoa Bake Ingredients:
- uncooked quinoa
- vegetables – red onion, broccoli, red bell pepper, and frozen shelled edamame.
- coconut milk
- seasonings and spices – curry powder, ground ginger, cayenne powder and sea salt.
The most important part (in my opinion) is this peanut sauce!
Here’s what you need for the sauce:
- natural smooth peanut butter
- garlic clove
- rice vinegar
- tamari (or soy sauce if not gluten-free)
- honey (use maple syrup if vegan)
- sesame oil
- red pepper flakes
- ground ginger
Do You Have to Precook the Quinoa?
No! One of the best things about this recipe (besides the flavor) is that you don’t have to pre-cook the quinoa. You can literally mix all of the ingredients together and bake. It doesn’t get much simpler than that… it’s the perfect recipe to assign to your partner that might not be super comfortable in the kitchen. The quinoa takes on all of the amazing flavors it’s surrounded by in the dish.Â
How to Make This Thai Peanut Quinoa Bake [Step-By-Step]
STEP 1: Preheat oven and grease a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish.
STEP 2: Add uncooked quinoa to casserole dish and top with red onion, broccoli, edamame and bell pepper.
STEP 3: Combine water and coconut milk and stir in curry powder, ginger, cayenne and salt.
STEP 4: Make peanut sauce by combining all ingredients in a jar and shaking everything together (or mix in a bowl).
STEP 5: Pour water-coconut milk mixture over quinoa-vegetable mixture until well coated and then drizzle with HALF of thai peanut sauce.
STEP 6: Cover with tinfoil (or a top if your casserole dish has one) and bake for 45 minutes covered.
STEP 8: Remove tin foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until all liquid has been absorbed by quinoa.Top with remaining peanut sauce and serve.
Thai Peanut Quinoa Bake
A quick and easy one-pan meal, this Thai Peanut Quinoa Bake makes a flavorful vegetarian dinner recipe for the whole family. Topped with a zesty peanut sauce, your weekday dinners are officially complete!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 65 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 servings 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Thai
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- coconut oil, for greasing
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained*
- 1 medium red onion, chopped
- 3 cups broccoli, chopped (about 1 head)
- 1 1/2 cups frozen shelled edamame
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 cup water
- 1 14 ounce can coconut milk
- 1 1/2 tsp of curry powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- pinch of cayenne powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
For the Peanut Sauce:
- 1/4 cup natural smooth peanut butter
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp tamari (or soy sauce if not gluten-free)
- 1 tbsp honey (maple syrup if vegan)
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp ground ginger
Instructions
For the Peanut Sauce:
- Add all ingredients together in a large bowl.
For the Casserole:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Grease a large casserole dish (9×13) with coconut oil or coconut oil spray.
- Add uncooked quinoa to casserole dish and top with red onion, broccoli, edamame and bell pepper.
- Combine water and coconut milk and stir in curry powder, ginger, cayenne and salt.
- Pour water-coconut milk mixture over quinoa-vegetable mixture until well coated.
- Top with half of peanut sauce and cover with tin foil.
- Bake for 45 minutes covered with tin foil.
- Remove tin foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until all liquid has been absorbed by quinoa.
- Top with remaining peanut sauce and serve.
*I used white quinoa however you may need to bake for longer with tricolor quinoa – approx 50 minute covered and 15-20 minutes uncovered.
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My girlfriend sent me this recipe and asked me to cook it for dinner. We had most of the ingredients on hand so I gave it a go. It’s so good, addictively good! And it comes together so quickly, it’s definitely going to be one of our go to meals. Only thing I subbed out was peas for the edamame, we didn’t have it on hand.
I absolutely LOVE this recipe. It is one of my favs. I brought it to our Thanksgiving meal and received lots of compliments by everyone 🙂
I made this for dinner tonight and OMG so delicious!!! (and I am a picky eater) This is just perfect. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
So happy to hear that! One of my favorites!
This recipe has become a new favorite of mine, thank you for creating this!! Do you have the nutritional information on this by chance?
I don’t, unfortunately but I’m thrilled you enjoyed the recipe! Thanks for the support 🙂
Making this for the BF and his parents tonight! So excited to debut this amazing recipe – thanks for being my go-to for a healthy perspective on food and life in general. Major life goals!!
Aw thank you, Emma! This totally made my day. I hope you and the fam enjoy it. Total hit around here!
Great recipe. I don’t mind the coconut milk fat/calories given that this is a meat free dish and the fat is plant based. Haven’t tried it with Light Coconut milk but assuming it would work just fine. I will say, I like a LOT of flavor so I add about 3T of curry powder as well as 1T coriander, 1-2 t cumin, and 1-2t chili powder. I also use fresh grated ginger to sub for the powder. Love it this way but if you’re not accustomed to a lot of ethnic flavor it might not be for you!
Thanks for letting me know! Love the tweaks you made 🙂
I just made this, it was good and my dad really liked it!
But I would say the amount is 3 main meal servings.
I just used half of the can of coconut milk (and rest water), but for me it was still a bit too fatty so I will try it with a quarter of a can next time. And I just used 1 Tablespoon of peanut butter…that was plenty..
Thanks so much for this recipe! Finally a veggie dish my dad likes! The title really holds its promise 🙂
Is the coconut milk 1 1/4 cups or 1/4 cup?
The font is difficult to decipher.
Thanks!
it is 1 (one) 14 ounce can of coconut milk. Hope this helps! D
I tried it today. Rather Edamame I have used sweet potato. It came out very good. Thanks. It was amazing recipe
wonderful! Happy to hear it.
This recipe looks delicious! But I’ve never used coconut milk & so I looked it up online – the calories and fat in coconut milk are off the charts high! Any suggestions for something I could use in its place or maybe replace half of it with something else?