Better Broccoli Casserole
Broccoli casserole made better with roasted broccoli, cheddar cheese, creamy quinoa and toasted bread crumbs. This healthy broccoli casserole is delicious!
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 29, 2024
Did you know that cheddar cheese isn’t actually orange? It’s really white, and they add orange coloring to make it orange. We’ve been duped all along. I know.
I opted for cheddar without coloring, so this broccoli cheddar casserole may not look like the kind you grew up eating. It’s also more redeeming than typical Midwestern broccoli cheddar casseroles, while still being gloriously cheesy and creamy.
You won’t find mayonnaise, cream of mushroom soup, or annoying Béchamel sauce to make in this healthy broccoli casserole recipe. You don’t need it!
Casseroles aren’t my typical fare, but they do hit the spot on cold, gray winter days. Plus, they make for great leftovers. Hooray for meals that keep on giving!
Watch How to Make Broccoli Casserole
The Best Broccoli Casserole
- My broccoli cheddar version here features tons of caramelized roasted broccoli for extra flavor, plus some milk and sharp cheddar cheese.
- Nutritious quinoa magically blends into creamy oblivion while it’s in the oven.
- Top all of that with some garlicky breadcrumbs and you have one amazing dish that makes for great leftovers.
You can be fancy and call it a “grah-tahnnnn” in your best French accent, or announce it as a “hot dish” in your finest Minnesotan. Either way, it’s a stellar broccoli casserole.
Please let me know how this broccoli casserole recipe turns out for you in the comments! I always love to hear from you.
Craving more lightened-up comfort foods? Here are a few of my favorites:
- Real Stovetop Mac and Cheese
- Spaghetti Squash “Pizza” Bowls
- Best Vegetable Lasagna
- Roasted Veggie Enchilada Casserole
For even more hearty dinner recipes, be sure to check out my cookbook!
Better Broccoli Casserole
Broccoli casserole made better with roasted fresh broccoli, cheddar cheese, creamy quinoa and irresistible, garlicky whole grain bread crumbs. This healthy casserole is easy to make and tastes amazing! Recipe yields 6 to 8 servings.
Ingredients
- 2 cups vegetable broth or water
- 1 cup quinoa (any color), rinsed under running water in a mesh sieve for a minute and drained
- 16 ounces broccoli florets, either pre-packaged or sliced from 2 large bunches of broccoli
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 10 twists of freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, omit if sensitive to spice
- 8 ounces (about 2 ½ cups) freshly grated cheddar cheese, divided
- 1 cup low-fat milk (cow’s milk tastes best but unsweetened plain almond milk works, too)
- ½ tablespoon butter or 1 ½ teaspoons olive oil
- 1 clove garlic, pressed or minced
- 1 slice whole wheat bread (substitute gluten-free bread for a gluten-free casserole)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper for easy cleanup.
- To cook the quinoa: Bring the vegetable broth or water to boil in a heavy-bottomed, medium-sized pot. Add the quinoa, reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 17 to 20 minutes, or until all of the liquid is absorbed. Cover and set aside to steam for 10 minutes.
- To roast the broccoli: Slice any large broccoli florets in half to make bite-sized pieces. Transfer the broccoli to your prepared baking sheet and toss with 2 tablespoons olive oil, until lightly coated on all sides. Sprinkle with salt and arrange in a single layer. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the broccoli is tender and starting to caramelize on the edges.
- To make the breadcrumbs: Tear your piece of bread into bite-sized pieces and toss them into a food processor or blender. Process until the bread has broken into small crumbs. In a small pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant, stirring often. Add the bread crumbs and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until slightly browned and crisp. Set aside to cool. (If you cooked your bread crumbs in a cast iron skillet, transfer them to a bowl to prevent them from burning.)
- Reduce the oven heat to 350 degrees. Add the salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to the pot of quinoa, and stir to combine. Set aside ¾ cup of the cheese for later, then add the rest of the cheese to the pot. Pour in the milk and stir until the cheese and milk are evenly incorporated in the quinoa.
- Pour the cheesy quinoa into a 9-inch square baking dish and top with the roasted broccoli. Stir until the broccoli is evenly mixed in with the quinoa. Sprinkle the surface of the casserole with the reserved ¾ cup cheese, then sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top.
- Bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes, until the top is golden. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 4 days. Gently reheat in the oven or microwave before serving.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my creamy roasted Brussels sprout and quinoa gratin, which was originally adapted from The High-Protein Vegetarian Cookbook by Katie Parker of Veggie and the Beast.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
need nutrition breakdown for this reachpe please.
I have seen my daughter fight with quinoa and finally get to grips with it. Having come across your recipe and pretty much, fool proof way of cooking it I decided to give it a go.
My daughter offered to help, doubting my ability to get it right first time however, I was quietly confident in your recipe and so, went it alone.
I did have to add about a ladle full of water at the end since all the water evaporated around about the 14 minute mark – perhaps I didn’t adjust the heat enough – it still seemed a little crunchy.
I religiously removed it after 17 minutes and placed the lid on. After 10 minutes I took a bit from the top which still seemed a little undercooked (hard to really judge when you’re cooking it yourself for the first time) however when I checked underneath I was pleased – it seemed pretty fluffy to me and tasted great in your recipe which was really simple to do.
Thank you for sharing your experience – I am pretty sure I would have landed in trouble had I not read your guidance.
Greetings! I wanted to make a healthy casserole for my sister-in-law who is about to have a baby – want for her to have plenty of healthy stuff in the freezer to heat up easily and quickly. Decided to try this one. Really great recipe. To boost the protein, I added cannellini beans (put dry beans in 3 inches water, brought to boil and simmered for 2 minutes, covered and sat for an hour, then drained and cooked the beans per this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/cannellini-beans-with-garlic-and-sage-355216. I simply added a cup or two of beans to the quinoa/brocc mixture, topped with cheese and breadcrumbs. I ate part of it for dinner to make sure it tasted good and boy oh boy, it was really great!! Thank you for the inspiration!
Thank you, Marge! You’re a great sister-in-law. Love your cannellini bean addition; thank you for sharing!
Just made this tonight, it was absolutely amazing!! Great recipe!!
Awesome! Thanks, Taylor.
Really delicious! A great vegetarian dish. Nice to have another recipe to use Quinoa than the usual ones. Thanks Cookie and Kate.
Hi! This looks delish! Could you recommend a grain other than quinoa that might work well in this recipe? Thanks so much!
Hi. This looks delicious. Strangely, I’m slightly allergic to quinoa. It’s in a lot of recipes and I’m not sure what grain is best to replace it. What would you suggest?
Hey Kat, that’s a bummer! I’m slightly allergic to chocolate and walnuts myself. Quinoa is unique, but I’d probably just replace it with rice in most recipes (long-grain brown rice is my favorite). You’ll just need to change the cooking method accordingly.
Do you have a favorite vegetable stock recipe? I usually just substitute homemade chicken stock in recipes that call for vegetable stock, since chicken stock is in my freezer. I would like to make some veggie stock for this recipe and feeeze the rest.
Hi Kristin, I don’t, I’m sorry. I usually just buy organic vegetable broth at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, but I’ve been meaning to try Laura’s recipe.
Thanks! I try to make as many things as I can from scatch to avoid unwanted ingredients and save money. I ended up trying an online stock recipe lat night. It was nearly identical to the one you suggested, minus the leeks as I didn’t have any. My husband, daughter and I thought the quinoa dish was delicious. Alas, my other two daughters did not care for the quinoa. Next time I will serve them some plain broccoli breadcrumb mixture on the side.
Delicious! Used Panko bread crumbs instead of bread, with tablespoon melted butter and garlic. Made recipe quicker but still awesome! Do you know nutritional breakdown for this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Kate
I live in the U.K. and have just discovered your website. I have had a go at about a dozen recipes so far and I can honestly say that they have ALL been absolutely amazing! My wife, who is the beneficiary of my hard work in the kitchen(!!), is very grateful too! Thank you so much.
Hello Kate,
I love your creative and tasty recipes, some of my faves!
Any suggestion for a vegan alternative to the cheese (forgive me)?
Guidance is appreciated.
Happy October.
Same here! I made this last fall as is and loved it, but am testing out a dairy sensitivity now. Short of hunting for non-dairy cheese, I’m wondering if nutritional yeast might work, or this vegan parm alternative from Dana @ Minimalist Baker: http://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-vegan-parmesan-cheese/
Has anyone out there had success with a vegan version?
Hi Amy and Gabrielle! That’s a good question. The cheese acts as a binder and holds this casserole together, so I’m not sure you’ll be able to achieve the same cohesive, gooey texture without it. That said, it would probably still be pretty delicious with some vegan Parm or just nutritional yeast, to taste.
Hey Kate,
Wonderful recipe! I wanted to say that I made this vegan tonight and it came out perfect. Rather than using Store bought vegan cheese as the binder I made a vegan “cheeze” sauce with cashews I soaked and then blended mixed with a nutrional Yeast and margarine (Earth Balance) rue. I substituted coconut milk, which normally I don’t like but works well here. I mixed in the quinoa and broccoli into a large cast iron where I made the sauce, sprinkled a little daiya cheese and put that directly in the oven. Next time I’ll probably try some mushrooms and red wine in the base! Thanks again!
Oh my goodness – made this last night, and it was fabulous! My vegetarian college daughter says it’s even better than her very-most-favorite zucchini casserole recipe (which she adores mightily), so… high praise, indeed!
The only thing I changed was substituting gluten-free Panko for the scratch-made bread crumbs; we were out of gluten-free bread and the Panko toasted up beautifully.
Our entire family loved it – thanks again for another winning recipe!
Hip hip! I’m so glad you all loved it. Thanks for letting me know, Sarah! You might enjoy the Brussels sprout version as well.
Hi Kate (and Cookie!)
This broccoli casserole sounds great! And great timing as fall is definitely here. Looking forward to trying it. Thank you for re-posting it and for the cooking inspiration.
Lisa
Hi Lisa! I hope you love this one. Thank you for your note!
I made this last night and it was wonderful! I followed the recipe to a T. Thanks for a meal that satisfied the vegetarians and meat-eaters in our house!
Awesome! Thank you for letting me know, Laura!
I made the Better Broccoli Casserole tonight. It was absolutely delicious! This is all I ate for dinner! Shared it on FB for all my friends to try.
Thank you for sharing, Jeri! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. :)
Oh my, this smells amazing. I just took it out of the oven – bringing this to a potluck. I used veggie broth and gluten free bread. This did take me longer than the hour that is listed for the total time. About 80 mins probably and that was non-stop working on this. I think it will totally be worth it though! I’ll let you know how it is received. And I am sure I’ll be checking out more of your recipes!
Hi Dea, I hope it was 100% worth the effort!
Definitely! Yum! And we just had some leftovers (though there weren’t many) with our late lunch. Thanks!
So I have terrible cooking history. And no practice does not make perfect. But I stumbled upon this recipe and it looked appetizing and so I decided to give it a try! It turned out perfectly! So good. Even family loved it! Thanks:)
High five!! Thank you for letting me know, Allie! I hope you find some more recipes here to love. :)
Kate, can this dish be prepared ahead of time? Love the site!
I would love to know as well. If prepared ahead of time, I suppose you could put in the fridge and pull out a few minutes before baking to get to room temp?
I think that would work, I just haven’t tried to be sure!
(I think it would take a while to warm back up to room temp. You might just need to bake it longer. Cover it if the top gets too browned.)
One of my favorites thank you for this wonderful dish!
This broccoli and cheese gratin was amazing. It was super easy to make and I can’t wait to try it again. I brought it to a veggie pot luck and it was the most popular dish! Several people said out loud as they were eating versions of “I don’t usually like quinoa but…”. Thank you for your great recipes!
Have you tried this as a make-ahead recipe? I’m considering for Thanksgiving and wondering if it will hold up if I make it the day before.
I just saw someone else had the same question. Let me know if anyone tries & it works! :)
Thank you, Kate! And kid approved! I also love that it is a great way to use leftover quinoa. Ohhh roasted broccoli…it will find its way to many dinner plates this fall on its own.
I just made the Broccoli Quinoa casserole for my sister the vegetarian of the starch/carb variety. It’s very good and passed muster with Sis. Yea, protein!
I made this for dinner last night, and my very non-vegetarian “meat and potatoes” boyfriend loved it (and so did I)! He even asked to have the leftovers for lunch today. :) Thanks for all the delicious and healthy recipes!
This is delicious! I love the crunch from the breadcrumbs and the subtle spicy kick from the red pepper flakes. The broccoli by itself is delicious and even more so when you combine it with all the other goodies. Thank you for coming up with this one.
I made this yesterday for a dinner with friends using tenderstem broccoli – it turned out great! Thanks for yet another great vegetarian recipe!
Loved this recipe!! Thanks for making it so easy!!
I made this dish for my mother a couple of weeks ago and she loved it so much she went home with my copy of the recipe so I had to come back to print another one since I’m making it for dinner tonight. This isn’t the only one of your recipes I’ve made (I’m a big fan of the Thai Pineapple Fried Rice too) and they’ve all been delicious, but this is the one I find myself coming back to again and again and again. I think this weekend since it’s going to finally feel like November, I’ll try one of your steel cut oatmeal recipes. But for now, it’s cheese broccoli goodness time. Thank you!
I loved this quick and easy recipe. It was so flavorful and filling. I stumbled upon your blog while searching for vegetarian recipes and I’m so glad I did!
This will be on my Thanksgiving table this year! Thank you!
We really loved this. I sautéed an onion, red pepper, and fresh thyme that needed to be used in olive oil, and then added a bit of flour (~2-3 tbs), whisked in plan almond milk (probably closer to two cups) then added the cheese, but somewhat less than called for. Stirred in the cooked quinoa and otherwise followed the recipe. I bought a lot of broccoli, and I still would have liked more because it was so good! I kept eating the roasted pieces from the pan. The homemade breadcrumbs, in our case made from whole wheat sourdough, really added to the dish. My husband and I both thought this was delicious and would make again! The only issue was that my quinoa still wasn’t right, even with the foolproof method. The broth failed to absorb completely, and even after steaming it was still heavy and not at all fluffy. Next time I’ll try the same approach with less broth. I’m not sure why I struggle with quinoa so much! Thanks for a great recipe Kate!
I was looking for a Thanksgiving side dish. I’m excited to try this one!
Hi Cookie and Kate!
My family are big fans of your delicious recipes. I plan on making this dish for Thanksgiving using Diaya cheese (since we are dairy free) and was wondering if I could make this a day ahead and keep in the fridge. Would I make the recipe before baking it for 25 minutes at 350 degrees and then bake the next day?
Thanks so much!
Yes, I think that would work! It might need a little longer in the oven since it’ll be cold when it goes in. I would also suggest waiting to prepare the bread crumbs until you’re ready to bake, if possible.
Just got home from Thanksgiving dinner, where my vegetarian offering was this casserole. It was amazing! I am sitting on my couch eating the leftovers because it’s so good. Cooking the quinoa in vegetable broth adds so much flavor. The only change I made was using 1/2 cup panko instead of the breadcrumbs. A winner!
This was delicious as my breakfast today. I intended it for dinner the other night and didn’t get to it. I saw it in the fridge this morning, heated it up and devoured it. Like oatmeal, but better! Thank you.
P.S. I love your new videos.
OH MY GOD HONEY this recipe is SO tasty. Made it for my Mom and I tonight, as its getting cold and rainy over here in Tucson, Arizona, so we wanted something quasi-healthy and organic, but comfort food. This was absolutely perfect and I’m so excited to eat the left-overs tomorrow!!! :) And as I saw in previous comments, yay cheese! :D Great job.
Hi Kate, I have never been a massive fan of Quinoa but this recipe has converted me! Loved the combination of the different flavours and on a cold night in London this was just perfect. Thank you. Paul
WOW! This dish was so good! thank you!
Wow! What an easy recipe to make and so yummy too! It’s the perfect throw together meal for a weeknight.
I made this tonight – broccoli cheddar quinoa gratin. It filled the comfort food cravings – perfectly. Terrific flavors – easy recipe – another hit with cookieandkate! Thanks for creating and sharing your recipes !!!
I made this for lunch and it was excellent! I used almond milk and it turned out great and Panko to go faster. Will make it again and again!
Hi Kate!
I tried to try your recipe, but due to some “problems” of mine I ended up getting only inspired by it. Anyway, it was delicious! Thank you so much for the great idea. Here’s my version http://inglouriousbananas.blogspot.com/2016/12/roasted-broccoli-and-quinoa-bowl.html and hopefully I’ll manage to make the recipe for its entirety.
The casserole is delicious. My bf is not a big broccoli fan and he really enjoyed it (the only way to serve broccoli is with cheese…) And so easy to make!
Can you use brown rice instead of quinoa in this? If so, how?
I made this recipe for a warm December lunch – the leftovers will go to work as my lunch and my husbands. I added lemon zest, skipped the bread crumbs, and added 1/2 c more cheese to the whole dish.
Loved it. I feel nourished and warm
I want to make this for a company dinner? Any chance I could make it ahead of time? anyone try this?
I’ve made this three times now and I think I love it more each time I make it! Thank you for such an awesome recipe – this delicious casserole has become a regular dinner at my house. And I love the picture of Cookie eating the broccoli stem – my dog loves it too! Looking forward to trying more of your recipes.
Would this with using cashew cheese to make it vegan? Thx!
This looks so good. Some of my family are vegetarians so I would love to serve this for a Christmas Day buffet but I was wondering if it could be put together ahead of time and baked just before serving. I am not familiar with quinoa and don’t want it to be mushy if it’s made ahead.
Hi Susan, I think you could! You might wait to make the bread crumbs until you’re ready to bake it, just to be sure they don’t get soggy.
I would like to make this recipe ahead of time. Would you recommend baking casserole first and then freezing, or freezing, thawing and baking it? Thanks, it looks delish!