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.
Just tried this recipe tonight with gluten free panko breadcrumbs. This was delicious, thanks for sharing :)!!!
Hi there,
How much breadcrumb did you use?
Thinking of doing the same to save time.
Hi Ana, I would suggest using maybe 1/3-1/2 cup.
Hello, I made this for dinner tonight. So, so good. There won’t be leftovers! Next time I will double the recipe.
Thank you
This turned out perfect!! I added a little bot more cheese hehe. It was delicious. Thankyou for sharing your recipe:)
I am going to make this tomorrow, but I have one head of broccoli and one of cauliflower. Can I use one of each for this dish?
Yes! That is a great way to change it up and use what you have on hand.
Fantastic recipe!! Thanks for sharing!
I made this last night. Absolutely delicious and perfect for a cold night supper. Being in the UK I’m not used to ‘cup’ methods for measuring. Needing to reduce the amount, I double checked what a US cup is and ended up using a favourite coffee cup which produced two generous bowlfuls for two hungry adults.
The roasted broccoli is a revelation and I could have eaten the whole lot off the oven tray! I used oat milk and a good strong Cornish cheddar. I didn’t fry the breadcrumbs but blitzed some day old seeded sourghdough bread and mixed it with the cheese before topping.
Excellent recipe and one which will definitely be repeated.
Thank you for sharing, Beverley!
Can I use planko breadcrumbs and if so, do I still need to cook it with the butter/garlic? Silly question, but I’m a rookie cook and need exact directions :)
Sure! I prefer the other method, but that would work.
I love your site because it is full of useful information and good recipes but I find it difficult to use because it is overcrowded with too large picture and too much advertising. Very tiring to read and jumping all the time. But I love what you are sharing.
Hi Colette, I’m sorry to hear you are disappointed. My blog is my pride and I strive to have a great experience for my readers. To be transparent, I do have ads as I need to make a living. I try to limit them the best I can and placement for best experience. I appreciate the feedback!
It was pretty good but i think the directions could be simplified or shortened for a quicker meal. basically this is a quinoa lasanga with brocolli, cheese and a couple other ingredients. If you don’t like spending a long time cooking skip shredding the cheese and buy shredded cheese and skip making bread crumbs and use store bought. Plus all you have to do is follow quinoa instructions on the package. Lastly check your brocolli at ten min plus use foil when you bake this because my cheese got burnt…. or put cheese on top towards the end of baking time
A lot of people like to make all food items from scratch so the steps to make breadcrumb so the directions are absolutely helpful.Whenever I come across a recipe with detailed instructions, I just select and follow what makes sense for me. It’s way smarter to write a recipe for a broader audience and list all the steps than catering to a narrow audience.
Honestly, you’ll miss out by not spending 5 minutes to make your own breadcrumbs!! And I feel like if you use common sense, you’ll know that you can buy store bought cheese and breadcrumbs if you want… It’s nice to have the instructions of making your own, better tasting version! Thank you for the recipe. It was delicious and I’m saving the instructions to make it again!!
Colette, you can use the “Jump to Recipe” link at the top, and it will take you straight to the recipe. /tom
Loved this recipe. The red pepper gave it a nice kick. I didn’t have whole wheat bread so I substituted panko bread crumbs. My husband doesn’t love quinoa and loved it as well. Definitely make again.
Great to hear, Paige! I appreciate your review.
wow, this casserole tastes delicious! the red pepper flakes in the quinoa give it a little kick and that works so nicely with all the creaminess you get from the cheese & milk. yum – we’ll be making this again!!!
I’m glad you loved it, Kate! Thank you for your review.
This recipe was such a hit with my non-veg in laws that they requested I make it the next time I visited! Thanks for the awesome recipe, it’s one of my favorites from your site c:
I love this recipe and have made it many many times over the past couple years. It’s a winter favorite of ours. In fact, I just made it tonight for dinner! I made a double recipe so we could have lunches for the week, but instead of adding just broccoli I also added sautéed mushrooms and green beans with the broccoli. It’s what I had in hand and I figured, what could be bad about this combo?! It was fantastic, my husband had 2 servings! And we’ve got 5 lunches packed away for the week.
Kate, I made this tonight when I got home from work since I had everything I needed in the house. I just finished eating it and all I can say is it was wonderful. This is a keeper. So. So. Good. . Quinoa , broccoli, cheese… how could that not be delicious?! Thanks for another wonderful recipe.
I followed the instructions and it came out delicious! I cut back on some of the cheese and it was still really tasty
Recipe was great! I doubled it so I can freeze for lunches. Added mushrooms as I had seen another recipe that included them. I also had some that needed to be used up! This is my first venture to your site, will be back! Cookie is very cute! My pals Cypress (border collie mutt) and Hawkeye (cockatiel) say hello :-)
Hi Shannon,
I live on my own and love this recipe, but it’s more than I can eat over the course of a week. How well does this recipe freeze and reheat? And do you freeze it after cooking or just before you would put it in the oven? Cheers!
Did you ever get an answer to this or try either freezing method, Rachel? I’m wondering the same thing.
Hi! I don’t freeze all my recipes, sorry. I believe some have froze this and didn’t mind the results. I’m hesitant with as much dairy in this one that it may get watery, which happens to dairy when you freeze it. Hope this helps! Sorry for my delay.
I was shocking how good this was! Definitely give it an 8/10 and would make it again.
Good God this is utterly fantastic. Thank you this will become a staple, I knew it was a winner from the comments!!! Anyone browsing, you MUST MAKE THIS.
I made Better Broccoli Casserole the other night and it was delicious! I’ve been using your recipes from your blog and cookbook for a while and I love all your recipes. My family and I have gone totally vegetarian in 2020, so I need quinoa recipes. Quinoa isn’t my favorite thing, but this recipe was so delicious I will make it again. My teenage boys loved it also! Can’t wait to try your other quinoa recipes.
Hi Kate,
I have made this casserole a number of times and it is always a hit. Recently I started to make the casserole when I realized I didn’t have broccoli (and it was snowing hard outside) so I decided to try the casserole with cauliflower. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. Thanks again for keeping all of your followers inspired!
Let me start with – PLEASE buy Kate’s Love Real Food cookbook. I not even a vegetarian and love it. I have made just about everything in it and am constantly impressed. She is using the simple, healthy ingredients and the flavor is always there and never disappoints. Her recipes will forever be a part of my weekly dinner rotations. This cookbook is my go to gift for friends and family and everyone always loves it – vegetarian or not. She knows what she is doing and I pray we get another cookbook from her! Anyways….
This is soooo good. I have made it twice so far. Once with shredded chicken added and once without. Both really great. Make sure you do the breadcrumbs. They add this garlicy crunch that is amazing with everything else going on (I even add a little more breadcrumbs). Oh and since I didn’t have a good bread to use for them, I just used italian breadcrumbs and it was delicious. Also, roasting the broccoli before hand is so smart and makes the broccoli that much better. Thanks Kate! My family and I love this:)
The little bit of extra prep makes this dish well worth it!!
I toasted my bread and chopped it by hand so as to avoid dirtying up the food processor. I also used mozzarella cheese instead of cheddar because that’s what I had on hand. Was really, really good!!
Just made this and it was amazing. I added a can of chicken since I am trying to up my protein. Will definitely make this again.
hello! can I substitute the quinoa for pasta? would it taste the same?
Hi Nicole! The pasta would be different and may require more/less of the liquid and cheese mixture. I’m not sure the measurement either as this was designed for quinoa. Rice could be an OK alternative.
THIS Grah-tannnnn…mmwahhhh! AMAzing! THANK You KATE, anita
I’m glad you loved it, Anita!
Amazing, like every other Cookie and Kate recipe. Only change was to use more garlic and make more breadcrumbs and cook quinoa a lot longer. So delicious!
This broccoli casserole sounds amazing. Has anyone tried prepping it ahead of time?
Just made this and it was delicious! I made it my own by adding some veggie meat crumbles to boost the protein a bit more. I cheated and used microwavable quinoa and I think it worked just fine. Loved this recipe and I’ll be trying it again!
I make this recipe for my husband and I at least once a week. I don’t make my own bread crumbs, but it’s still delicious. Works well with both frozen or fresh broccoli! We love this recipe. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing you think it works well with frozen broccoli!
Just made this and my husband ate broccoli (he never eats broccoli). I had no milk and no fresh broccoli and not going to the store much. Used frozen broccoli and made a cup of buttermilk with my buttermilk powder. This was so yummy! Next time I’m adding an additional slice of bread for the crumbs because we wanted more. My 17 year old thought it tasted like mac n cheese and ate it (she usually does not like quinoa!) Only bummer about this recipe is all the pots and pans necessary for all the steps involved but so good it was worth it!
Woohoo, I’m glad your husband enjoyed this one! I love your adjustments. Stay well!!
I was searching the Internet for a broccoli rice casserole, when I thought hey, Cookie and Kate probably have a good recipe and I came across this one. What a wonderfully unique and great concept of substituting quinoa or rice. I had to make a few alterations… Used a combination of leftover broccoli and cauliflower. Also had a bag of potato chips that were too salty, So I omitted the salt and used the crushed potato chips instead of the breadcrumbs. I love it when a blotter presents us with a recipe that is so good, we can make minor substitutes to accommodate what we have. It’s in the oven cooking right now and I can’t wait to serve it. Thanks!
This sounds so good. But, no quinoa in the house. What should I substitute for the quinoa?
You could try brown rice? I haven’t tried it, but it should be a good substitute.
Thank you. Will do.
Made this yesterday and couldn’t wait for the lunchtime leftovers today. This is the perfect casserole for the current situation. I didn’t have bread so subbed in Panko, but I honestly think it would be fine without either if not available. So good!
That’s great, Rosie! I appreciate your review.
I would like to make this recipe tonight but am self-isolating and have no quinoa. Could I substitute rice or couscous?
Hi Carol! I think either of those options would work well. I’d cook 1 cup according to the package directions before using in this recipe.
Made this for our Easter at home… Best thing I’ve eaten in weeks! Followed the recipe to the tee and it was perfection.
I’m happy to hear that, Tara. I appreciate your review!
Thanks sounds great, just the recipe I was looking for.
I’ve made this several times now and my husband and I love it. I use premade breadcrumbs because we don’t buy bread very often, but it’s really good! Broccoli is my husband’s favorite vegetable and he also loves cheese so it’s nice to have a healthy version of this to make!
One of my favorite recipes, ever! Any idea if it would freeze well, assembled and uncooked? Would love to make/freeze for others?
Hey Mandy, so glad to hear it! I haven’t tried freezing this recipe. I’m a little hesitant since it contains milk, which can get funny after defrosting (lumpy). I’m currently testing a bunch of casseroles to see if they freeze well. So far, it seems that baking before cooling and freezing works better than freezing before baking. Hope that helps.
This was so delicious and will be my go-to broccoli casserole from now on! I served it to guests and they all loved it, even one who said she hated quinoa!
I’ve made this recipe now more times than I can count, and have been using it consistently for years. I use panko instead of homemade breadcrumbs, and I sauté some onions and garlic in olive oil before toasting the quinoa and adding broth. It’s so good served with Sriracha on top and holds up great as leftovers. Thank you!
This recipe was delicious! I used frozen broccoli from Trader Joe’s and roasted them without thawing and they turned out really good. The bread I used for the breadcrumbs was a sprouted flax and I loved it.
Delicious and I am not a huge broccoli fan!
I made this last night and it was absolutely delicious! I actually added Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and grainy mustard, which gave it an extra kick along with a heavy-handed pour of the red pepper flakes. I also think gouda cheese would add some great flavor along with the cheddar. I will DEFINITELY be making this again! Thank you :)
I’m nearing 60. Cooked, professionally, to put myself through school, 40 years ago, and learned a lot which has served me very well over the years. Today, I am a very serious amateur.
This was, AMAZING. My wife and I both tasted it and it was like the sun had shown after weeks of rain.
Make it, you will not be disappointed.
Delicious! We will be making it for our next potluck gathering…… whenever that’ll be….. :)
I made this tonight as a hearty side for leftover protein and because we somehow ended up with waaay too much broccoli in our fridge. It was delicious. I followed the directions except using 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs instead of the slice of bread. Thank you so much for sharing! The whole family loved it and I will certainly make it again!
I had a ton of broccoli in my fridge that needed to be used. I love Cookie and Kate recipes and this one did not disappoint! One of our new favorites. This will stay in the dinner rotation for sure.
I’m happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing.
I am making this for dinner tonight. My partner started a new job today and with me working from home it’s so handy that I can do these steps throughout the afternoon and piece it all together to bake right before everyone is ready for dinner. I don’t have enough cheese (woops), so I’m going to add some extra butter to the quinoa as well and hope that helps with the creaminess. I blitzed 2 pieces of bread because of all of the comments saying they wanted more of the garlic breadcrumbs!! Definitely getting your cookbook, your recipes have brought so much joy during this time! THANK YOU!
Hi Dana! How did it turn out for you? I also hope you love the cookbook. :)
Hey Kate, It turned out fine, I added the cheese I had and stirred in some cream cheese. The meat-eater kids ate everything! However, I can definitely see how the extra cheese would make it shine. I will make this again and go full cheese for sure!
What a delicious and light delight! Tried this for the first time and it will become a regular at the dinner table. Made this with lactose free milk and cheese! I also added some sautéed butternut squash to add some extra vitamins. Kate you recipes are delicious.
Live on my own so try to buy in small quantities but still often have leftover veggies. Had about small amount of fresh broccoli leftover from the weekend and didn’t want to waste it, so roasted it last night. I always have a batch of cooked quinoa in the fridge too. Tonight, looking for something for dinner, I came across your recipe. Already had the broccoli and the quinoa, and eyeballed/guesstimated the cheese, milk, etc to suit the small batch of broccoli. It was delicious! Plenty for a hearty dinner for one tonight and small portion of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Thank you so much for a great meal that made the most of what’s in my fridge. I’ll be making this dish again and again.
This is a regular rotation in my household! Great recipe
I’m glad you love it, Gina!
Very, very delicious. Next time I’ll double the broccoli, I think, but it is very tasty with that amount of broccoli.
Thank you, A!
Hi Kate, can I assemble this and then keep it in the fridge overnight and bake the next day?
Thanks!
Hi KH, I haven’t tired it sorry! I would be hesitant it may not bake the best as the ingredients would absorb vs bake.