Teriyaki Quinoa Bowl

This healthy teriyaki quinoa bowl is easy to make but incredibly flavourful and delicious. It’s full of healthy ingredients like broccoli, carrot, mushrooms, avocado and snow peas and it’s topped with sesame seeds and a sweet and tangy teriyaki sauce that brings it all together. This recipe is gluten-free, 0il-free, vegan, refined sugar-free, high-protein and high-fibre.

Quinoa Health Benefits

I’ve talked a lot about the health benefits of whole grains on the blog before. You can check out my guide to whole grains to learn more about that but today we’ll just take a quick look at quinoa.

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Quinoa covers many essential vitamins and minerals and is one of the healthiest grains you can stock in your pantry. It’s high in protein as far as grains making it a good source of plant-based protein and it’s high in fibre and naturally gluten-free.

As for specific nutrients, 1 cup of cooked quinoa provides:

• 8 grams of protein
• 40 grams of complex carbohydrates
• 5 grams of fibre
• 58% RDA of manganese
• 30% RDA of magnesium
• 30% RDA of phosphurus
• 15% RDA of iron
• 20% RDA of folate
• 13% rDA of zinc
• plus some vitamin B-6, selenium, copper, vitamin E, potassium and riboflavin

How to Cook Quinoa

Quinoa is easy to cook using a 1:2 quinoa to water ratio. Bring the water to a boil first, add the quinoa, reduce to a simmer and cook until the quinoa has absorbed all the water. This should take about 14 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Do You Need to Rinse Quinoa?

Depending on the quinoa you use, you may want to rinse it before cooking to remove some of it’s natural coating called saponin. Saponin an leave a slightly bitter flavour. I don’t normally rinse my quinoa beacuse don’t find it makes much of a difference, if any. Quinoa has a nutty, earthy flavour and I actually find it’s most flavourful when un-rinsed. If you’re using boxed quinoa, it’s typically pre-rinsed so there’s no need to worry about this but if you’re using bulk quinoa try it both ways to see which you prefer.

How to Make Teriyaki Sauce

To make the teriyaki sauce for this bowl I used soy sauce (use gluten-free tamari if needed), water, ginger, maple syrup, garlic, pepper and cornstarch or arrowroot powder. The cornstarch is needed to create that thick and syrupy teriyaki sauce consistency.

To make it, add all of the ingredients to a small sauce pan and whisk over medium heat for 3-4 minutes until thickened. I don’t blend it before cooking but if you don’t like the garlic and ginger chunks to can blend it before hand for a smooth sauce. This sauce works great for tofu, rice bowls, stir-fry and even as a dip.

Vegan Teriyaki Quinoa Bowl

To make this bowl, simply cook the quinoa, or use leftover cooked quinoa, then pile it in a bowl with steamed broccoli, grated carrot, sautéed mushroom and snow peas, avocado and sesame seeds. I topped it off with some crushed peanuts and green onion but you could also use chopped cashews or almonds, pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds.

For more quinoa recipes, check out my Vegan Quinoa Fiesta Salad, Mediterranean Quinoa Bowls with Tofu Feta, Roasted Carrot, Kale and Quinoa Bowl and Vegan Chickpea Quinoa Stew.

Recipe Nutrition Details

If you follow the recipe below, each bowl comes out to 433 calories with 57 grams of carbohydrates, 16 grams of fat and 23 grams of protein. You’ll also be getting 12 grams of fibre, more than your daily vitamin A and vitamin C, 55% of your daily calcium and 37% of your daily iron. This recipe is also high in magnesium, folate, potassium, manganese, selenium and zinc.