Revamped Broccoli "Cheese" Casserole

I posted on Facebook a few weeks ago that I am in the process of bulking up my blog.  I'm going back and tweaking recipes and posting pictures.  Tonight I tackled an ancient recipe from my blog.  All the way back in September 2010, I veganized one of my favorite potluck dishes--Broccoli Cheese Casserole.  Traditionally it is a dish made with lots of processed foods like Velveeta and cream of chicken soup.  Definitely not healthy and definitely not vegan!  My original vegan version wasn't bad.  In fact, I blogged about it, and Scott was a big enough fan of it that he took it to a Christmas potluck.  However, I always felt I could do better; that this dish could be made more delicious.   Lately, I've been trying out quinoa, substituting it for brown rice in my dishes.  So I thought this was a great time to rework this recipe replacing the rice for quinoa.  I must tell you that I'm really becoming a fan of this super food!  For those of you unfamiliar with quinoa, it's sort of like a whole grain, but it's more a seed than a grain.  It has a similar texture to couscous.  What makes it a super food is that it's full of amino acids and is a great source of protein!  You can get it at WalMart or Kroger, so I recommend you check it out!  I wanted to keep this dish vegan so I stuck with the original plan of making a "cheese" sauce from tofu.   That means that there are 2 awesome sources of protein in this dish: quinoa and tofu.  And it's FULL of veggies too!  So here you have it folks, a healthy Broccoli "Cheese" Casserole!

"Cheese" Sauce:

1 block firm tofu
3/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon spicy brown mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
plain soy milk

Crumble up tofu in food processor and add seasoning.  Start food processor and pour in soy milk until you created have a nice creamy sauce.


1 onion, chopped
2 cups carrots, chopped
6 cups broccoli, chopped
4 cups mushrooms, sliced
4 cups cooked quinoa


Combine all the veggies in a dutch oven and saute for 10 minutes or until broccoli is mostly cooked.  Then, add in the cooked quinoa and "cheese" sauce.  Mix well.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.  Makes 6 to 8 servings.