Can you make this ahead of time?

This meal is perfect to make ahead of time. Roast your veggies and mix with the quinoa and tofu. Mix together your dressing ingredients, but store the dressing and the quinoa mix in separate air tight containers for up to 4-5 days. When ready to serve, you can add the dressing in.

Is there a substitute for the quinoa?

If you are not a fan of quinoa or do not have access to it, this recipe can also work with couscous, rice (I love Forbidden Rice especially for this), millet, or cooked barley.

How do I cook quinoa?

You can find my tips for cooking fluffy quinoa in my Quinoa Veggie Bowl post. The ratio is 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover with a lid. I have timed cooking my quinoa, and typically with this method it cooks perfectly at about 13-14 minutes, but it can range depending on your stove top. Once the cooking time elapses, remove from heat and keep the lid on for an extra 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork.

Do you serve this hot or cold?

This quinoa bowl is great hot or cold. If I'm reheating this, I often will pop it in the microwave to heat up for about 1 minute and 30 seconds. But this is also a perfect cold prep salad that tastes just as good.

Roasted Butternut Squash Quinoa Nourish Bowl

Description

This Butternut Squash Quinoa Bowl is hearty and warming thanks to the roasted vegetables and vegan hot “honey” dressing. Easy to make for any occasion and delicious hot or cold.

Ingredients

Scale

For the Sheet Pan

1 block (450 g) extra firm tofu, pressed and cubed
1 tbsp gluten-free soy sauce
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 cups butternut squash, cubed
1 head of broccoli, cut into florets
1/2 medium red onion, roughly chopped
1 tsp dry oregano
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
5 sprigs fresh thyme (destemmed) or 1/2 tsp dry thyme
1/4 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tbsp avocado oil

For the Hot “Honey” Mustard Dressing

1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp whole grain Dijon mustard
1 tbsp mild or spicy hot sauce
1/2 tbsp soy sauce, gluten-free

For the Bowl

1 cup dry quinoa
Fresh cilantro

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Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400F and prepare one large baking sheet or two smaller sheet pans by lining it with parchment paper. Then start cooking your quinoa by placing your quinoa in a sauce pan with 2 cups of water or vegetable broth. Bring to boil, reduce to a simmer and cover with a lid for 10-15 minutes or according to your package instructions. Once cooked, keep the lid on for an additional 5 minutes to steam, then fluff with a fork.
To an airtight container with a lid, add your tofu with the soy sauce and nutritional yeast. Seal the lid, give it a careful shake to coat the tofu evenly and set aside.
To the sheet pan, add your butternut squash, broccoli and onions. Drizzle with oil and top with all your herbs then toss together to coat and spread it out evenly on the sheet pan. Place two peeled garlic cloves on a small piece of foil with a small drizzle of oil and wrap it tightly in the foil. Then place the wrapped garlic on one end of the pan.
Place tofu on the sheet pan, spreading them out so they don’t touch and then place the sheet pan(s) in the oven for 20 minutes.
Once the garlic is cooked, add to the same container you made your tofu in and mash really well. Add your remaining sauce ingredients and whisk together really well.
Now assemble the bowl when ready to serve. Add your quinoa to the bowl, your roasted veggies, the tofu and then the sauce. Gently toss everything together and enjoy.

Notes

To save some time, feel free to use some pre-cooked quinoa, pre-diced butternut squash and a block of pre-marinated tofu. Pre-cooked quinoa is pretty easy to find on the shelves and even in the freezer section of your grocery store in the US. If you’re not a fan of cutting butternut squash, you can also get cubed squash from your produce section as well as some marinated tofu, which can help save time.

Make your quinoa flavorful. While this will still taste great with regular water, you can cook your quinoa in the same amount of vegetable broth for more flavor.

Dice the veggies into small pieces. To make sure everything cooks evenly and quickly, dicing the butternut squash and broccoli into small pieces will speed up the cooking time. I generally aim for 1/2 inch butternut squash cubes and 1 inch florets.