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An aerial image of an Italian flavoured baked quinoa in a speckled beige ceramic bowl atop a dark steel backdrop

Italian baked quinoa

Gluten free, vegetarian, low FODMAP option
*Cups and measures are in Australian cups and measures. Use gram and ml for international accuracy.
1 Australian tablespoon is 20ml, whereas it is 15ml in NZ, USA, Canada, Britain and much of Europe. 1 Australian tablespoon = 4 teaspoons in these places.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Course Main Course
Cuisine Food Intolerance Friendly
Servings 4 people

Equipment

  • 31cm length X 23cm width X 5cm height baking dish
  • (12.2inch length X 9inch width X2inch height)

Ingredients
  

For the flavourings:

  • 2 tablespoons* dried thyme (use an additional two teaspoons if you are NZ, US, Canada, Britain or Europe based)
  • 3-5 pickled garlic cloves sliced (see notes)
  • 25-45 g sundried tomatoes chopped (see notes)
  • ½ - 1 tablespoon Calabrian chillies see notes
  • 3-5 anchovies optional
  • 20ml (1 tablespoon)* maple syrup optional but adds flavour complexity
  • 1 leek green parts only, thoroughly washed and finely chopped

For the bake:

  • 750 ml (3 cups)* water or low FODMAP stock (see notes)
  • 60 ml (1/4 cup)* oil
  • 60-80 ml (1/4 - 1/3 cup)* red wine vinegar
  • 125 g (3/4 cup)* white quinoa, thoroughly rinsed (see notes)
  • 1 X 400g can cannellini beans drained (approximately 240g beans once drained) see notes
  • 150-200 g (½ large bunch) Tuscan kale washed, particularly woody stems removed and chopped into bite sized pieces

To finish:

  • 1 bunch parsley or basil washed and chopped (remove woody stems)
  • 100 g parmesan freshly and finely grated

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 200C/392F.
  • In the baking dish combine the flavourings, water, oil and red wine vinegar. Whisk to combine. Add the thoroughly rinsed quinoa and cannellini beans and stir to coat.
  • Place the baking dish on an oven tray to catch any drips and bake for 45 hour.
  • After 45 minutes, remove the dish from the oven and stir to combine. Stir in the kale, coating it in the mixture.
  • Return to the oven for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the kale is cooked to your liking.
  • Remove from the oven and stir through the parmesan and herbs.
  • Taste and season according to your preferences. I like to season this dish at the end after the parmesan has been stirred through as it adds saltiness.
  • Serve immediately or store in the fridge in airtight containers. Leftovers can also be frozen and defrosted.

Notes

  • I have a low FODMAP vegetable stock recipe which you can find here. 
  • Unlike my Mexican inspired quinoa, this dish has more of a risotto consistency. I suspect that the starchiness of the cannellini beans has something to do with that.
  • See body of post for FODMAP notes if you need this dish to be low FODMAP. It is not explicitly low FODMAP, but can be made so with a few tweaks.
  • See body of posts for tips if you are not low FODMAP and can eat onion/garlic.
  • If you are low FODMAP and react to fructose, 8g sun-dried tomato is a low FODMAP serve. They become moderate for fructose at 16g per person, which suggests a bit of wiggle room as to what constitutes a low FODMAP serve. 
  • I daresay this recipe would work with other quinoa varieties (tricolor etc) but I haven’t tried it.
Keyword baked quinoa, Italian baked quinoa, quinoa tray bake, vegetarian tray bake
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