This amazing creamy mushroom quinoa recipe is made in one pot and makes the perfect side! It will remind you of risotto only healthier. Quick, easy, and delicious!
I've been dreaming of a dish like this for a long time. Something that's cozy and comforting. A recipe that is easy to make, packed with flavor and is naturally plant-based. And most importnatly, a recipe that makes even non plant-based eaters drool.
That's what we've got today. The most delectable creamy mushroom quinoa.
This recipe is incredible! With a nod to msurhoom risotto, it's creamy, cozy and packed with flavor. And yes, it's also 100% vegan and gluten-free. But even better? Unlike risotto, this dish is ready in about 20 minutes!
What You Need to Make This Recipe
We've just a few simple ingredients that we're using for our mushroom quinoa:
- Mushrooms: you can use any type of mushrooms you'd like in this recipe. I love a blend!
- Garlic: fresh garlic sauteed with the mushrooms adds such a nice flavor!
- Quinoa: I'm using white quinoa in this recipe because I feel it's most similar to rice, but you can use any type you'd like.
- Water: we're cooking the quinoa in water, but if you want to amp up flavor even more, you can use veggie broth.
- Nutritional yeast: you know I love some nutritional yeast – it adds a cheesiness and depth to the flavor that is just delicious!
- Cashew cream: ever since I shared my recipe for cashew cream, I've been using it a lot in my recipes! It adds that perfect amount of creaminess, without affecting flavor at all.
- Almond milk: I wanted to keep this dish on the lighter side, so I did half cream, half almond milk.
And then I like to stir in some salt, pepper and fresh herbs at the end!
How to Make Creamy Mushroom Quinoa
What you're going to lvoe about this recipe is that it's all made in one pot!
STEP ONE: Saute
First, we'll saute the garlic and mushrooms with a bit of olive in our pan. Once the mushrooms have softened and the garlic is fragrant, you can add in your quinoa. (I like to remove some of the mushrooms here for my topping!)
STEP TWO: Simmer
To the quinoa add your water. I like to also sprinkle in some salt and pepper here. Give it a stir and then bring it to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until the quinoa is fluffy and the water has been absorbed.
STEP THREE: Stir
Remove the lid from your pot and add the remaining ingredients. Stir it all together! Your end result should be this amazingly creamy mushroom quinoa!
STEP FOUR: Serve
And lastly, serve it up! I love to top my quinoa with the reserved mushrooms (see step 1), as well as some additional fresh herbs. Simple and SO good!
What Goes Well with Mushroom Quinoa
What's great is that quinoa is a complete protein, so this dish can absolutely stand on its own as your main dish. But it also makes a great side – Thanksgiving, anyone?! – and I think pairs really well with a few of the recipes we have here on the site.
If you are serving this mushroom quinoa as a side dish, here's what I'd pair it with:
- Herb Crusted Baked Tofu
- Sauteed Garlic Green Beans
- Vegan Lentil Quinoa Meatloaf
- Sweet Potato Salmon Cakes
Or to keep things super simple, you can just serve it with your preferred protein + a salad!
An Easy + Healthy Vegan Meal Prep Recipe
Whether you're making this for dinner, serving it for the holidays, or want to have it on hand all week long, it's an amazing recipe for meal prep!
You can keep this in your fridge for 4+ days and reheat it as desired. I like to stir in a splash of water or almond milk to loosen it up.
And you could also totally stir in some additional veggies if you wanted as well! Kale, spinach, roasted broccoli or brussels sprouts, would all be fantastic.
Overall, this is just a solid, staple dish that you can make for a quick dinner or serve as a elevated side dish. It's easy, it's plant-based, it's tasty and it's healthy. Basically a win all around in my book!
Other Recipes You can Make with Mushrooms + Quinoa
- Creamy Coconut + Mushroom Quinoa Soup
- Spinach + Mushroom Quinoa Risotto
- Garlic + Herb Mushroom Quinoa
- Mushroom + Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash
One Pot Creamy Mushroom Quinoa
Ingredients
- 2 cups mushrooms
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Salt + pepper
- 1 cup white quinoa
- 2 cups water
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- ½ cup cashew cream
- ½ cup almond milk (or more cashew cream)
- 1 tablespoon fresh herbs (I like thyme and rosemary)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a saucepan. Once hot, add the garlic and mushrooms. Saute for 2 - 3 minutes until the mushrooms have softened.
- Season from salt and pepper, then add the quinoa and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer and cover. Cook for 12 minutes.
- Once the water has been absorbed and the quinoa is fluffy, remove the lid. Add the nutritional yeast, cream and milk and stir to combine. Season with a bit more salt and pepper and fold in the fresh herbs.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Just made this and it was delicious. I used veg broth, the whole cup of cashew cream since I had it at hand, and to get some more protein i added a cup of chickpeas! This added no taste and just was a great sneaky add. I served it along side broccoli for the meal.
I’m not vegan so I’m seriously considering substituting the cashew cream for Stilton cheese… possibly not that healthy but woooahh my taste buds are on fire just thinking about it
This has become a regular meal in my vegetarian kitchen. Delish!
Made this tonight. It was excellent!!!
This was a very yummy recipe base for a fridge and pantry raid. Ahead of frying the mushrooms, I fried some finely chopped celery (two stalks) in an extra tablespoon of olive oil. I substituted 1 cup of soy milk for the cashew cream and almond milk. I also added about a cup of rocket (arugula) to wilt about 5 minutes before the quinoa finished cooking. This is a simple, easy, tasty one pot meal. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing your additions and modifications, Sarah! This is one of my go-to fridge clean out recipes too 🙂
Excellent! My non-vegan husband and daughter loved it! I tweaked it a bit, toasting the quinoa before adding half the amount of water and half organic low sodium vegetable broth. I also chopped up half a can of artichoke hearts and let them simmer woth the quinoa after it boiled. Kudos!
Love the artichoke addition! I’m glad everyone enjoyed!!
I deglazed the pot, with the mushrooms still in it, with about 1/4 dry white wine, then added the quinoa and let it toast for a couple of minutes before adding vegetable stock and I tossed in a couple of bay leaves and a about a 1/2 cup of frozen kale. Then brought to a boil, reduced, and simmered.
Then end result was savory and tasty.
Thanks for sharing, Page! This sounds so flavorful!
Hello! So you leave the mushrooms and garlic that were sautéed in the pan and then throw in the quinoa and water? You don’t just cook the quinoa by itself?
Exactly! You just add the quinoa and water on top of the mushrooms and garlic 🙂
You left out the amount of water to add for this recipe.
Updated!
This came out so good!!!! I followed your recipe exactly as written and im honestly so happy with the end result and not to mention how easy it was to make!!! The best part, even my picky girls loved it 🙂 thank you, cant wait to make again
Oh yay! I”m so so happy to hear that 🙂
Do you think diced tomatoes would be good with this?
Definitely! If you give it a try let us know how you like it 🙂