You’ll get a whole, balanced and filling meal in just one dish with this baked beet falafel vegan quinoa bowl with horseradish dill sauce. Beet falafel is a great twist on traditional falafel with the same great taste and an extra dose of veggies. They’re baked rather than fried for a healthier and oil-free recipe and served on a bed of quinoa and a mix of delicious raw and lightly cooked vegetables.
You may notice that my recipes usually come in pairs. In order to save money, I buy ingredients in large quantities – especially when I find them on sale. When they’re fresh fruits and veggies, that means I need to come up with lots of different recipes for the week in order to use them before they go bad.
So after my spiralized fermented beets recipe last week, I had quite a bit of fresh dill and a couple of beets leftover to find something to do with. This baked beet falafel quinoa bowl is the answer! It’s so easy to put together and based off the usual falafel recipe with some raw grated beets thrown in for colour, texture and extra vitamins.
If you’ve never made falafel from scratch, you’re missing out – the flavour is so much better than those boxed falafel mixes and much cheaper, too. I make mine with dry chickpeas that are soaked overnight then blitzed with onion, garlic and spices. Formed into balls, you can fry them if you prefer but by baking them for 20 minutes, you can have a completely oil-free recipe and they’re still wonderfully crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
Usually you’d serve falafel with a tahini or tzatziki sauce but beets, dill and horseradish all go hand in hand (and I had so much dill to use up!). So I whipped up a very simple creamy cashew-based sauce to drizzle over these vegan quinoa bowls. Finally, a selection of vegetables for colour, texture and flavour. Use what you like and what’s in season. It’s spring here now so asparagus is on sale but if it’s too expensive for you, try broccoli or kale instead.
Got leftovers? Use them in these recipes:
Asparagus, salad greens and avocado: Green pizza with herbed vegan cashew cheese
Asparagus and radish: Spring vegetable zoodle pasta
Beets and dill: Spiralized fermented beets
Quinoa, chickpeas, avocado and tomatoes: Chickpea avocado salad
Wanna see how to make this baked beet falafel vegan quinoa bowl? Watch the video!
Baked Beet Falafel Vegan Quinoa Bowl
Ingredients
- ½ cup (100 grams) dry chickpeas soaked overnight then drained- $0.25
- 1 large beet peeled and coarsely grated (about 1 ½ cup) - $0.38
- ½ medium onion coarsely chopped – $0.15
- 5 cloves of garlic roughly chopped, divided - $0.15
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin - $0.15
- 2 teaspoons coriander - $0.10
- 1 ½ tablespoons flour - $0.02
- 2 teaspoons sea salt divided - $0.08
- Pepper to taste - $0.03
- ½ cup (75 grams) raw cashews soaked overnight or in hot water for 15 minutes - $1.15
- ½ cup (120 ml) unsweetened plant milk - $0.12
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice - $0.11
- 2 ½ tablespoons fresh dill - $0.75
- 2 ½ tablespoons horseradish - $0.20
- 1 cup (200 grams) quinoa - $1.28
- A bunch (125 grams / 4.5 oz) of asparagus tough ends snapped off and cut in half - $1.75
- 1 cucumber sliced - $0.45
- 1 avocado sliced - $1.00
- 4 radishes sliced - $0.28
- A small bag of mixed salad greens - $0.99
- 25 cherry tomatoes halved - $1.39
Instructions
- Squeeze some of the water out of the beet then pulse the chickpeas, beet, onion, 4 cloves of the garlic, cumin, coriander, flour, 1 ½ teaspoons of the salt and pepper in a food processor until you have a rough, course meal that’s not quite a paste. Place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the sauce by blending the cashews, milk, lemon juice, dill, horseradish, remaining clove of garlic and remaining ½ teaspoon of sea salt until creamy. Put in the fridge to thicken and allow the flavours to blend.
- Prepare the quinoa according to the package directions. Blanch the asparagus in boiling water for just a couple of minutes until bright green. Refresh in cold water to stop the cooking process. Set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a baking pan with parchment paper or foil.
- Form the falafel into balls, squeezing out some of the juice into a separate bowl. If they’re not sticking together, you can either put the mix back into the food processor and process a bit more or add more flour, a tablespoon at a time, until they hold together. Bake for 20 minutes or until the balls are crispy and browned on the outside. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes before carefully peeling them off the pan.
- Make the bowls by dividing the quinoa between four bowls and topping with the vegetables and beet falafel. Serve the sauce on the side to drizzle over.
Nutrition
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Kathi says
So the chickpeas are not cooked?
Melissa says
Correct. They are raw.
Kathi says
Can you make the recipe with cooked chickpeas?
Melissa says
You can but the texture is more pasty.
Lauren says
Is the best cooked or raw?
Lauren says
beet**
Melissa says
Raw
Abril says
Hi, is there something you could use to replace the horseradish?
Thanks
Helen says
What gluten free flour could you replace the flour with?
Melissa says
I'm not an expert on gluten free. Perhaps someone else can answer that for you.