Melty, cheesy, savory homemade quinoa pizza bites. This easy recipe is such a popular appetizer or healthy snack!
Pizza night will never be the same.
Bring a batch of these homemade quinoa pizza bites, and you are pretty much guaranteed to be the hit of any party or family dinner.
The healthy pizza appetizer is simple to make and can be vegan, gluten free, egg free, sugar free, flourless, nut free, soy free, and dairy free.
Also try out this Cauliflower Casserole
Vegetarians and non vegetarians both love the addictively delicious pizza balls, so you know they must be good.
And the bites are easily portable, meaning they’re great for potlucks or game day events. Or serve them as a healthy after school snack.
Kids can’t get enough of the bold pizza flavor and melty cheese filling, while parents appreciate the fiber, protein, iron, and Vitamin C packed into each and every bite.
Pizza Bite Ingredients
The recipe calls for the following eight ingredients: quinoa, beans, tomato paste, dried basil, sweetener, salt, garlic, and onion powder.
Use your favorite brand of shredded mozzarella for the cheese filling. Vegan cheese works too; that’s actually vegan cheese in the photos. The cheese is not required and they’re still yummy if you want to leave it out.
I haven’t tried it yet but would love to know if the recipe also works with rice instead of quinoa. Please be sure to report back if you try!
Quinoa Pizza Bites
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked quinoa (here's How to cook quinoa)
- 1 cup canned or cooked pinto beans
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 2 tsp dried basil
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sweetener of choice
- optional shredded mozzarella cheese (vegan brands work too!)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a baking sheet well, then set aside. In a medium bowl, mash the beans completely. Stir in all remaining ingredients. Taste, then add a little more sweetener only if needed. (Mine didn’t need it.) Roll into balls, then break off a piece of the cheese—if using—and push it into the middle before sealing the ball back up. Place the balls onto the baking tray and cook 30 minutes. For a crispy outer shell, feel free to broil a minute at the end.View Nutrition Facts
Notes
More Healthy Meatless Recipes
Or this Cauliflower Pizza Crust
I think next time I try them I’ll toss an egg in there. Very tasty though!
I just made these and OMG, they are soooooo good! I used garbanzo beans instead of pinto beans and these little babies tasted amazing! I got 14 out of mine! Thank you for sharing this recipe Katie!
Thanks for saying this. I’ve made them twice with pinto beans and love them, but I just saw the recipe on facebook and want to make them again, but I only have garbanzo beans right now. I’m going to try it!
I have been on a CCK bender lately! I just can’t stop making these recipes, and I have yet to be disappointed. This one came out INCREDIBLE–I can’t stop eating them! Instead of straight pinto beans, I used canned fat-free refried beans and scaled back the salt a bit and it worked great and saved me a bit of elbow grease. As I am not fully vegan (YET!) I also added some grated parmesan to the mix, which made it even more pizza-y and scrumptious. I bet nutritional yeast would work well too. I also added some red pepper flakes and hot smoked paprika for a bit of kick, and stuffed the balls with low-fat swiss and cheddar cheeses. I will definitely be making these again and again!
Very delicious and so easy to prepare!
These look sooooooo good! But I have just one question, would a tomato free sauce work okay in replace of the paste? My boyfriend is allergic to tomatoes (and plenty of other things may I add).
Speaking of which, I’d love to see you tackle a “nomato” sauce alternative if you could! Your food is always super tasty.
You can always experiment! Be sure to report back if you do!
Question: as anyone tried this using marinara or pizza sauce instead of the paste? Too watery??
i see pinto beans & am thinking about trying with taco seasoning! MMMM!!!
These are DIVINE! In the same way it’s hard not to eat your cookie dough before it’s baked, it’s hard not to chow down on these pizza bites before they’re baked. So delicious! Thank you!!
I just got my hands on a surplus of quinuoa and wanted to experiment so I made this and it is divine! I’ve made it twice in three days- it is that good. The first time I made it and formed the balls with a bit of cheese but it was too sweet and the cheese didn’t add as much flavor as i wanted. So the next time i made it, i omitted the additional sugar and threw all the ingredients into the same pan that the quinuoa had just finished cooking in. So fast and really, really delicious!
I made them, but my mixture was really soft. Maybe because I used a food processor for mashing the beans. They taste pretty good though!!
Just cook your quinoa longer next time. The first time I made them they were a little soft, so I used drier cooked quinoa the next time and they were perfect!