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
These look seriously delicious!! I can’t wait to try them!
I love this idea for quinoa, I am in the middle of making them right now… in love with the flavor but mine don’t seem to roll… so I plopped them on the sheet in hope they would bake… they are in the oven right now… what do you think could have went wrong?
How’d they turn out?
Hey, I wonder what I could substitute for the beans? I’m not a fan of them :/
These…look amazing. I need to make these soon.
I made these today and they were absolutely amazing!! Just varied it a little:
Instead of pinto beans I used kidney beans.
I multiplied it by 1.5 so that I used the whole can of beans.
I got 21 balls out of it, and analyzed my nutrition, but somehow got 100 calories per ball 🙁
I added just a bit of marinara to it.
My picky water husband couldn’t get enough! Yummy!
Should say picky eater – not water!
If you used an online calculator, it probably just did dry beans instead of canned by mistake. Online calculators seem to have trouble calculating canned beans. Cooked quinoa as well.
You’re right! I went back and realized that that is exactly what happened! By the way, I absolutely love your blog and all of your recipes. I have never tried so many recipes from one site before. I love how you show people how delicious vegan food can be. I am sure you inspire a lot of people to go veg 🙂
These are delicious! My 4yr old loves them!
Hi Katie! I’ve tried to find a way to do this privately, but you’re a fortress! 😀 Just wanted to make sure that I had your blessing to totally plug this fantastic site on my own blog (which I won’t plug on yours!) Please email me privately for the link and you can take a look at it. If any issues, I will be happy to comply. (Totally just giving you props on the page though as I use your site to keep my clean-eating sweet tooth happy). Keep up the great work! Love this site!
Aw Melissa I’m honored. THANK YOU :).
YUM! Love this idea and I wonder if they could freeze well…hrmm
Yum! Just made these with black beans and cheese cheese, grated & mixed in. So tasty!
Cheddar cheese, I meant!
I know I tweeted about it already but just wanted to let everyone here know they were delicious! I used chickpeas and they were absolutely wonderful! Thanks Katie 🙂