Creamy Cajun Beans & Cauliflower over Quinoa

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This Creamy Cajun Beans and Cauliflower recipe is creamy, hearty, and delicious with garbanzo beans, black beans, cauliflower, and mushrooms! This is an easy weeknight healthy dinner for busy families!

This Creamy Cajun Beans and Cauliflower over Quinoa is a vegetarian dish for EVERYONE!  Kids, adults, meat eaters, and veggie lovers will all love this recipe.  The not-too-hot fantastic cajun flavors combined with  healthy garbanzo beans, black beans, cauliflower, and mushrooms make this a hearty, creamy, and delicious dish.  Creaminess comes from creating a roux and then using low fat milk and broth, no fattening/high-calorie heavy cream here!

This is a fantastic dinner option for Meatless Mondays or anytime you want to get more veggies and plant-based proteins in!  Do you use Theme Night Dinners for planning dinners?  It makes it so much easier for busy families!

Simple Ingredients and Substitutes

• White button mushrooms – You can buy pre-sliced or whole mushrooms. Cremini or baby bella mushrooms would be great too. I don’t recommend canned mushrooms as they will not give the same flavor or texture.
• 2 scallions
• ¼ Head Cauliflower – Cauliflower is to be cut into florets (small pieces) – The cauliflower acts as the ‘ground beef’ in this recipe. You can also substitute sweet potatoes that has been cut into small diced pieces and roasted to cook through first. 
• 1% milk – The milk replaces the heavy cream or heavy whipping cream in traditional cream sauces. I used 1% milk, but you can also use skim milk, 2% milk, or full fat whole milk.
• Vegetable Broth – You can substitute with chicken stock or broth or even beef stock or broth. You can also use water mixed with a chicken bouillon cube or chicken base.
• Garbanzo beans, cooked (Chickpeas)
• Black Beans, cooked – I used canned black beans. You can substitute kidney beans, chickpeas, or any other canned beans that you have on hand (with the exception of green beans that can become mush. You can also use dry black beans, just be sure to cook them thoroughly before adding them to the filling.
• Uncooked White Quinoa – there are different varieties of uncooked quinoa widely available, but for this recipe, I find that the white quinoa works better than red quinoa for blending into the filling. You can substitute with white rice.
• All purpose white flour – This is the thickener to mix with the butter/fat.
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – You can substitute with any neutral oil, such as vegetable oil, avocado oil, or even coconut oil.

Cajun Seasoning

• ½ teaspoon Chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon Ground Cumin
• ½ teaspoon Dried Oregano
• ½ teaspoon Garlic Powder
• ¼ teaspoon Smoked Paprika
• ½ teaspoon Onion Powder
• ½ teaspoon Cayenne Pepper or to taste
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

Equipment

You can use a dutch oven or large frying pan/skillet for this recipe.  It needs to be large enough to fit the cauliflower, beans, and sauce.  I like to use a dutch oven because it has a wide bottom and tall sides for mixing.  

Prep-Ahead Steps for this Cajun Beans and Cauliflower Recipe

For this recipe, you can cut the cauliflower, slice the mushrooms and scallions, make the cajun spice, and drain the beans.  You can even make the quinoa ahead and reheat it later.

I like to double or triple this cajun spice mix recipe and keep it for sprinkling into a variety of quick dinner mains or sides.  It includes Chili powder, cumin, oregano, garlic powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, cayenne pepper, salt, and ground black pepper.

For the cauliflower, simply take your knife and cut along the outside of the florets about ½ down to get the small tips.  You can use all of the florets and even the stems, just cut into small pieces. 

Thin slice the scallions.  Clean and slice the mushrooms.  Drain the black beans and garbanzo beans (chickpeas). 

Cooking Steps 

To cook this recipe, preheat your pan/pot on high heat.  Add Olive oil,  mushrooms, cauliflower, and scallions (save some of the greens for garnish). Turn heat down to medium and saute the vegetables for 5-6 minutes until seared and starting to soften.  Don’t worry about them cooking completely at this point as they will continue to cook in the coming steps.

Add the garbanzo and black beans, as well as a tablespoon of the cajun seasoning. Stir and cook for another 2 minutes. Sprinkle 2 Tbls of all purpose flour over the cauliflower and mushrooms in the pan and stir to combine.

Serve this over Quinoa for even more protein and a glorious combination that you will fall in love with!