One Pan Mexican Quinoa
Wonderfully light, healthy and nutritious. And it’s so easy to make – even the quinoa is cooked right in the pan!
Despite my daily 3-mile runs, all the morning donuts have finally caught up with me. So Jason and I made a pact to lighten up our diet before our Cabo trip in 6 weeks. But instead of eating bland, boring salads, I decided to make a fun, healthy quinoa dish that we would both really enjoy.
And that’s exactly what this quinoa dish is. With a fun Mexican twist, this dish is chockfull of so many amazing flavors, from the tangy lime juice to the hint of spiciness from the chili powder and jalapeno. And not only is this healthy and nutritious but it’s also unbelievably easy to make. Simply throw everything into the skillet and that’s it. Even the quinoa is cooked right in the pan, really letting the flavors soak in.
Now who said healthy food has to be boring?
One Pan Mexican Quinoa
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeno, minced
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 cup corn kernels, frozen, canned or roasted
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and jalapeno, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in quinoa, vegetable broth, beans, tomatoes, corn, chili powder and cumin; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until quinoa is cooked through, about 20 minutes.
- Stir in avocado, lime juice and cilantro.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I’ve been making this recipe for 11 years. It’s PERFECT. Never take it off your site. I LOVE IT ❤️❤️❤️
you did not specified cooked or uncooked quinoa?
This was fantastic! I had to add about 1 1/2 cups additional vegetable stock. The quinoa soaks up a lot. The 1 cup that the recipe calls for is not enough. Regardless, I will definitely be making this again.
Excellent!
This looks amazing. I can’t wait to try it.
10 years on from when this recipe was created and I still make it every other month <3
I only add the avocado, lime and cilantro when it hits the table so I can easily store and reheat leftovers.
Always a hit with vegetarians and meat eaters alike.
I’ve recently started a weight loss journey and was looking for something easy, healthy, and flavorful. I’m not normally a fan of quinoa but know it has a lot of health benefits. Let me just say, this was fantastic. Even my teenagers loved it. I added some Adell’s chicken sausages (sliced) to it before putting the lid on to cook. It is also amazing the next morning with an over easy egg on top.
Wow! We’d been gardening all day and needed a quick dinner with what we had on hand. This was SO good. Definitely adding it to our menu rotation.
So good! I made this for my family for a food science elective I have in school, and my family loved it! So did I! I will make again! 🙂
OH my gosh! My new favorite! I just wanted an idea on what to do with quinoa and we will do this alot! I did all suggestions and crumbled tortilla chips on top. Delicious! Thank you!
This is a go-to recipe at our house. It’s so quick and simple, and doesn’t dirty up a bunch of dishes–perfect!
(If we’re in a rush, we skip the broth, pour off just a little juice from each of the cans, and then use the rest of the corn and beans undrained; and we sub the japapeno and fresh garlic for a dash of cayenne and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder.)
Thank you for such a great recipe!
Can you please tell me how big the serving size is? 1 cup? 1.5 cups?
Thanks!
Seriously so easy and so delicious! We put in spinach wraps! The leftovers were so good too! We will definitely add this to our rotation!
OMG, this is so good! I added 1 Tablespoon taco seasoning and used chicken broth instead of water. The lime juice added a really nice touch and next time I’ll double it because I love lime juice.
Missed opportunity here to call it mexi quinoa
Nice recipe! I did not have a lime so I used a bit of citrus + I just don’t like cumin so I did not use it at all. I like following along my nutrition so I calculated my version of the recipe using nutriely recipe calculator (https://nutriely.com/recipe-builder). Here are the values that I got for 1 serving:
Energy 686kcal (2,869 kj)
Carbohydrates 104g
Protein 32g
Fat 10g
Alcohol 0g
Water 213g
Iron 12mg
Calcium 211mg
Chromium 1ug
Sodium 343mg
Iodine 1ug
Copper 1mg
Salt 873mg
Selenium 9ug
Zinc 4mg
Manganese 2mg
Magnesium 318mg
Potassium 2,328mg
Fluoride (fluerine) 0mg
Phosphorus 819mg
Molybdenum 0mg
Vitamin d 0ug
Vitamin e alphatocopherol 3mg
Vitamin c (ascorbic acid) 22mg
Vitamin b-12 (cobalamin) 0ug
Vitamin a retinol activity equivalents 77ug
Thiamin (vitamin b1) 1mg
Riboflavine (vitamin b2) 0mg
Vitamin b6 pyridoxine (hydrochloride) 1mg
Vitamin k 13ug
Niacin equivalents, total 12mg
Folate 563ug
Fibre, total 24g
Starch 93g
Polyols 0g
I just refound this on my pinterest account… how did I let this fall off my dinner routine!? It is so good & my kids EAT IT UUUUP!
This is delicious and light-and packed with protein. Love it!
Looks interesting!! Do you not need to rinse the quinoa at least a few times before you dump it in the pan?
Simple and delicious will make again.