Quinoa Chili
This vegetarian, protein-packed chili is the perfect bowl of comfort food that you can eat guilt-free!
It’s been a bit warm here in San Francisco but I’ve been wanting to make chili for weeks now. Chili gives me the perfect excuse to have oh-so-crumbly cornbread on the side, except I overdo it and make it a main course. Either way, I still wanted a piping hot bowl of chili. Desperately. But this time, I tried something very different with my batch of chili – I added quinoa, and lots of it!
The quinoa added such a fun texture, soaking up all the flavors and goodness of this chili. It’s also loaded with kidney beans, black beans, tons of veggies and just enough lime juice to give you a subtle kick in the pants. Plus, this batch will make enough to feed an army so it’ll keep you and your family well fed for days!
Quinoa Chili
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes
- 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 4.5-ounce can diced green chiles
- 1 ½ tablespoons chili powder, or more, to taste
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 ½ teaspoons paprika
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 15-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 ½ cups corn kernels, frozen, canned or roasted
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- Juice of 1 lime, optional
- 1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
Instructions
- In a large saucepan of 2 cups water, cook quinoa according to package instructions; set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven or large pot over medium high heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in quinoa, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, green chiles, chili powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper and 1-2 cups water, making sure to cover most of the ingredients; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Reduce heat to low; simmer, covered, until thickened, about 30 minutes. Stir in beans, corn, cilantro and lime juice, if using, until heated through, about 2 minutes.
- Serve immediately with avocado, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
I just made it for dinner and it was sooooo delicious! thanks for the great recipe.
I didn’t have tomato sauce, some of the spices and black beans so i just used what I had, added pasta sauce and it turned out great!!!
oh and I made the quinoa with chicken broth rather than water for extra flavor.
Very delicious!
Just made it tonight!! Turned out great!! So delicious!! I liked the quinoa instead of the meat. I adjusted the seasonings a bit for my taste…more chili powder and cayenne pepper and green chili only bc I like spicy food…and of course sugar to balance out the tartness of the tomatoes….but sooo good. I’m not a hugh beans person but still enjoy this dish very much. Was wondering what else I could do next time if I didn’t want to add beans? Thanks for sharing…I really love all the dishes I’ve tried from your website!
You can try adding more quinoa to compensate but the beans are so crucial for a chili dish!
This is a ridiculously amazing recipe ! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
I made this for my lunches at work this week and it turned out great! I was really impressed how great the flavors were with not having to cook for all that long. For myself, I found it made more like 8-9 servings instead of 6. Very delicious and very healthy. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I put all of the ingredients in a crock pot (even uncooked quinoa) and cooked it on high for 3-4 hours. It turned out awesome.
This was so good and so easy to make! Thanks a lot 🙂
WOWZAAA- Yummy! Thank you!!
This has been my go-to chili recipe for over a year now, I make it all the time! Sooooo good! If this has already been asked, I apologize. I read that you said a serving was 2 cups. How many calories in a serving?
Elizabeth, thank you for trying my recipe!
Nutritional information is actually provided for select and new recipes only at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, I recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”) to obtain such information.
pinned this forever ago and finally made it tonight. It was absolutely delicious!!! Brilliant idea
My husband and I absolutely love this recipe! It was different than we are used to, but it turned out great.
This is a terrific recipe. I normally make chili with ground turkey, but I honestly don’t even miss it now that I have this recipe. I’ve made it twice now and I am sure I will make it many more. With my last batch, I forgot to pick up lime juice and green chiles, but it turned out great anyway. If you’re even a little in doubt about this recipe, try it anyway! You likely won’t regret it. Oh, and it really does make enough to feed an army.
THIS IS AMAZING! SO TASTY!! thanks Chungah! 🙂
Just finished eating our first ever Quinoa Chili. My husband and I loved it but my husband is supposed to be trying to lose weight. He ate 3 bowls! I couldn’t stop him! I need to know how many calories he just injested :-/
This was just amazing, thank you!! I used the opportunity to cook more quinoa so that I now have some in the freezer for future meals. The timing of everything was great – it was so easy to put the quinoa on and then chop all the ingredients ready to continue after the quinoa was cooked. I also diced my own tomatoes (about 4), instead of using canned, and added pasata instead of tomato sauce.
this was soo good . I added celery and red pepper . Topped it with the avocado chedder
and sour cream
Quick question…would TOO MUCH be lost if I omitted the beans? I’m not a bean eater but this looks delicious.
I’m not much of a bean eater either but the beans are essential to this chili!
ON THIS SNOWY DAY IN CENTRAL PA…..it was perfect! This is the first recipe of yours that I have tried. Have already d/l several others! Thank you!
I love all your recipes, including this one. It’s a cold, snowy day here, and chili was great.
This recipe was great! Just what I was looking for. Thank you for sharing this! And loved topping it with avocado. Thumbs up.
Made this tonight and it was delicious! Great flavor and consistency, with lots of leftovers.
Next time may add a little more spice, but loved the lime!