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
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Another brillantly easy, fast recipe that my family loves. So far this week we’ve had pineapple fried rice, avocado pasta, thaï chicken basil bowls, and this. Each one has been damned delicious! Thank you so, so much for solving the recurrent “question qui tue” ( the deadly question) for me!! I love how diverse your recipes are, everything from many différent types of Asian to Mexican and Italian, and standard American comfort food! Even better, the ingrédients are all easily available at any groccery stores with a reasonable international foods section ( and often don’t even require a trip to the store if you have a well stocked pantry and fridge)! And the cherry on the cake is the speed and ease with which the meals can be prepared! THANK YOU!!
Eagerly anticipating tonight’s easy chicken tikka masala!
I really enjoyed this! Definitely best with the lime juice and cilantro. Do you think this could be frozen for future meals?
I’m going to try this recipe with the sole purpose of freezing it! I’m going to leave out the avocado, but add everything else as called for. Wish me luck!
I’ve made this before and it is very good! I prepped it tonight for my lunches next week and didn’t realize I was out of quinoa! I made it with brown rice instead and followed everything else in the recipe. It looks good, so hopefully it’ll taste good too!
So good and quick to put together. I’ve made this twice. I didn’t have black beans on hand the last time so I used pinto beans. Came out great. This recipe will definitely stay in rotation.
This was so good!
This is a great recipe that can be adapted to suit your tastes. I doubled the recipe to make more leftovers. I used one can of corn, one can of black beans, one can of kidney beans, and one can of garbanzo beans. I also added an onion which I cooked with the garlic and jalapeno before I added the other ingredients. I ended up using more vegetable broth than the recipe called for (I used 3-4 cups).
I am going to make it again this week. This time I think I am going to add some taco sauce that another reviewer recommended and I will probably add a little more of the spices. I was trying to make sure it wasn’t too spicy for my family, but it really wasn’t spicy at all. I’m also going to cut up a bell pepper and cook it with the onion, garlic, and jalapeno.
Even my teenage daughter, who claims to hate quinoa, loved this recipe. She ate it several times. We think it tastes even better when it is reheated.
Liked it after I added some chopped onion and cooked it into it, along with taco sauce and a sprinkling of cheese. I guess that may blow away some of the health benefits, but just didn’t love it until I made these changes. Made a great salad topper and base for nachos.
Excited to make this recipe, looks delicious. Does anyone have any tips to making this in the instapot? Time and which setting? Thank you, Christina
Hi Christina, I cook it in my ninja foodi pressure. I seare/saute garlic in olive oil and roasted my quinoa with it for like 2 minutes and added all the ingredients with 1 cup vegetable broth and PC it for 1 min and natural release for 7 min and I release the pressure after that. It came out perfect.
Now this is REALLY intriguing. Sounds like dinner tomorrow!
We made this tonight with only a couple slight changes. We added a can of garbanzo beans and some fresh spinach. It was delicious!
Made this for the 2nd week in a row and my family loves it. Great for meal prep. Quick, simple, and full of flavor
I make this a lot it is delicious nice vegetarian dish…I like to spice it up so I add extra cumin and two tablespoons of chili powder. When I serve it with sliced avocado fresh cilantro some crumbled blue tortilla chips and Frank’s hot sauce.
The next day or with the leftovers I add an egg and turn them into Patty’s fry them on both sides till crisp and serve them in a bun. I will however since I just read stuff it in a pepper not a bad idea this is a very good recipe and can be played with!
Made this last night and it is going to become a regular dish for sure!!! Might add more peppers next time:)
This recipe has become a delicious lunchtime life saver in my household. It is packed with flavor on it’s own but can also be decked out with a variety of toppings. Thanks so much for this recipe; I highly recommend it!
This was delicious! I served it in tortilla bowls just to be fancy.
I had high hopes for this recipe & it did not disappoint! I give it a 10/10 – will definitely be making this again. I did change a few things about the recipe & I’m not vegetarian so I added shredded chicken to the mix once it was done cooking for some extra protein. I used water with a little chicken bouillon mixed in instead of vegetable broth since I didn’t have any on hand. I also used a can of ‘diced tomatoes with green chiles’ since I had one in my pantry & I added some extra diced jalapeños to the mixture + a good amount of cayenne pepper (I’m 39 weeks pregnant & trying every trick to induce my labor so I went a little crazy with the spiciness). I only ended up letting it simmer for about 12 minutes, not sure why but the liquid absorbed very quickly & the quinoa was cooked all the way through so I had to take it off the stove early. Once it was done I stirred in some left over shredded chicken from taco night. Sadly I didn’t have an avocado so I went without it. I am now completely obsessed with this dish & I’m sure it’s just as good if you follow the exact recipe. Thank you so much for sharing!!!
First off 100% real person if you were wondering. Secondly this is an amazing recipe. Seriously give it a shot
I have not even made this recipe yet but I am giving it a 5/5 because you didn’t write out your entire life story before the recipe. Thank you. Looks delicious, will make it tonight for dinner!
My vegetarian daughter came to visit so I made this. It is super easy and so delicious. I’ve made it again after she left. It’s perfect by itself or with a salad. Just add some shredded cheese and some sour cream and some tortilla chips! My meat loving husband even gives it a thumbs up. Very filling too!
I actually did not have beans and avocado! So I made it without and had a bigger can of tomatoes.
Even without those ingredients this recipe was absolutely bomb! So easy to make to, will def make this more often.
So, so good! Adding this to my go-tos. I came across this while trying to find recipes for stuffed bell pepper filling. I used about half to stuff bell peppers (added ground turkey & melted cheese on top!) and ate the rest by itself. Great both ways 🙂
Delicious!