Quinoa Enchilada Casserole
by Chungah
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A lightened-up, healthy enchilada bake that you can enjoy guilt-free, chockfull of quinoa, black beans and cheesy goodness. And the leftovers taste even better!
Featured Comment
I think it’s safe to say that I have somewhat of a love affair with Mexican food. Whether it’s fish tacos, cheesy enchiladas or a giant burrito the size of my forearm, I could honestly live off of all of these for the rest of my life.
So when Old El Paso asked me to be their brand ambassador for the next year, well, how could I say no? It just gives me an excuse to make even more of my favorite Mexican-inspired dishes to share with you all! And to start things off, I just had to share my favorite Mexican comfort food lightened-up.
Now this is a super easy enchilada bake with quinoa instead of tortilla. By using quinoa, we’re adding in some fun healthy goodies, like protein and fiber, and there’s absolutely no rolling or wrapping of any kind. You can simply throw everything into a bowl, mix it up, and bake it from there. Yes, it doesn’t get easier than that!
After you let this bake through, you’ll have the most amazing cheesy enchilada bake! It’s so good, you’ll never want to have traditional enchiladas ever again!
Quinoa Enchilada Casserole: Frequently Asked Questions
You can use about 2 cups cooked quinoa.
Absolutely! This is our favorite recipe for homemade enchilada sauce.
Mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, and/or carrots would be great additions.
Ground taco meat and/or leftover rotisserie chicken can get mixed in with your quinoa-enchilada-sauce mixture.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat in the oven until completely warmed through.
You can substitute vegan cheeses for the cheddar and mozzarella cheeses to make this a vegan quinoa enchilada casserole.
Quinoa Enchilada Casserole
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 (10-ounce) can red enchilada sauce
- 1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles, drained
- ½ cup corn kernels, frozen, canned or roasted
- ½ cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ¾ cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- ¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
- 1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
- 1 Roma tomato, diced
Instructions
- In a large saucepan of 2 cups water, cook quinoa according to package instructions; set aside.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly coat a 9 x 13 baking dish with nonstick spray.
- In a large bowl, combine quinoa, enchilada sauce, green chiles, corn, black beans, cilantro, cumin and chili powder; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in 1/2 cup cheddar cheese and 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.
- Spread quinoa mixture into the prepared baking dish. Top with remaining cheeses. Place into oven and bake until bubbly and cheeses have melted, about 15 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with avocado and tomato, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Old El Paso. All opinions expressed are my own.
This is in my oven right now, such a great idea to use quinoa!
This was so delicious! Made it tonight and both my husband and I had seconds. Was super easy to put together. I ended up just using the whole can of beans and added a can of jalapeños. Didn’t miss the meat with this dish and will certainly be in the rotation. Thanks for a winner!!
Just made this tonight, super delicious, easy and fast! The only thing I would say is the 9X13 pan was a bit too big, still had plenty of space for more food in there. I’d probably make it in an 8X8 so that I don’t take up the whole fridge with the leftovers next time 🙂
Fantastic! This was my second try cooking with quinoa. I doubled the recipe and added a teaspoon of chipotle adobo sauce for spice and smokiness. So damn good!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was fabulous. I made it slightly less healthy and used a tortilla chip crust with a layer of sour cream and then put the quinoa mix on top. I also added peppers (in season) and extra tomatoes. Thanks for the inspiration.
I love the idea of a tortilla chip crust!
I tried this last week and our whole family of six loved it! I’m making it again tonight actually 🙂 Thank you thank you!
Made this for lunch with blueberry almond milk smoothies. The entire thing was a hit with my family. I left out the ench sauce and used Frank’s red hot. This was a great dish. Thanks for the inspiration!!!
I will be making this. I see you used a casserole dish instead of a 9 x 13’pan. My casserole dishes are pretty than my pans. Make enchiladas look even better.
I’ve made this 2 times. The first time, followed the recipe exactly. It was good. Second time, used “HOT” diced chilis and it was delicious! Thank you for the delicious recipe!
This was an amazing, delicious easy meal. As a habit I don’t do seconds. Not even with food I really love. I was thinking about it from the first bite…..didn’t do it. I get to have it again tomorrow!
How well do you think this casserole would freeze then cook??
Emily, unfortunately, I cannot answer this with certainty as I have never tried freezing this myself. Please use your best judgment for freezing and reheating.
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Oh this looks FABULOUS!! I must try it.
We had this for dinner tonight and LOVED it! My boyfriend couldn’t stop saying how amazing it was and requested we eat it every 3 days (lol!). The only things I did differently was 1) Cooked my quinoa with chicken broth, chopped veggies and seasonings to pump up the flavor and 2) added diced onions.
Thanks so much for this recipe. It’s definitely going into our rotation.
thanks for this! it looks great. And just in case anyone is wondering, I put the recipe in my handy little recipe analyzer web site (gives the nutrient breakdown and such) and it gave it a B+ and said that it’s good points are that it’s Low in cholesterol, High in iron, and Very high in vitamin B6. Yay!!
I made this last night and it was absolutely delicious! I followed the recipe pretty well but made a couple of adjustments to my taste. I used about a cup of frozen corn (it worked fine – no issues with being frozen) and a whole can of black beans (because what do I do with the other half?). I used medium enchilada sauce for an extra kick (yum!). I also used about 1 1/2 cups of each cheese. Just seemed so right! Ha! The recipe was great albeit a bit too cheesy (lesson learned). I’ll definitely be making this again.
Thank you so much for the recipe!
I’m thinking I might attempt to make this in my pampered chef deep covered baker and cooking the quinoa with all the other ingredients at the same time. Anyone have experience with this?
Wow! This was great. I even got a “Mom this is the best dinner ever” from my picky 7 year old. That made my day for sure. I headed into it thinking I would get some groans (due to the quinoa and meatlessness) but instead resulted in a meal everyone enjoyed 🙂
Can you substitute rice for quinoa?
Yes, absolutely!
Awesome. This will be a perfect, quick, weeknight meal with plenty of leftovers.
Thank you for this easy yummy recipe! Tried it tonight and it was a big hit with my family. Great vegetarian dish, I also added diced chicken for the meat eaters in my family and onions and tortilla strip for an extra crunch. A definite repeat 🙂
Just making this now yummy didn’t have any enchilada sauce so I just made my own can not wait to try