Quinoa Enchilada Casserole
by Chungah
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
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?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Old El Paso. All opinions expressed are my own.
We made this with rice since quinoa is expensive. Delicious! I like to add sauteed onions and green peppers sometimes. Very flexible dish for using up veggies.
What is The serving size?
I’ve made this numerous times since I first discovered it 2-3 years ago and I loooove it! I need to double the recipe to take to a party. Should I split into 2 baking dishes or should it be ok to make in one large dish (if I have one large enough!) And not sure about cooking the quinoa in a double batch, less liquid and more time? Thanks, love this site!
Tish, you can do either-or – a double batch or a large baking dish. Whichever works best/easiest for you.
For the quinoa, you’ll need about 2 cups of liquid (water or stock for more flavor) for every one cup of dry quinoa. Good luck! 🙂
Love this recipe.. it’s one of my staples in my home now. I also recommend to everyone I know.
I use Mild taco sauce as it’s easier to find in my area. I also double the cumin and chilli spice to a tsp each. I double the corn and beans to a cup each …I use what ever cheese I have in the fridge. And usually I add ground chicken meat(with extra chilli/cumin in the meat).. we never have left overs as my entire family gobbles this up. Even the baby is eatting it now.
I made this last night, it was so delicious!! I can’t wait for left overs tonight 🙂
Thanks for the great recipe!!
The leftovers of this are always so good! Thanks for sharing, Lisa.
I am a busy mom with a full time job and 6 kids at home. I had to transition from being a stay at home mom who thrived in cooking healthy good meals for them to “HOW DO I DO THIS WITH SO LITTLE TIME NOW!” This meal was loved by all of them and i have some picky eaters. Coming from a Hispanic Culinary background, I choose to use my own enchilada sauce but in a pinch, El Paso will do with some doctoring up… This was really tasty and the kids added Greek Plain yogurt to top it off!
I’ve made this so many times, and just can’t get enough!!! Only slight change I made is using homemade enchilada sauce instead of store bought. Sooooooo good!!
That sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing, Christina!
Just made this and omg, let’s just say the kids all asked for seconds and there are no leftovers. So delicious! This recipe is a keeper! Thank you!!!
Yum. I made this with green enchilada sauce (that’s all I had), two kinds of vegan cheese shreds (reduced to 1 cup of cheese total), and taco-flavored tofu crumbles. It came out so good. I’m super lazy, so I made the quinoa in the rice cooker – it came out perfect. I rolled it into a burrito one day and scooped it up with chips the next. It’s filling and easy to make. My husband also enjoyed it.
Do I only need to cook for 15 minutes? Your bake time states 30. Just clarifying.
Yes that’s correct. The recipe cook time is for the entire recipe, that includes the cooking of the quinoa etc. Thanks for asking!
I love to cook!! I am giving this 5 stars before I even make it! The total recipe just makes sense. Although I am not vegetarian I have had a terrible time digesting meat for a couple years and now I have been experimenting with other options to get protein in my diet. My husband has to have meat but I am so making this recipe work for him and me!! I am new to Quinoa but I have just found out that i can add it to alot of my recipes to give them the extra boost in nutrition. This is the first recipe I have seen with it that has me excited. Thank you so much for posting it. I will let you know how it comes out (after I put my own spin on it, lol!)
❤️❤️❤️ the enchilada casserole
I made this using green enchilada sauce and adding 2 chopped raw chicken breasts. I also added a cup of chicken broth because I’m using it for meal prep and wanted the leftovers to stay moist. I also added a little verde salsa and used maybe a cup of Mexican blend cheese instead of the cheddar/mozzarella and green onions. It’s a 10, and reheats awesome!!!
Excited to try question how much is 1 serving ? Anyone know what equals to in 21 day fix containers ?
I made this two nights ago and it was so delicious. I think next time I will add green onion on top. I brought the left overs to work today to share with coworkers. Yummy!!
This was very good…I doubled the chili powder and cumin though and I’m glad I did. Next time I will double the corn and beans =) there’s a lot of quinoa (2 cups) and it could easily support extra corn and beans. I also lightly brown/caramelized the corn for that “roasted” yumminess! Served this with some sour cream, sliced up a few black olives and then a lot of chunky salsa…excellent dinner! I am buying more supplies to make this again next week! Thank you for sharing your recipe made with Old El Paso enchilada sauce!
This was excellent. Added a lil more cheese and used pepper jack instead of mozzarella since that is what I had on hand. Wife raved about it. So good! Will make again for sure!!
Chunga, this was an amazing dinner casserole. I added chopped carrot, diced celery, and diced green pepper. also put in some left over bbq chicken, and YUMMMM !!!
Added the quinoa, did not tell my husband, yet, but, he sure liked it, two servings worth. )))
thank you, love your blog,
going to make the asian meatballs tonight, doubling the whole recipe, sounds like another winner.
adding in a lb of pork, from reading the reviews, think that will be a nice addition.
serving with rice noodles and baby bok choy.
Cheers
Made a few changes, turned out excellent ! 😀 Thank you.
So incredibly delicious. I accidentally picked a can for chopped jalapenos off the shelf instead of green chilies (same size can) so I left out the chili powder and the pepper and it turned out great.
Thanks so much for sharing this unique dish.
I usually never leave reviews but had to after I made this receipt. This is one of the best Mexican dishes I have had! My boyfriend gave it a 9.9 ! The sweetness of the corn with the quinoa, soo good! Will keep this in my meal rotation, it was a hit.
Love this recipe! My husband and I use this in our Meatless Monday rotation!