15 Best Quick and Healthy Quinoa Recipes
So easy, nutritious and hearty. Best of all, they don’t even taste “healthy”!
To compensate for all those non-diet-friendly recipes I started posting since the start of January – particularly that lemon butter chicken and the easy creamy mushrooms – I thought it would be best to redeem myself by rounding up some of my favorite quinoa recipes. After all, life is all about balance, right?
1. Quinoa Enchilada Casserole – A lightened-up, healthy enchilada bake chockfull of quinoa, black beans and cheesy goodness. [GET THE RECIPE.]
2. Kale Salad with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette – Perfect as a light lunch or even a meatless Monday dinner option. [GET THE RECIPE.]
3. Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers – These stuffed bell peppers will provide the nutrition that you need for a healthy, balanced meal. [GET THE RECIPE.]
4. Blueberry Breakfast Quinoa – Start your day off right with this protein-packed breakfast bowl. [GET THE RECIPE.]
5. Roasted Shrimp Quinoa Spring Rolls – Quinoa is a wonderful protein-packed substitute for rice noodles in these easy peasy spring rolls. [GET THE RECIPE.]
6. Whole Food’s California Quinoa Salad – A healthy, nutritious copycat recipe that tastes 1000x better than the store-bought version. [GET THE RECIPE.]
7. Garlic Mushroom Quinoa – An easy, healthy side dish that you’ll want to make with every single meal. [GET THE RECIPE.]
8. Strawberry Quinoa Salad – A healthy, filling salad tossed in a sweet and tangy balsamic vinaigrette, creating the perfect blend of flavors. [GET THE RECIPE.]
9. Quinoa Chicken Parmesan – With an amazingly crisp quinoa crust, you’ll never guess that this is actually so healthy and packed with tons of protein. [GET THE RECIPE.]
10. Black Bean Quinoa Salad – A light and refreshing salad tossed in an orange vinaigrette, loaded with plenty of fiber. [GET THE RECIPE.]
11. Asian Quinoa Meatballs – Perfect as a light dinner over brown rice and a side of roasted vegetables. [GET THE RECIPE.]
12. Quinoa Fruit Salad – This protein-packed salad is balanced with a tart vinaigrette and refreshing mint. [GET THE RECIPE.]
13. Broccoli Quinoa Casserole – Healthy, cheesy comfort food without any of the guilt. [GET THE RECIPE.]
14. Asian Quinoa Salad – A quick and easy healthy salad dressed in sweet and tangy Asian flavors, loaded with tons of vibrant veggies. [GET THE RECIPE.]
15. 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. [GET THE RECIPE.]
Your quinoa recipes are so yummy. It has been difficult making a switch from eating rice. Asians without rice? What’s up with that right? But my lab results showed that I am pre-diabetic so I need to make changes while I still have time to reverse my condition. Thank you for this. I will now be a regular follower.
Would love to see nutritional values of your recipes.
Nutritional information is provided only for select and new recipes 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. Hope that helps, MaryAnn!
Wow, what a bunch of great recipes! Thanks, Chungah. I really like quinoa & make it a lot — but never even *thought* of putting it in spring rolls or using it as “breading”! I’ll be making the quinoa garlic mushroom dish for supper tonight because I have a bunch of mushrooms I want to use up. My usual “go to” for quinoa is either a cold salad or a hot veggie dish, both made the same way: I dice raw carrot, celery, bell pepper & green onion and toss them into cooked quinoa. Add some lightly steamed broccoli, olives, feta and/or blue cheese. In the summer, I sprinkle that with some balsamic & olive oil & eat. In winter, I toss it all into the microwave & nuke it for a minute or two & eat it hot, sometimes adding cooked peas, corn and/or black beans. Delicious either way. And I always toss a spoonful or two (uncooked) into my ancient grains’n’seeds porridge. Good, and good for you — how can you not love it?
The one pan Mexican quinoa is my new go to dish. Everyone who’s tried it has asked for the recipe so I’ve sent them to your website. It is so easy and so delicious!
I tried the Kale salad with Lemon dressing and it’s fantastic! I’ll try the Blueberry Quinoa breakfast bowl next, and I can’t wait! Thanks so much for the recipes.
OK, so this week I made the one pan mexican quinoa…OH.MY.GOD!! I hardly have words. My husband and I just kept looking at each other. I could eat that every day for the rest of my life – no joke!
Tonight I made the Cheesy broccoli casserole, and again it was another hit! We were eating salads for dinner and if I eat another salad, I’ll upchuck. These are delicious, healthy and easy.
Thank you so, so much!
Blueberry Breakfast Quinoa sounds my type, healthy and yummy, thanks Chungah for sharing your 15 best recipes for quinoa.
LOVE this post! And your pictures are beautiful!
I purchased quinoa on a whim a few months ago but have been unable to find any toddler/boyfriend-friendly recipes until this list. Thanks for putting it all together!
These look great! I’ve had a hard time finding a variety of good quinoa recipes. So many yummy options here!
I have always been more of a rice kinda gal, BUT some of these recipes just changed my mind! =) PINNED. Thanks for sharing!
Mmm, I love quinoa and am always looking for more ways to use it. Pinned!
I have never tried quinoa Could give me some ideal what its like Thank you
Mmm I love the flavour of quinoa, and these are all such great recipes! I would never have thought to use them in spring rolls – clever 😀 Thanks for the round-up, I’ll be sure to stock up on quinoa 😀 x
Nom nom nom!! These look amazing
Do you think I use botched soggy quinoa for any of these recipes and if not could you provide ideas on what I could do with it, because of my new years resolutions is not to waste food so it will be used for something even if I have to make a foot scrub out of it lol? I was going to make some fried quinoa and some barbeque chicken quinoa and I ruined two cups of dried quinoa. I’d never cooked that large an amount before, I should have stuck to making each batch separately like I had in the past lol. I did use one cup in a broccoli and cheese casserole so I chuckled a bit when I saw that recipe.
Unfortunately, I don’t have much experience using “botched soggy quinoa” before in any of my recipes! Although this quinoa veggie fried rice might be worth trying out – you’ll be adding in a ton of other veggies so it may balance out the botched quinoa!
If you over cook your quinoa chop up some herbs and jalapenos mix in some egg and panko and turn them into patties…you can freeze them and store for a later time
Wow so many delicious quinoa recipes in here!