I love how quick and easy this recipe is to make, and I especially love the minimal clean up! This spicy Mexican quinoa is a great go-to if you don’t want to spend all night slaving away in the kitchen, or clean up a pile of dishes afterwards. But don’t worry, the lack of effort needed is no sacrifice for taste! After playing around with this recipe for several years, I finally figured out how to maximize the flavor and have definitely made this one of my go-tos for lunch, dinner, or meal prep.
Below is a step-by-step tutorial to help you through creating this dish, with a full recipe summary at the bottom of the page.
To make this recipe, you will need the following ingredients:
- 3 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 minced jalapeños
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 green onions
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 15 oz. can of black beans, drained and rinsed
- 15 oz. can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 cup corn
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 avocado
- 1 lime
- 1/4 cup cilantro
Note: Don’t worry if you don’t have all these spices on hand! You can always substitute 2 tbsp of taco seasoning.
Now that you’ve gathered all your ingredients, let’s go ahead and start cooking!
Step 1:
Heat a small amount of oil in a large pan over medium heat and add all your chopped veggies. This will include the garlic, jalapeños, onion, bell pepper, and just the white parts of the green onions. Sauté for about 5-7 minutes, until the veggies are translucent.
Pro-tip: Sautéing the white parts of the green onions is a great way to boost the flavor and aroma to your dish! Plus I’m not a huge fan of eating those parts raw since they can be pretty potent, so cooking them down helps to avoid the strong, oniony flavor. I also use this method when cooking rice and soup!
Step 2:
Once the veggies have cooked down, add all the remaining ingredients EXCEPT the avocado, lime, cilantro, and remaining green onions. These 4 will be added at the end, once the quinoa is done cooking. Now just cover, reduce the heat to low, and let simmer for 20 minutes.
Step 3:
After simmering for 20 minutes, most of the liquid should be absorbed and the quinoa should be nice and tender. Remove from heat and add the diced avocado, lime juice, cilantro, and remaining green parts of green onion and you’re ready to serve!
That’s it! It really is that easy. You can store leftovers in the fridge for up to 7 days and the flavors will only get more intense. If you do plan on making this for meal prep or plan to store leftovers, I recommend leaving out the avocado and adding it fresh after reheating so it doesn’t get hot and mushy!
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this recipe! If you do, share it with a friend and leave a comment down below. I love to hear your feedback. Happy cooking!
Spicy Mexican Quinoa
Ingredients
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 jalapenos minced
- 1/2 onion diced
- 1/2 red pepper diced
- 2 green onions chopped with white and green parts separated
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 15 oz. can black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 15 oz. can fire-roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 cup corn
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 avocado diced
- 1 lime
- 1/4 cup cilantro chopped
Instructions
- Saute garlic, onions, jalapeno, peppers and white part of green onions in small amount of oil for 5 minutes.
- Add quinoa, vegetable broth, beans, tomatoes, corn, and spices.
- Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.
- Add avocado, juice from lime, cilantro, and green parts of green onions and serve.
