Mexican Quinoa and Beans with Pico de Gallo plus 1 more

Mexican Quinoa and Beans with Pico de Gallo

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 03:54 PM PDT

While I was enjoying my first batch of Mexican quinoa as a side dish I was thinking that it would also make for a great main dish if you bulked it up a bit. One thing that I commonly like to do with quinoa is to combine it with beans and the combination of the two gives any meatless dish a bunch of protein. I figured that mixing some black beans or kidney beans into the Mexican quinoa near the end of cooking it would be a nice and simple way to do it. Although things were sounding good already I was thinking, why stop there when you could top it all off with with some salsa or a freshly home made pico de gallo? I was perfectly satisfied with things like this but some crumbled queso fresco would also be nice on top.

Mexican Quinoa and Beans with Pico de Gallo

Mexican quinoa with beans topped with a fresh pico de gallo salsa makes for a tasty and healthy light meal.

Servings: makes 4 servings

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 batch Mexican quinoa, warm
1 (14 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 batch pico de gallo
1 handful queso fresco or feta, crumbled (optional)

Directions

Mix the Mexican quinoa into the beans and serve topped with pico de gallo topped with crumbled queso fresco.

Mexican Quinoa

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 03:56 PM PDT

It has been a while since I last posted about a side dish! Although they are not the stars of the dinner table they play an important role and sometimes they are even my favourite part of a meal. With my new found passion for quinoa I have been trying to use it more often and that is not hard to do. An easy way to use it is to simply replace the rice in a dish with quinoa and it is with this in my that I undertook making Mexican quinoa.

Mexican rice, or Spanish rice, is a rice side dish that is generally cooked with tomatoes, onions, garlic and a bit of chili pepper heat. In addition to being really easy to make, Mexican rice is packed with flavour and it is always a welcome addition to any meal. One of the nice things about Mexican rice is that it is easy to play around with the recipe and change things up by adding other ingredients like diced bell peppers or even corn or peas. The tomato component is really flexible and I often make Mexican rice to finish off cans of tomato products that were only partially used in other dishes. Canned whole tomatoes work just as well as diced or pureed and fresh ripe tomatoes that are diced are also wonderful.

I figured that Mexican rice would go great with the rice replaced by quinoa and I was not wrong! My favourite part of quinoa has to be the texture and those soft, tiny, chewy pearls work amazingly well in Mexican rice! Now I have another way to make "Mexican rice" and I have a feeling that I will be using it often!

Mexican Quinoa

A take on the classic "Mexican" rice with quinoa. This tasty quinoa dish makes the perfect side for your favourite Mexican or Texmex meal.

Servings: makes 4 side dish sized servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 tablespoon corn oil
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon cumin, toasted and ground
1 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 cup diced tomato or 1/4 cup tomato puree
1/2 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 handful cilantro, chopped

Directions

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat.
Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
Add the garlic, cumin and chili powder and saute until fragrant about a minute.
Add the quinoa, broth, tomato, oregano, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer until the the quinoa is tender and liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes.
Serve garnished with cilantro.