One Pot Southwest Quinoa and Black Beans

This one pot southwest quinoa and black beans dish is a super easy and flavorful Mexican style side dish. Made with quinoa, sautéed onions and peppers, a simple southwest spice blend, and black beans. The perfect accompaniment to your next Mexican dinner night! Pantry friendly, gluten free and vegan.

This one pot southwest quinoa and black beans is:

• Filling
• SO flavorful
• Easy to make
• Pantry friendly
• Inexpensive to make
• Gluten free
• Vegan

We’ve been making it alongside our Mexican themed dinners and basically every Taco Tuesday for the past month or so and it’s such a hit! Filling and flavorful, and also makes great leftovers.

Seriously easy to make and ready in just about 30 minutes – which conveniently is just about enough time to whip up a protein, a salad, and a large serving of guacamole 🎉

Because at home, guacamole is NOT extra 😉

This southwest quinoa is great as a simple side dish, but could also be used in a salad, or topped with chicken or shrimp.

Let’s make it!

One pot southwest quinoa and black beans ingredients

• Quinoa: White or multi-colored both work, the only different will be the way it looks when it’s done cooking. I love this brand, and as a bonus it’s already pre-washed which saves a step when it comes time to cook!
• Olive oil: you could substitute coconut oil, ghee, or avocado oil instead.
• Onion
• Red bell pepper
• Chili powder
• Cumin powder
• Paprika
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• Broth: To keep this recipe vegan / vegetarian, choose a vegetable broth, otherwise any type of tasty broth works great!
• Canned black beans
• Cilantro: To garnish and finish the dish before serving – feel free to skip it if you don’t have it on hand or don’t like the flavor of cilantro!

How to make perfect quinoa

Okay, so I’ve talked about this before on NK but we’re going to go over it again, because I feel so passionately about perfect fluffy quinoa!

I feel like this section could almost be titled, “How to make quinoa that’s not mushy and gross”, because this is something I’ve struggled with for maaaany years of my life and I FINALLY FIGURED OUT THE FIX 💯💯💯 And for quinoa lovers, I can promise you it’s nothing short of life changing.

Here are the key points of what I’ve learned from my experimenting:

Rinse your quinoa

Some packaged quinoa that you buy at the store or online (like this one) will be labeled as “pre-rinsed”. If that’s the case for the quinoa you have on hand, skip this step. But if your package doesn’t say that, or you’re not sure, you want to give it a good rinse before cooking.

Because quinoa grains are so small the easiest way to rinse your quinoa is with a fine mesh strainer like this one. These little strainers are so handy not only for rinsing quinoa, but also SO many other kitchen tasks. They work great for rinsing berries, draining beans, or washing veggies. I use mine all the time.

Quinoa to water ratio

The most important tip out of all of these? Use less water than most package instructions will tell you to.

My recommended ratio is 1 part quinoa : 1 part water

Most recipes and package instructions will tell you to use a ratio of 1 part quinoa to 2 parts water, but I have found that an equal ratio of quinoa to water works SO much better.

This is fairly contradictory to a lot of the information out there, but based on my experience of testing this ratio combined with a certain cooking technique is where the magic happens.

And by magic I mean perfectly FLUFFY, soft + tender quinoa with no sign of mush or extra liquid in sight.

How long to cook quinoa

For the best results, I like to cook quinoa on relatively low heat for 25 minutes, and then remove it from the heat to steam with a cover on the pan.

This allows the grain to fully cook and “pop” open, and then steam to finish absorbing any remaining liquid which will keep the quinoa light and fluffy.

Because this is a spiced up recipe the cooking process is a little different than if you were cooking up plain old quinoa. But it’s nothing too difficult.

How to make one pot southwest quinoa and black beans

1. If not pre-rinsed, rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer until water runs clear. Set strainer over a bowl to finish draining.
2. Heat oil in a medium sized pot over medium high heat. Add diced onion and bell pepper and saute until quite soft and starting to caramelize – about 4-5 minutes. 
3. Add quinoa with spices, salt, and a few grinds of black pepper. Stir to coat quinoa with spices and lightly toast the quinoa. Cook until quinoa is starting to appear more dry and sticking to the bottom of the pan a little bit. 
4. Add broth, scraping up any stuck on bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring up to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, stir, cover, and set a timer for 25 minutes. 
5. Cook, covered, for 25 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave covered to steam for about 5 minutes. Remove the cover, fluff the quinoa, and allow steam to release for another 5 minutes or so.
6. Add the black beans and stir gently to combine. Put the cover back on the pan and allow beans to warm slightly before serving.
7. Serve topped with cilantro and any other favorite Mexican toppings. 

What to serve with this one pot southwest quinoa and black beans

You could serve this curried quinoa with so many different types of dishes.

Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

• Sweet and Spicy Mexican Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• Mexican Roasted Cauliflower Tacos with Cashew Lime Crema
• Mexican Roasted Cauliflower
• Easy Marinated Steak and Avocado Tacos
• Creamy Cashew Queso Dip

A few notes on the recipe

• This southwest quinoa can be made in advance and stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. This makes it perfect for meal prep to enjoy throughout the week!
• If your quinoa is not labeled as pre-rinsed, make sure you rinse it well using a fine mesh strainer to keep it from tasting bitter.
• For an added shortcut substitute 2 teaspoons taco seasoning for the spices.
• No black beans? You can absolutely skip them or use pinto beans instead!
• Want to add more veggies? Roasted corn, green peppers, and zucchini would all be delicious!

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