Week 18: Quinoa Tacos!

Published by Emily, May 6th, 2014

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I don’t think this holiday is supposed to be a big deal in Canada, but any excuse to have tacos and margaritas is a damn good one. In this week’s dish, to keep things light and healthy, I made a vegetarian quinoa filling. If I just lost some disgruntled viewers with the words “vegetarian" and “quinoa", it’s their loss because this was simply AMAZING! Definitely a must try. I think there was enough quinoa filling for at least 15 tacos. Which is perfect, since this is one of those dishes where you can have 3-5 servings without feeling an ounce of remorse. Thankfully so, because I still have painful memories of the last “Taco Tuesday" my roommates and I had during the school year where I classily attempted to consume 3 burritos that weighed at least a pound, each. 2.75 burritos later, I had a Mexican food baby, the room was starting to spin, and I practically had to be rolled back to my room before vowing I wouldn’t eat another burrito again for the rest of my life (I had another burrito the week after).

Okay, so I’m sort of addicted to Mexican food. Just last year, I contemplated cutting one of my best friends from elementary school out of my life after I suggested we grab Chipotle’s… to which she nonchalantly replied, “I don’t really like Mexican food." The audacity! She was lucky it was almost her birthday.

Anyway, I knew this recipe was the one when looking for this week’s dish after noticing I had inadvertently ‘pinned’ it on three separate occasions over the past year. Actually, it was supposed to be last week’s dish but due to the ongoing Limepocalypse, I couldn’t find any fresh limes!

Speaking of last week… I received a bit of backlash after last week’s post from someone (not gonna name-drop) unwilling to forgive a caffeine-sensitive sista for publishing a “simple" traditional Vietnamese recipe in light of the Great Lime Crisis of 2014. As such, I have decided to post a makeup dish, and will have last week’s page updated by Wednesday night. Stay tuned?

Recipe (makes A LOT of tacos. Consider cutting the recipe in half unless I’m one of your dinner guests…)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa (use less water than directed [1:1] on the packaging.)

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup vegetable broth

1 large (28 fl oz.) can of diced organic tomatoes, undrained.

1 1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tbsp chipotle in abado

1 1/2 cups frozen corn

2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed in cold water

juice of 1 lime

Served with: Small tortillas, Avocado, Hot sauce, Grated cheese of your choice (I used cheddar), sour cream

Directions

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a medium-sized pot. Once heated, add chopped onions and sauté until golden (about 2 minutes). Add minced garlic and toss for about 30 seconds.

Add broth, tomatoes, spices, chipotle in abado. Bring to a boil before stirring in the cooked quinoa. Once the quinoa has been added, cover the pot and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the filling has slightly thickened. The quinoa cooks further when it is being simmered, so to keep the filling from becoming overly mushy, it is important to undercook the quinoa (by adding less water) before adding it to the mixture.

Stir in corn and black beans and simmer for another 5 minutes or until heated. While the pot is simmering, this is a good time to wrap the tortillas in some aluminum foil and heat them at 300F for a few minutes. Once the filling is done simmering, squeeze some lime juice over it and mix.

Assemble the tacos, adding toppings of your choice and enjoy!!