Mexican Brown rice and Quinoa skillet | Easy vegan one pot meal ready under 30 minutes

This is a recipe you will love if you are looking for healthy one pot meals for weeknights. Its easy, versatile and super tasty. If you haven’t started with the wonder grains- brown rice or quinoa, this will be a perfect dish to jump on them and enjoy the benefits. Its so easy that when I first tried the recipe, I had to look twice to check if I have skipped some step. Honestly.   

My love-hate relationship with rice is fairly new. I love the taste and ease that my body digests it with, but I hate the after effect visible on my waist line. Not that I am blaming poor humble rice completely to be a culprit of my never ending struggle with shedding extra weight. But it’s my lack of will power to control the portion while having rice. I have measured the ideal portion size I should be having, and I take  at least 3 times of it. So. Not. Good. 

Up until a few years ago, I never used to cook rice dishes for the family. For us, either it was dal with plain boiled rice or max , good old garlic peas pulav with some raita aside. My family had never been a rice eater while growing up, plus we had this belief that rice makes you fat. Now that I know its not entirely true and its more of your eating habits that are responsible more for your shoddy fitness scale; I cook rice very often. And try to eat just the right amount. 

More rice recipes – Lemon rice | Curd (yogurt) rice | Vegetable biryani | Tomato beans rice | Chickpeas vegetable Pilaf | Green Mango rice 

Lately, I have been trying to incorporate more brown rice into my diet. Its being healthier and all. Honestly, I did struggle a bit initially with the nutty taste and hard texture. But I love it now. And I have learnt the right technique to cook it, so its not that hard after all. 

Another big news these days is Quinoa, which again, I have experimented with a lot in the past and came close to hating it. But now that I have developed a taste for this amazing grain, I make use of it every once in a while. Some people are just naturally wired to like all these super healthy things and they adopt the taste pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I am not one of them and I take a lot of time to get used to something new. Especially when I have to substitute it with something else I love. 

I received this Wholegrain basmati brown rice and quinoa mix pack from Tilda a few weeks ago. It was a good opportunity to try my hands on the combo I had never tried before. Its like 1:4 ratio of quinoa : brown rice and it worked out really well. Both rice and quinoa were well cooked, fluffy and tastes awesome together. Tilda has done a good job with combining the two grains, and their quality is undoubtedly excellent so if you don’t have time to buy them separately or you just want to do a taste test first, you may just buy this pack and get the ball rolling. 

The recipe is very versatile and you can skip or add anything you like. The original recipe called for sweet corns as well, it being a Mexican staple. But I don’t like the mushy texture that much so I have skipped it. you may also add some pineapple pieces for garnish as I have specified in the notes.   

Recipe adopted from: Damn Delicious
Serves: 3-4 people
Cuisine: Mexican fusion
Course: Main

Nutritional benefits: high in complex carbs (which is good), fibre (excellent!) and protein (what else do you need now?) 

What you need?

• 1 cup quinoa and rice mix (1:4 proportion)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 green chilies, chopped fine
• 1 ½ cup vegetable broth/stock
• 1 can beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 medium sized tomatoes, diced OR 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 bell pepper, diced (I took 2 small ones, different colour) 
• 1 avocado, halved, seeded, peeled and diced
• 1 tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp cumin
• Salt to taste, about 1 tsp
• ½ tsp black pepper, or to taste
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (coriander leaves) 

How to make? 

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic and green chilies, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Stir in rice-quinoa mix, vegetable broth, beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, chili powder and cumin; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until rice-quinoa is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Stir in avocado, lime juice and cilantro. Serve immediately. 

Accomplishments: Chilled yogurt raita

 

Notes:

If you are mixing brown rice and quinoa separately, take ¾ cup brown rice and ¼ cup quinoa for this recipe.
I have taken red kidney beans but the original recipe called for black beans, they are “more” Mexican. You can take your pick or use whatever is available in the pantry.
The original recipe had jalapenos instead of green chilies. I didn’t get good jalapenos so  used chilies instead.

If you are looking for more one pot meals, why not try this Vegan One pot spaghetti pasta 

 

Disclaimer- With thanks to Tilda for sending me the rice and quinoa pack. All views expressed are my own.