Vegan Quinoa and Black Beans

By Malooga

I admit when a recipe has the word “vegan” in it, I usually run in the other direction. I consider myself a meat lovin’ girl and married a man who doesn’t consider it a meal unless some type of meat is present.

Recently, we had a dinner guest who was vegan and I thought, “What in the world am I going to feed her?” But as it turns out, our worlds are really not that far apart.

Quinoa was the answer. I’ve been dying to make a quinoa dish ever since all of my friends started raving about it. I’ve been butchering the pronunciation of the word “quinoa” for so long (pronounced “KEEN-wa” ) that I figured I owed it a retribution recipe to showcase it.

This Vegan Quinoa and Black Beans cooked up so fast and easy. It has black beans, corn, lime, and cilantro -- all of the Mexican flavors that I crave so often.

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 3/4 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 2 (15 ounce) cans of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 ripe avocado, diced (optional)
• to salt and pepper taste

Details

Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 45mins
Adapted from tablespoon.com

Preparation

Step 1

Rinse the quinoa in a strainer. Sometimes it can have a bitter taste on the outside so rinsing gets rid of this.

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic, and cook for a couple of minutes or until onion is soft.

Add the quinoa and vegetable broth to the pan. Add the cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Bring mixture to a boil and then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Stir in lime juice and frozen corn into the pan and simmer for 5 minutes or until corn is heated through.
Finally, mix in the black beans and cilantro. Garnish with chopped avocado if desired.

Serve hot or cold. Store in refrigerator.