One Pot Southwest Quinoa Meal

One pot recipes are key staple to easy weekly meal planning. Why? Because it saves you time, easy clean up, and you can double, triple the recipe and have plenty of leftovers.

This One Pot Southwest Quinoa Meal is a 100% vegetarian meal. It is important as part of a balanced lifestyle to incorporate easy vegetarian meals a few times a month. The nutrition reason is because it enhances a few nutrition factors.

Let’s dive in…

Nutrition

Quinoa is a unique ingredient. It is a carbohydrate, a complex carbohydrate yet it is also a protein. That means it has 2 macro nutrient benefits. It boosts energy, breaks down other macronutrients, complex B vitamins, and is rich with fiber. All key nutrition components of a lot of complex carbohydrates. The unique factor is that is a plant that contains all 9 essential amino acids. That is a rare thing to see in nature. Most complete proteins come in the form of animals. For example, eggs, chicken, fish, cheese…

Quinoa is slightly different. It is a plant, actually a seed not a grain. That is a common misconception. It has all of the 9 amino acids to make it a complete protein. For a one pot meal that only contains vegetable/plant based ingredients that is pretty cool. That means you don’t have to add any animal proteins to make this meal balanced with 3 macro nutrients.

A Taste of Wellbeing nutrition’s foundation is balance. That means that all of the 3 macronutrients are a part of every meal. That means your body will function better, be in a better state of health, and provide you with optimal nutrients when you eat balanced meals.

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One Pot Southwest Quinoa Meal

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 4 sides

Ingredients

• 1 cup Quinoa
• 1 can Black Beans – no salt added rinsed and drained
• 1 can Corn – no salt added rinsed and drained
• 2 TBLS Olive Oil or Avocado Oil
• 1/4 cup Yellow Onion minced or small dice
• 2 Garlic Cloves minced
• 1/2 cup Red Bell pepper small dice
• 1 cup Vegetable Broth – low sodium
• 1-1.5 tsp Ground Cumin
• 1/4-1 tsp Chili powder depending on how spicy you want it
• Salt + Pepper to taste
• Top with diced Haas Avocado
• Optional to squeeze fresh lime juice once cooked

Instructions

• 1.   Heatoil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté onion, pepper and garlic inthe hot oil until fragrant, about 1 minute.

  2.   Stirblack beans, tomatoes, corn, quinoa, and broth into the skillet. Season withpepper flakes, chili powder, cumin, salt, and black pepper. Bring to a boil

  3.   Coverthe skillet with a lid, reduce heat to low, and simmer until quinoa is tenderand liquid is mostly absorbed, about 20 minutes.

  4.   Topwith diced avocado

  Enjoy!