Quinoa Enchilada Crockpot: seasoned ground turkey, quinoa, tomatoes, salsa, beans, corn, enchilada sauce, and plenty of cheese. Top with cilantro, lime, guac, or your favorite enchilada toppings!
Pair this meal with a simple salad like this Italian Salad or this Mandarin Orange Salad.
Quinoa Enchilada Crock-Pot
This meal is one of my favorites! It’s so easy to bring together, and the slow cooker does all the hard work!
You can also serve this meal in any way you like—it can be eaten as is, layered in tortillas or lettuce wraps, cooked into actual enchiladas, or eaten as a dip with chips!
How To Make Enchilada Quinoa In The Crock-Pot
- Sauté onion and bell pepper in olive oil in a large skillet, then add ground turkey.
- Mix in spices and garlic, sauté briefly, and transfer to a slow cooker.
- Add uncooked quinoa, black beans, corn, fire-roasted tomatoes, salsa, enchilada sauce, and chicken broth (or water and bouillon).
- Stir everything together until evenly mixed.
- Cook on high for 2.5 to 5 hours, stirring once halfway if possible, until the quinoa cooks and absorbs the liquid.
- Stir in freshly grated cheese until melted, then serve with your favorite enchilada toppings.
Quinoa Enchilada Crock-Pot Tips
- Use freshly grated cheese. Pre-shredded cheese has a coating that keeps it from melting well. You can use it, but it will get a bit greasy and not melt as nicely.
- Cook on high. This recipe doesn’t work well on low. The quinoa takes too long and cooks unevenly.
- Use fire-roasted diced tomatoes for more flavor.
- Don’t forget the toppings. They add so much to this dish! Add what you like on enchiladas—my top picks are avocado, cilantro, lime, and cherry tomatoes. You can also try sour cream, extra cheese, pico de gallo, guac, thin radishes, or green onions.
- Crock-Pot® is just one brand. You can use any slow cooker you like.
Variations
- Add heat: A tablespoon or two of diced jalapeños, hot sauce, or fire-roasted diced green chilies are all great ways to add in some heat. You can also use a spicier salsa or enchilada sauce.
- Reduce heat: If you use mild salsa and mild enchilada sauce, this dish is already pretty mild. For even less spice, use just 1–2 teaspoons of chili powder. (Pick a mild one like McCormick®.)
- Make a homemade enchilada sauce: If you prefer, make your own!
- Replace ground turkey with lean ground beef.
- Make it vegetarian: Leave out the ground turkey. Then no other changes are needed.
Alternate Cooking Methods
- Oven: Try this Quinoa Enchilada Bake. It’s just like this recipe but baked instead of slow cooked.
- Stove top: Do steps 1–4 in a large pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil over high heat. Then lower the heat, cover the pot, and simmer for 15–20 minutes, or until the quinoa “pops.” Stir every 5–7 minutes. Lower the heat if the quinoa sticks, or turn it up if the liquid isn’t soaking in.
- Pressure cooker: I haven’t tried this in a pressure cooker, but one reader said it worked great: “Made this yesterday in my electric pressure cooker: 9 minutes on high (added about 1/2 cup more water).” (Thanks Lisa!)
More Healthy Quinoa Recipes
- Crockpot Chicken Quinoa Soup Italian inspired
- Quinoa Chili with sweet potatoes
- Spring Quinoa Salad with a lemon dressing
- Greek Quinoa Salad with a Greek-inspired dressing
- Quinoa Fried Rice with a tasty stir-fry sauce
Quinoa Enchilada Crockpot
This Quinoa Enchilada Crockpot meal is loaded with seasoned ground turkey, quinoa, fire-roasted tomatoes, beans, corn, enchilada sauce, and lots of cheese. Top with cilantro, lime, guac, or your favorite toppings!
Equipment
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
- 1/2 cup diced bell pepper I use red
- 1 pound lean ground turkey
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1-1/2 cups uncooked quinoa
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1/2 cup salsa
- 1 (14-ounce) can fire-roasted diced tomatoes undrained
- 1 cup chicken stock or chicken broth or water
- 1 (19-ounce) can red enchilada sauce see note 1
- 2 cups Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese; I use 1 cup extra sharp cheese and 1 cup Monterrey jack cheese
- 1/3 cup fresh cilantro finely chopped
- Toppings as desired see note 2
Instructions
- Line a slow cooker or generously spray with cooking spray. In a large pan, add olive oil. Heat over medium-high heat and add diced onion and diced red pepper. Sauté 3–4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add ground turkey. Cook and crumble until browned through. (Drain any grease if needed.) Add minced garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper (or to taste). Cook until fragrant, another 1–2 minutes.
- Transfer ground turkey mixture into the Crock-Pot (6-quart). Add uncooked quinoa (make sure to rinse first in a fine-mesh sieve), drained and rinsed black beans, frozen corn, salsa, undrained diced tomatoes, chicken stock, and enchilada sauce.
- Stir well. Cover slow cooker and cook on high for 2 and 1/2 to 3 and 1/2 hours or until all the liquid is absorbed into the mixture. Once absorbed, remove lid and stir together everything again. Add diced cilantro, 2 tablespoons lime juice (if using), and cheese. Stir until cheese is melted.
- Add your favorite enchilada toppings to individual plates: any additional cilantro or lime juice, sour cream, pico de gallo or diced cherry tomatoes, fresh avocado or guacamole.
- To make these more traditional enchiladas: Warm up the tortillas, spread some cheese on one side, a large spoonful of the mixture on top of the cheese, and more cheese on top of the mixture. Roll it up, cook until crisp in a pan over medium-high heat, and top with more salsa or enchilada sauce. Add sour cream, green onions, and cilantro if desired.
Final step! Please let us know how it was by leaving a review.
Recipe Notes
Note 1: For the enchilada sauce, I use Old El Paso® mild enchilada sauce, which I don’t find overly spicy. Some enchilada sauces can be very hot, so taste the sauce before adding to the slow cooker.
Note 2: Toppings: 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, sour cream, cilantro, etc. (whatever toppings you like on enchiladas).
Storage: Let the meal cool, then store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. For freezing, portion into airtight containers for up to 3 months. Reheat with a splash of stock or water, and add fresh toppings right before serving.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 418kcal | Carbohydrates: 35.2g | Protein: 27.4g | Fat: 19.3g | Cholesterol: 72.7mg | Sodium: 919.4mg | Fiber: 7.1g | Sugar: 5.8g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi, This looks amazing. Say we *gasp* dont have a slow cooker right now. Could a dutch oven work on say medium high for the same amount of time? maybe just adding liquid if necessary? thanks for the recipe and my new pinned blog!
Would this recipe still work if you were to cook on low for a longer period of time, while at work for example?
I had no idea what quinoa was until I saw this recipe, Cooking as we speak. smells awesome!! Do you have other healthy recipes that are kid friendly?
So glad to introduce you to one of my very favorite foods! Hope you all love it! Most of the meals I make are geared towards healthy eating and family friendly (all taste tested by my little boy!) feel free to browse my recipe index for some more recipes. My little guys favorite is probably the one skillet cheesy taco quinoa!
I made this tonight, and it has amazing flavor! I went ahead and pre-portioned it out into roughly 1 cup servings. I’m freezing three servings, so I’ll be able to share how well it freezes. Easy recipe to make and would be great as tacos or as I’m planning to eat it, with shredded lettuce. Mine wasn’t runny enough to eat chili style as someone else mentioned.
Hi! Can you share how it was freezing some of this finished product? I’m a household of just me and would love to save some for a night I’m not able to cook (and so I’m not eating this for a week for breakfast ,lunch and dinner : )). Thank you!
Do you think you could substitute couscous with this or no?
My fitness pal puts this recipe at over 650 calories. I was blown away. I am glad to see that it is not according to your recipe. Anyway, could include the nutrition chart with the recipe so we don’t have to look in comments for it? I do love the recipe but I would have to change it if it was over 650 calories.
Thanks for the wonderful presentation.
I’m not sure why My Fitness Pal is putting this recipe at such a high caloric count. Here’s the calorie count that was generated when I inserted all of the ingredients for this recipe:
Serving Size 1 Recipe total Servings 8
Calories 410
Total Fat 8.58 g
Delicious! Even my picky boys love this one. My littlest asks for it at least twice a week 🙂
Yay!! Love hearing those things!! Thank you so much Kim 🙂
This is by far the best quinoa recipe I’ve tried! It’s kind of tough for me to do a 3 hour crockpot meal but I just plan on a day that it works for me. So yummy! Thanks!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment Dori!! So glad to hear you love it! 🙂
Thinking about making this with green enchilada sauce. What do you think???
This looks great! I’ve never cooked quinoa in the slow cooker. I’m wondering how long you would cook it on low? Will that give the same results as 3-3 1/2 hrs on high.
I haven’t always had great success cooking quinoa in a slow cooker on low. That’s why I didn’t give directions for it on low. I would recommend sticking with just cooking it on high!
I was wondering the same thing about the time.
I am making it like you listed 3 hours on high but on low would work better for my schedule but wasn’t sure since I have never made it before
I haven’t had a whole lot of success with cooking quinoa in the crockpot on low; it always ends up pretty mushy..