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.
Easy and awesome tasting recipe! Toddler approved!!! Thanks!!!
Yay! So glad to hear it! Thank you Sharina! 🙂
HI Chelsea! I have shared this with everyone I know–it is so popular!! I think I am going to make it for my book club too. Do you have suggestions on how to increase the serving size? If I did two pounds of turkey would I need more enchilada sauce?
That makes me so happy to hear! Thank you so much Elizabeth!! If you want to double the ground turkey, I would probably increase everything (double all the ingredients). If you have a 6 quart crockpot I think you could double the recipe just fine. Smaller than that and you may not have room. I can’t say this for sure since I’ve never doubled the recipe, but I don’t see why that wouldn’t work 🙂 Thanks for your sweet compliment!
Great recipe! I recently made this for a potluck, and it was a hit. I have several friends undergoing chemotherapy right now. I think this would make a good freezer bag “dump” meal to give to them. Would you recommend cooking it then freezing it, or assembling it and freezing it? Thanks.
Thank you so much Jackie! So glad this recipe was enjoyed 🙂 I think it would be best to assemble and then freeze instead of the latter 🙂 You sound like a great friend!!
just wondering if I was to use uncooked black beans from a bag instead of canned beans should I be precooking them at all? Might be a silly question, I’ve just never made a crockpot recipe before but am so excited to try yours!
Definitely cook the beans first and not with everything in the crockpot! 🙂 Thank you!
Made this tonight, family absolutely loved it!!! I am wondering if anyone else is doing the 21 day fix and has calculated how many of each containers this would be for serving? TIA!!
So glad to hear that you all enjoyed this meal! 🙂 I have not, but hopefully someone else can comment! 🙂
Look AMAZING! I will be making this. I saw a post already about the WW info. Now, Its like 410 calories for one serving. How much would you classify as a serving to get that caloric amount? 1 cup is what I would assume. Would you mind helping me out on that? I can’t tell you how excited I am about this! YUM!
I made this yesterday in my electric pressure cooker, 9 minutes on high setting (added about 1/2 cup more water). Fantastic! Kids and hubby requested I make it again soon!
Oh wow that is what I call a quick dinner!! SO happy to hear this works out so well in a pressure cooker! 🙂 thank you so much for your comment and review! 🙂
Did you cook the turkey first?
This is exactly what I was reading through all the comments to find! (If it works in the pressure cooker) Thanks!
Chelsea, we LOVE this recipe. It’s made very often in our house.
Yay!! I’m so thrilled to hear that Minh! Thank you so much for your comment! 🙂
hey, is it possible to prep this and freeze it then throw it in the crock pot later? just wondering, i’m looking for recipes for right after baby is born. i like to prep ahead if possible.
I wish I had a for sure answer for you, but I’ve never tried it before. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work, but hopefully someone else can chime in that has tried to. And congratulations!
Can you freeze this meal and cook later? How does the quinoa respond to freezing?
This was wonderful. I threw this together tonight in about 15 minutes which included cooking the ground turkey and it was done when I got home from yoga. Fabulous !!! Thank you for the recipe!
Yay! So glad to hear it!!