One of my favorite recipes to teach in my private cooking classes is quinoa pilaf. Whenever someone requests rice, I always gulp in terror and then slyly redirect them towards quinoa.
I’ve eaten under cooked (yet somehow also burnt) rice more times than I care to admit. And the probability that I will again is made exponentially higher when you introduce a foreign kitchen into the equation.
But quinoa is actually difficult to mess up. I know, because I’ve subconsciously tried many times to make it happen. And even when I went to take a shower without remembering that there was a pot of grains coming to boil, and emerged to find starchy liquid all over my stovetop, the quinoa still survived. So because a monkey emoji with his eyes closed could make good quinoa, I try to make things interesting by having my pupils try their hand at a pilaf.
It’s actually surprising how few people know what a pilaf is, considering we’ve all had the Rice-a-Roni theme song in our heads since 1987. The difference is simply in the technique. When you’re making any grain, you usually bring a set ratio of liquid to a boil, cover, and cook until tender. But a pilaf involves sautéing the grains first in a mixture of aromatics—usually onion and garlic, but most notably in our high school cafeteria days with the addition of peas and carrots. After the grains are toasted, you add the liquid, which is often some sort of stock instead of water, and then boil/cover as per usual.
Rice can get a little mealy when cooked as a pilaf, especially if you don’t take the proper care in toasting the grains in the oil and vegetable mixture before adding liquid. But quinoa on the other hand, being ever versatile and awesome, stays perfectly moist and flavorful, even though it takes slightly longer to cook this way (about 23 minutes versus 17).
Charlie and I had a little taco dinner party a few weeks ago, so I decided to experiment with quinoa pilaf and give it a slight Spanish/Mexican spin. To the sautéed onion and bell pepper, I added a little chorizo and kidney beans. The resulting pilaf is similar to one of my favorite rice and bean dishes, and perhaps even easier and more foolproof that the one you used to get from the Rice-a-Roni or Goya box.
With health and hedonism,
Phoebe
Spanish Quinoa Pilaf with Chorizo and Kidney Beans
Ingredients
- ¼ pound dried Spanish chorizo diced (about 2/3 cup)
- 1 small red onion finely diced
- 1 small red bell pepper finely diced
- 1 large clove garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 cup quinoa
- One 15-ounce can kidney beans rinsed and drained
- 1 3/4 cups water or stock
Instructions
- In a medium Dutch oven, sauté the chorizo over medium-high heat until beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the onion and peppers. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, cumin, paprika, salt, red pepper flakes and tomato paste. Cook for another minute, until fragrant.
- Add the quinoa and stir until coated in the vegetable mixture. Toast the quinoa, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes. Add the beans and water or stock. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook until the water has absorbed, about 20 minutes. Stir once and allow the quinoa to sit uncovered until some of the steam has evaporated, about 5 minutes.
- Taste for seasoning and serve warm or at room temperature.
Nutrition
If you make this, tag @phoebelapine and #feedmephoebe – I’d love to see it!
Ohhhhh this looks delicious. Definitely adding to my list of stuff I need to make asap.
Thanks Amanda! So glad you stopped by!
I had the best quinoa salad last weekend in a restaurant. Still thinking about it. Quinoa beats rice, hands down! I am thinking of stoppng in and at least getting the ingredient list.
J
ooo what was in it? do share if you get the recipe! xo
Phoebe, this is making me hungry. Pretty much anything with chorizo in it – I’m sold on. But this looks particularly delicious – and inspired idea to pilaf quinoa instead of rice. Healthier and more flavour. Best of both worlds. Xx
I’m a sucker for chorizo too. Or as I like to say it “choritho.” Thanks for stopping by Skye! xoxox
Can’t wait to make this!!!!
Thanks mich!!!
Obviously, I love hearing about what you teach your students. I hope you continue this ‘on the job’ series 🙂
I will try!! I’ve been pretty bad about it this year, but will keep sharing my weird semi-professional stories, so long as they aren’t too embarrassing. Well, I guess I’ve already shared a lot of those too. Thanks for reading Christina!! xoxxx
Love the flavors in this! Can’t go wrong with adding chorizo!
Never!! xoxo
Making this for dinner, do you think it would freeze ok? Thanks.
Hmmm I never really freeze grains, but I have friends who do and say it works great. So why not try? Hope you enjoyed it!
We’re hosting a casual Christmas Dinner with friends…chicken enchiladas and I was considering something like this. Do you think it would be a good match and would it be easy to double/triple for a party of 15? I’ve never cooked quinoa…but thought it would be a great healthy alternative especially if we have a few gluten free folks over.
Definitely!! A little goes a long way, especially with the beans, so I would just use a big stock pot or Dutch oven and have at it! For 15, probably 2 cups of quinoa + the beans will be plenty. Let me know how it goes!! xoxo
Yummy its looking very tasty…thanks for sharing this recipe with us.
Let me know if you try it!
Your recipe looks really good but I was wondering if I can use navy beans instead of the kidney beans? I am also looking for lentil recipes as well as a biscuit recipe for the bread machine. Thank you for your time and I hope that I hear from you very soon.
definitely! navy beans are great! you should check out my lentil masala recipe or moroccan red lentil soup 🙂
My family loved it even the picky 8 year old.
That’s wonderful Robert!!
This is a great recipe that I have made a few times now! I’ve tried with both water and veg stock and find it’s much more flavourful with the stock so would definitely recommend that! If anyone reading this is in the UK like me, Waitrose sells their own brand of good tri-colour quinoa pretty cheaply!
that’s awesome! thanks for the tip for the UK folks!
How wonderful…. I’m sure my family and friends will love it. Thank you very much
Actually followed all directions loved it!
hello, its looks yummy i will try this sure and give you my feedback thanks.
Absolutely delicious! Had to sub yellow onions and garbanzos because it’s what I had. Used chicken stock because it always adds a little more flavor! Will try with red onions because I do love them but I’ll probably stick with garbanzos because I love them, too, and I always have a can around (though the kidney beans add more color!) Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Also, I have the same problem with rice (Uncooked and burnt at the same time ♀️. I’m so bad at it that my 25-year-old daughter only just recently made rice herself because she says I traumatized her. Fortunately, it seems the “fails at rice” gene skipped a generation and hers turned out perfectly! But me, I’ll just stick with quinoa and pasta!
hahahaah thank you for sharing!! glad it skipped a generation 🙂
i try this and it was so yummy thanks alot for sharing
Hi just want to know can this be made in advance eg if I make it now, is it good for dinner?
D
really looks great thanks for share
its was good i add some more chilli
i try last night and it soooooooo yummy thanks alot
i love cooking i made many spanish dish but its looks yummy i will try this sure.
Very nice sharing I like it thanks for sharing with us keep it up