Quinoa Enchilada Crockpot: seasoned ground turkey, quinoa, fire-roasted tomatoes, salsa, beans, corn, enchilada sauce, and plenty of cheese. Top with cilantro, lime, guacamole, or your favorite enchilada toppings.
Pair this healthy meal with a simple salad like this Italian Salad or this Mandarin Orange Salad.
Quinoa Enchilada Crock-Pot
This meal is one of our favorites! It’s so easy to assemble and the slow cooker does all the heavy lifting! It’s such a great all-purpose meal — 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 combined.
- Cook on high for 2.5 to 5 hours, stirring once midway if possible, until quinoa is cooked and liquid absorbed.
- Stir in freshly grated cheese until melted, then serve with your favorite enchilada toppings.
Quinoa Enchilada Crock-Pot Tips
- Use freshly grated cheese. Pre-grated cheese has a cellulose coating that keeps it from melting as nicely. While it can be used in this recipe, it will get a little greasy and won’t melt as smoothly.
- Cook on high. Unfortunately, this recipe doesn’t cook well at low temperatures; the quinoa absorbs liquid too slowly and cooks unevenly.
- Use fire-roasted diced tomatoes for more flavor.
- Don’t forget the toppings. They add so much flavor and texture to this dish. Use whatever you like on top of enchiladas; our favorite toppings for this dish are ripe sliced avocados, fresh cilantro, fresh lime, and fresh cherry tomatoes. Other options include sour cream, additional cheese, pico de gallo, guacamole, thinly sliced radishes, and green onions.
- Crock-Pot® is a trademarked brand of slow cooker that is often used generically. You can use any type of slow cooker you prefer.
Variations
- Add heat: A tablespoon or two of diced jalapeños, hot sauce, and/or fire-roasted diced green chilies are all additions that add in some heat. A spicier salsa and/or enchilada sauce can also be used.
- Reduce heat: By using mild salsa and mild enchilada sauce, I’d say this is a very mild dish. To further reduce heat, use only 1-2 teaspoons chili powder. (Use a non spicy chili powder like McCormick® (not sponsored)).
- 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; no other changes are needed.
Alternate Cooking Methods
- Oven: Try this Quinoa Enchilada Bake; it’s very similar to this recipe but baked instead of slow cooked.
- Stove top: Follow steps 1-4 using a large pot. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover the pot, and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the quinoa has “popped.” Stir mixture every 5-7 minutes and reduce heat if the quinoa is sticking or increase if the liquid isn’t being absorbed.
- Pressure cooker: I haven’t personally tested this recipe in the pressure cooker, but a reader commented that it worked well: “Made this yesterday in my electric pressure cooker: 9 minutes on high setting (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 vinaigrette
- Greek Quinoa Salad with a Greek-inspired vinaigrette
- Quinoa Fried Rice with a delicious 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
- Large pan
- Crock-Pot 6-quart
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup diced yellow onion
- 1/2 cup diced sweet 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.
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 typically would 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.
Have no fear for those that are stressing out about using a good home made enchilada sauce, I have one for you! I love that you can make it yourself rather than relying on buying it from a can or jar with ingredients in it that you can’t even pronounce.
As Chelsea said, there is a blogger named Ali from “Gimme Some Oven” and I have made and used her red enchilada recipe in her BBQ chicken enchilada recipe and it is the BOMB! Problem was, I had so much red enchilada sauce left over when I made it, now that I have a new recipe to try out, I wish I could have froze and saved it for later use. Anyhoo, here’s the link:
http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/red-enchilada-sauce/
I’m going to try Chelsea’s recipe this weekend so I can be there the entire time it’s cooking. I LOVE quinoa! Wish me luck!
Hi, looks delish, I’m on a freeze ahead kicK. Could I make this ahead of time and freeze for cooking later?? Thanks!!
I haven’t tried freezing this meal. I’m not sure how the quinoa would hold up though. Sorry to not be of more help! Hopefully another reader that has tried can comment here and help out!
Hi – Could you tell what type/brand of enchilada sauce you used? As with any recipe that says “add enchilada sauce” or “add BBQ sauce” or “Add curry powder” or “add salsa” — I always think to myself “WHAT KIND DID THIS PERSON USE?!” Each of these items can be purchased with a myriad of different flavor profiles and it can make a HUGE difference to a recipe – something bad can turn good or something good can turn horrible. It is like saying
“add mustard” without specifying yellow mustard, dijon mustard, etc. Ok, sorry for the mini rant (I actually didn’t know I felt that strongly about it! lol) I hope you will still answer my question because while I usually pass recipes that don’t even give a hint as to the type of sauce that was originally used to create the recipe, this recipe is so enticing, I’m actually taking the time to ask. 🙂
I generally use El Paso or the Great Value brand at Wal-Mart. I’ve used both of those in this recipe. The heat is really up to you. I usually do mild or medium 🙂
I love literally everything about this recipe. I made it for my lunches this week and it was so easy. The quinoa cooked perfectly (high for 3.5 hours) and the veggies are tender and the the sauce is so tasty.
A note to other Trader Joe’s shoppers, I bought their enchilada sauce ( the only kind they have) and its surprisingly hot (but not labeled as such). I LOVE spicey but I could see that being a disappointment for someone else out there 🙂
Thanks for the great recipe – I’m looking forward to eating this all week.
Do you think this would still taste good without the cheese?
The cheese does add a lot of flavor, but it will be okay without it. If you don’t use the cheese you’ll probably want to add in the other topping choices though so you aren’t missing on too much flavor 🙂 Sour cream is one of my favorite additions!!
Ok…i’ll try to remember to update what i think. We’ll be eating it tonight! Having dairy issues and we like enchilada type dishes without cheese so hopefully it’ll still be good!
Anyone cook this on low for 6-7hours? I need an all day recipe.
Wow, thank you Chelsea for creating such an easy yet amazing meal!! I love quinoa and love to eat clean but also like to try new things, ground turkey stir fry gets boring. We recently got a crock pot as a wedding gift and this was my first time using it…needless to say you’ve created a fantastic recipe & I have so much goodness left over :)!! My husband loved it too, and he HATES quinoa!! Thank you again. Can’t wait to try more of your dishes
Oh yay!! That is so great to hear you enjoyed this meal so much!! Thank you for your sweet comment 🙂 And my husband used to hate it too — isn’t that the best when you convert them? 😉 Thanks so much!
This looks so good. I don’t think I have ever used quinoa but I will be making this soon. I shared this recipe in a Roundup on my blog! Annie @ Plus Size to Downsized
Hi. I have this in the crock pot right now. I did omit the quinoa. I hope it turns out ok, maybe too watery? I didnt think of that until now. I should have not put in the whole cup of water! Ugh. Well we will see. Thanks for the recipe!
Yeah the water is pretty much just for the quinoa – the quinoa absorbs all that water as it cooks. Hopefully it was okay without that added in! Thanks for the comment!
I’m trying this tonight but with chicken, and I’m also trying to decide if I should use red or green enchilada sauce
Hope you love it! I’ve never tried green in it so you’ll have to let me know if you do try that and like it 🙂 we love it made with red!!