Healthy, easy Slow Cooker Enchilada Quinoa. Just set it and forget it for a cheesy, protein-packed crock pot meal the whole family will love!
Slow cooking minimizes your time in the kitchen while maximizing dinner compliments! Try Slow Cooker Honey BBQ Beef Brisket, Slow Cooker Spicy Cashew Chicken, and Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef to be sure 😉
This may very well be my new favorite dish of all time. And if not all time, certainly the past 93 hours. That means it’s competing with Mom’s Christmas ham – shh! don’t tell.
Sometimes (read: pretty much every day of my life) I need an easy, practically zero-work recipe that I know I can count on to be absolutely 100% delicious to feed my Mexican food obsession. Slow cooker enchilada quinoa, you are heaven sent. Literally five minutes of prep means I can forget it for a few hours and come back when it’s ready to be devoured.
See that picture up there? ^^^ There’s a lot of yum happening in that crock pot and it lasted us several days since there’s just two of us in this here humble abode, which means leftovers for dayzzz and I could not be more happy about that. If there’s one thing I love more than freshly made cheesy quinoa smothered in enchilada sauce and stuffed with corn and black beans, it’s one or two day old cheesy quinoa smothered in enchilada sauce and stuffed with corn and black beans.
I ate this stuff for breakfast. Yes. Cheesy enchilada quinoa for breakfast. It’s a thing that will be happening again friends.
Now who wants the first bite??
Too late! That’ll be miiine……
What people are saying about this Slow Cooker Enchilada Quinoa
“I threw this together last night and put it in the fridge. I started it in the morning around 7:00 and turned it off at 2:30- it was a fantastic dinner tonight! I added pieces of avocado, some sliced black olives, and a dollop of light sour cream. I’ve already passed this on to two friends and will definitely make this again!” – Bettina
“I’ve been in love with this recipe since I saw the picture. It’s almost dinner time and I snuck a taste…..YUMMY! Serving with tortilla rolls and chips for those that don’t want to eat it like a chili. Amazing post. THANK YOU!” – Anilise
“Made this over spring break for some of my friends since we were all taking classes and needed a little cheering up. I was worried cause it was me cooking for three guys, but they didn’t even question the lack of meat. They used it as burrito filling and they all got thirds, and then they knocked on my door the next morning and invited themselves in for leftovers. Great recipe, really really yummy, easy to make, and great flavors. It’s a crowd pleaser for sure.” – Elisa
“Made this last night and it was sooo good! I browned some ground turkey and dumped that in, too, and it turned out amazingly well! You weren’t kidding when you said leftovers for daysssss because I have enough for me to eat for the next 5 meals (and I could not be happier about that!)!! Thanks for the awesome recipe!” – Lauren
Slow Cooker Enchilada Quinoa
Ingredients
- 1 15-ounce can black beans - drained and rinsed
- 1 15-ounce can yellow corn - drained and rinsed
- 2 15-ounce cans mild or medium red enchilada sauce - divided
- 1 15-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes and green chiles
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- ½ cup water
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- salt and pepper to taste - (I used about 1 teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper)
- 1 cup shredded Mexican style cheese
- optional: chopped cilantro, diced tomatoes, diced avocado, sour cream
Instructions
- Add beans, corn, 1 can of enchilada sauce, diced tomatoes and chiles, quinoa, water, cream cheese, and salt and pepper to the slow cooker. Stir everything together.
- Pour remaining can of enchilada sauce on top, then sprinkle with shredded cheese. Cover and cook 4-5 hours on high or 5-7 hours on low.
- Uncover, top with tomatoes, avocados, sour cream, and chopped cilantro and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Made this for a party of both meat eaters & vegetarians – All were in love with it! 10/10 would recommend. Added just a small amount of flour to thicken it up (I had plates on hand, no bowls) and used reduced fat cream cheese. Thanks for a great recipe!
So glad to hear that! My husband is definitely a meatlover and craves this recipe on the regular! WIN!
My mom made it last night. It’s really good and delicious. Now, I wanna make it with my own hand.
Great recipe! Super easy and delicious. Only changes I made to recipe – I cut corn off the cob and used that vice canned corn and I threw in a few handfuls of spinach.
This recipe has quickly gone from a new vegetarian recipe to try in our slow cooker to a nearly weekly staple, it’s absolutely delicious. One variation I do is mix the cream cheese with the first can of enchilada sauce with a hand mixer before adding to the slow cooker, it’s extra work but it adds a nice level of creaminess. I’ve also subbed in a can of refried beans for the black beans which was great as well. There’s really no way to go wrong with this recipe, I recommend it to all without reservation.
This was way better than I expected! Yummy!!! One question I had those with regards to the Quinoa. I used red and it doesn’t really seem like it “cooked” they are more like hard little seeds. Still tasty, just didn’t seem quite right. I’ve made white quinoa before and it did not stay hard.
This is being added to my recipe book, it was very good. I used diced tomatoes with chilis instead of fire roasted (don’t care for fire roasted) but other than that made it exactly according to recipe. Topped with sour cream, next time I’ll add some scallions on top as well. Thanks for sharing!
I am too excited to try this! How would I go about doubling the recipe? I don’t want to ruin it
I’ve made this so many times since I found the recipe several weeks ago, and it’s become a weekly meal for us. It’s amazing! Flavor is incredible. I make it as it says (though I don’t normally add the optional spices or optional ingredients). But that’s what I like about this though is that you can really add anything additional you’d like, though it’s pretty great as is. And I really like that there’s no work to it with exception of just opening the cans and pouring into the crockpot. Super easy delicious meal!
Has anyone tried substituting the cream cheese with mashed avocado and lime juice? My 19 year old has gone vegan and I can’t find vegan cream cheese in our local shop. I’ve heard that it makes a good sub but I was curious if anyone had actually tried it “veganized” yet! 😊
As a side note: we’ve made this previously as per the recipe and it was a huge hit!!!
I haven’t tried that in this recipe, but it should be really good, as both of those things will complement the Mexican flavors really well 🙂 Also, if you are still unsure, I see many people have tried this totally without the cream cheese, and it’s turned out good for them.
Anyway, good luck! If you try that substitute, let us know how it goes! Sounds healthier anyway 😊
I make this with vegan cream cheese and it’s awesome!!! It does exactly what I expect dairy cream cheese would do …gets melty and yummy. I secretly did for the chunks of cream cheese.
I eat it with corn chips the day I make it. The next two days (it’s a bit thicker) my husband has lunch burritos with the leftovers. He actually requests his meal, which I’m grateful for when the kids have me running them all over town with after school stuff.
Will a 4qt slow cooker be ok to use?
Is the cream cheese necessary? I didn’t add it. Thank you. I added chopped red onion as well.
I have made this twice and it is seriously so stinking good. My husband, a tried and true southern with an appetite for plain meat dishes even likes it and requests it. We put sautéed shrimp in the recipe, which my husband liked, but I prefer it meatless. SOOOO yummy. I am adding bell pepper this time around (currently in the crockpot) and we will see how it turns out! Thanks for the bomb recipe!
Can I replace cream cheese with plain greek yogurt?!
Can I do this with rice instead of quinoa? Will it work the same? I don’t have any quinoa on hand. Thanks.
My macho, 280lb meat-lovin’ hubby and I both have this listed at our top favorite meals I make! I add 4 thin-sliced chicken breasts at the bottom before adding everything else. Then shred before serving. It is soooo good!!!
This was absolutely delicious and so easy! Thank you!
That was supposed to say I WAS excited to try it! Oops 🙂