There’s a Mexican Quinoa recipe I used to make for a number of years but my family grew tired and more tired of it as the years went by. So I gave it up a while back. Then last summer, I was going through my emails and found a picture my friend Farah had sent me of a recipe her sister-in-law shared with her. I don’t remember the reason Farah sent me the recipe. Was it something she had made for us at some point in the past? Was I telling her about my Mexican Quinoa recipe? Were we doing a recipe exchange?
Regardless of the reason, I’m so thankful I saved Farah’s recipe. Called Mexican Quinoa, it has the same name as mine but is a very different version. We call it “The New Mexican Quinoa” and it has become a family favorite in the past six months. It is one of the quickest meals I make, which is especially nice on days we stay on the playground after school and I don't have as much time to cook dinner.
The recipe is printable as a PDF here, and below are a few more photos and notes.
Make sure you use MILD diced tomatoes with green chilis. I have messed up once and had to start over twenty minutes in to that night’s dinner prep.
This is the chicken stock I use. It comes in a box with 6 cartons from Costco.
This is a big steamy pot of almost-ready Mexican Quinoa.
These are our two very favorite cheeses from Costco that we use as a topping for the Mexican Quinoa. Bauer prefers the Kerrygold so I always grate a little bowl of that one just for him. The rest of us love the Coastal Cheddar. It’s a crumbly cheese that I also love to slice thinly and eat on cucumber slices.
This is Story’s bowl and plate. Clearly we like green things. I love roasted broccoli almost as much as I love the sun.
This is my bowl of Mexican Quinoa, and this is TJ’s favorite salsa. I buy the Mrs. Renfro’s salsa at Walmart. I usually don’t put salsa on my bowl but TJ and Cash really like it on theirs.