gluten free

Quinoa Chilli Cheesy Bake

It was a sunny Tuesday morning. I was sipping my coffee, scrolling through dream kitchens on Pinterest that I’ll never be able to afford. As I looked over at the mountain of clothes that needed to be dealt with as I’d just come back from Melbourne, my cleaner (I live in Asia, don’t judge) walked in and decided it would be necessary to tell me, “Oh Madam, when you left you were so skinny, now you come back fat. Did you eat lots of good food?”. Let’s just clarify, I was in Melbourne for four days, so you can only imagine how good that makes a girl feel. Ah Malaysia. You never seem to get old. Hug hug, kiss kiss, eye roll, eye roll.

Quinoa Chilli Cheesy Bake

Serves 4

Ingredients

Olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 red capsicum, diced
2 chillies
Bunch of coriander root & leaves
250g beef mince
1tbs paprika
1tsp cumin
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 can of black beans, drained & rinsed
Salt & pepper
2 cups of quinoa
1 cup of grated cheese

Method

Heat a large glug of oil in a pan and saute the onion, garlic, capsicum, chillies and coriander root on a low heat for 10 minutes. Add the beef mince, paprika and cumin then increase to a high heat and cook the mince. Stir through the can of beans, can of tomatoes then a can full of water and bring to the boil. Season generously with salt, reduce to a simmer and leave for 20-30 minutes or until all the liquid has reduced.

While that’s on, cook your quinoa as per the packet instructions then leave aside.

Stir the quinoa and coriander leaves through the chilli then pour into individual or a big oven proof dish. Cover with grated cheese and bake until golden and bubbly.

Kitchen notes...

Not for a lack of trying, but naming this proved difficult. It’s sort of a cross between a healthy chilli con carne and a quinoa chilli casserole, but whatever it is, it’s a winner.

If you’re not into quinoa, brown rice, white rice, buckwheat or faro will work well too.