Lunch is my complete nemesis. I always just end up grabbing whatever from the fridge or cupboard, even if it’s a bowl of cereal (and wish I was eating here everyday). I always keep a few frozen burritos on hand for emergency. Then one day I thought, hey, I could just make these myself. With quinoa. And whatever else I want. And these easy frozen quinoa burritos were born.
One of the reasons I decided to tackle this big-batch project was because the people over at Circulon provided me with their covered jumbo cooker which I use pretty much everyday. Even though my kids are small, wow they eat a lot. I’m happy to have something this size to cook big batches of everything from spaghetti bolognese to huge stir fries.
I don’t have a ton of kitchen stuff (yes, for me an ice cream maker is an essential lol) but I need to have at least one large pan like this. And, since I’m using it everyday I want it to be high quality so I can make great food at home like these burritos which started with…
Carmelized red onions. OK, this is a bit of a long step (I find the only way so they don’t burn is to cook them slow and low a long time) but I think it just adds so much to the final dish. Or any dish, really. And they pack a lot of wow for being so affordable.
Throw in some veggies (I chose red pepper and zucchini)…
Some spices…
Let it hang out a while…
Add the quinoa and get out your tortillas to wrap. Mine kind of crumbled when I wrapped them, but I heard later that a trick was to heat them up a little before wrapping them. I added some cheese on top too.
They smelled and looked amazing!
I was so grateful to have these on hand!
A few tips:
This recipe makes 6 large burritos with leftovers. My package only had 6 tortillas, but the recipe will actually fill 8.
It took me exactly one hour from start to finish. A little longer than my usual recipe, for sure, but if you think about the time saved on 6 lunches…
It took me much longer to reheat this burrito than the usual freezer burritos – about five minutes in my microwave.
I used a mandolin to slice my red onions. It’s just WAY quicker.
I do think smoked paprika just adds something so special. If you don’t have some try it. It’s great on anything roasted too – try it on roasted potatoes!
- 1 large red onion
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 small zucchini
- 1 red pepper
- 540ml/19oz kidney beans
- 398ml diced tomatoes
- 199ml/17oz canned corn
- 1 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- handful chopped cilantro
- handful shredded cheese
- 8 large tortillas or 6 large tortillas with leftover filling
- Slice and start to cook and caramelize the red onions over low heat.
- Cook the quinoa according to package instructions. Do not overcook. Because overcooked quinoa is gross.
- When the red onions look pretty much there add the zucchini and red pepper, increase the heat and cook until soft.
- Rinse the kidney beans and add along with the tomatoes and corn.
- Add the spices and taste. Spices all very in strength and everyone has different tastes!
- Let all the flavours meld together for a while (say 5 minutes) over med-high heat.
- Add the cilantro and stir.
- Add the quinoa and turn off the heat.
- Make sure everything is well combined with a few good stirs.
- Divide the burrito filling between the tortillas (8 or 6 with leftovers), sprinkle with cheese and roll.
- If you are freezing, wrap each tortilla in plastic wrap and then tin foil.
- To re-heat just pop on a plate and microwave.
Circulon supplied me with this cooker but all opinions are my own. Thank-you for supporting the brands that make Roasted happen!
Michelle Little
Writer & Photographer
Do you microwave it from frozen, do they hold together if they are partially defrosted and reheated at work. ? I am thinking my son might love these for lunches!
I do microwave from frozen but they take quite a while – 5 minutes in my microwave. I don’t know about partially defrosting.
As for holding together – I think it really depends on how well you wrap it. I made my kind of big and wrapped using a cold tortilla which sort of cracked. I heard that if you warm the tortillas a bit (like at Chipotle or any burrito place) they wrap much better. I think if you made it smaller and the tortilla didn’t crack it may work… but in my experience burritos are always pretty messy!