Mexican Quinoa (instant pot)

Alrighty, so where I live (Long Island) we went through a pretty long phase where getting meat was tricky. By that I mean, everything but steak was not easy to find for a while. However, I had zero problem getting veggies, especially because we are imperfect foods customers (you should look them up, great company! If you want a referral code or have any questions let me know!)

Even if you can get meat, it's nice to mix things up every now and then! It's better on your budget, and it has an environmental impact too :) Plus, it helps you plan for longer spans of time with meal planning. We usually try to have at least one vegetarian meal a week anyways, but right now we have one or two vegetarian meals, then a meal with meat, then another couple vegetarian meals etc. just to spread out the meat that we have. So, we've been experimenting with a lot of vegetarian meals. This is one of my favorites we've done.

It is an instant pot meal-so if you don't have an instant pot..obviously the recipe won't work the same way :) BUT I think you could sauté the veggies, and then cook the quinoa with all of the seasonings and the tomatoes in it and then add it all together (theoretically).

If you do have an instant pot-you're set! Follow the recipe :)

I really really enjoyed this one. It was so easy, and pretty fast, plus it used a lot of things we already had in the house. With a lot of mexican bake things that I've tried (especially the vegetarian ones) I feel like I need to add cheese or it's not that great-this one had enough flavor that I didn't even realize the recipe never called for cheese. So good. Of course, you can always add cheese if you want to, but for this one I'd say it's definitely not needed.

If you have leftovers it heats up well OR you should be able to freeze it and pull it out some other time.

A couple quick substitution things-I didn't have celery so I didn't use celery. I also didn't have a long red chili so I just ignored that as well. I own coriander seeds but they're whole and I didn't feel like grinding them so, you guessed it, I once again just ignored this.

Tinned tomatoes, I think it wanted crushed tomatoes but all I had was diced canned tomatoes-worked just fine :)

For the jalapeño slices..I just had regular jalapeños so I just cut up one instead of doing a pickled one. BUT apparently you can find pickled jalapeños at the store, and they're super convenient because they store well and you can just pull one out whenever you need it.

Lastly, cilantro. Cilantro is a staple at our house, we use it a TON! If you are not someone who uses cilantro often, it is one that it is important to store correctly. When we get a bunch of cilantro we trim the stems (give them a fresh cut like you would flowers), then you put them in a glass of cold water in the fridge. If you are able to put a plastic bag loosely around the leaves that's ideal. If stored properly you can keep cilantro like this for about 2 weeks, no joke.

Oh! And, it tells you to soak your quinoa ahead of time?? I had never heard of this, but it was a new recipe so I did what it asked. I don't have a sieve though, so when it was done soaking I put it on a cotton towel in our pasta strainer and rinsed it that way. There are probably better options out there, and maybe you don't even need to do this step-I have no clue. Basically, don't let this part freak you out if you don't have a sieve- you'll be fine :)

Enjoy! Mexican Instant Pot Qunioa with Cilantro Lime Dressing Recipe