I figured it was about time to share another one pot recipe! My last two forays into the one pot phenomenon were both pasta dishes, so this time I’m changing it up with this one pot tandoori quinoa. (Now with a recipe video!)
My one pot pasta puttanesca actually started an interesting conversation with a reader about authenticity of recipes. Is one pot pasta an insult to the art of Italian cooking? Can we really call something ‘puttanesca’ if it doesn’t have anchovies in it, and we’ve added chickpeas, which are never used in the classic dish? I say ‘yes’! It gives people an idea of what to expect from the recipe, without having to read the ingredients list in detail. It’s obvious just from the title what the inspiration and flavor profile will be. And I try to be forthcoming and honest in my blog posts when I’m introducing a recipe that strays from being authentic (which is… most of them! Exhibit A: last week’s Brussels sprout banh mi).
Which leads me to my next comment. The tandoori-ness of this one pot tandoori quinoa is disputable. 🙂 The term ‘tandoori’ actually refers to the tandoor, which is a clay oven used in Southern Asian cooking. And this recipe quite obviously doesn’t use one of those! However, the flavors of the dish do take their inspiration from tandoori masala, which is a curry paste usually comprised of garam masala, cayenne pepper, garlic, ginger, and onion. Tandoori masala is often used to flavor things that are cooking in the tandoor.
If you like, this tandoori quinoa can stand alone as a meal. It’s got a whole (pseudo)grain, vegetables, beans, and satisfying full flavor. If I wanted to make it stretch farther I would probably serve it with a side of additional veggies like some sauteed greens.
It now occurs to me that I haven’t been posting nearly enough dessert recipes lately. So I got my butt in the kitchen this weekend and I will be sharing something for your sweet tooth very soon. NB: It’s really really hard to photograph chocolate things (and quinoa, for that matter…)
Sharing: I’m so glad that many of you love this one pot quinoa recipe! My photographs and writing are my intellectual property. You may use (1) one photograph from this post in your article without asking me first, if you include a hyperlink back to my page. You must explicitly ask permission from me about publishing additional photos or writing. This includes posts on Reddit and other forums. I’m terribly sorry that I have to be so explicit about this, but recently my recipes and photos have been stolen a bunch of times, and it takes many, many hours for me to create each post on this site.
One Pot Tandoori Quinoa
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil or coconut oil, or other plain oil
- 1 cup diced sweet potatoes (115 grams) (a small dice is best) (equals 1 small sweet potato or 1/2 of a large one)
- 1/2 red onion finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 jalapeno or 2 Indian green chiles seeded and minced
- 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
- 2 tbsp garam masala (see notes)
- (optional) 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa rinsed
- 1 and 1/4 cups vegetable broth
- 1 and 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (equal to one 15 oz. can)
- about 1 and 1/2 cups diced tomatoes (equal to one 14 oz. can)
- 1 tsp coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
- salt and pepper to taste
- fresh lime juice (lemon also works), for serving
- chopped fresh cilantro for serving
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the sweet potatoes and stir.
- Cook the sweet potatoes, stirring frequently, for about 6-8 minutes or until softened significantly.
- Add the onion and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened. Add the garlic, chiles, and ginger, and cook for another minute until fragrant. Finally, stir in the garam masala and (optional) cayenne pepper and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add the quinoa, vegetable broth, chickpeas, tomatoes, and sugar, and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover, stirring occasionally.
- Cook until the quinoa and sweet potatoes are cooked through, about 20 minutes. If there seems to be too much liquid, simmer uncovered for a few minutes to evaporate the excess. If the liquid runs out before the quinoa is done, add more water or broth and continue simmering. Add salt, pepper, and additional garam masala and cayenne to taste.
- Serve with a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon juice and a generous sprinkle of chopped cilantro.
Recipe Notes
For variations, try using curry powder instead of or addition to the garam masala; or use different vegetables, adjusting the liquid and cooking time as needed.
The quantity of sweet potatoes is flexible; I have doubled it with good results.
I get a lot of questions about the correct amount of garam masala to use in this recipe and the answer is that it definitely depends on your personal taste and tolerance to spices. It can also depend on the brand and the mixture of various spices used by that brand.
I personally do prepare this recipe with 2 tablespoons of garam masala, which was the originally-listed amount. Most readers have used 2 tablespoons and enjoyed it, but if you think less spice may be appropriate for you and your family, please start with 2-3 teaspoons and mix in additional garam masala if desired at the end of cooking.
Inspired by One Pan Mexican Quinoa.
Enjoy this one pot tandoori quinoa? Try some of my other quinoa recipes:
One Pot Moroccan Quinoa with Red Lentils
I'm Shannon, the writer and photographer of Yup, it's Vegan! I'm a morning person based in Baltimore, USA. My mission is to create healthy plant-based recipes that anyone would enjoy, using seasonal produce with inspiration from global flavors.
Yum!! This looks wonderful and the one pot is definitely a bonus. I’ll look forward to the dessert follow up too… 🙂
Thank you, Kari! Dessert incoming… 🙂
Omg!
I’m a foodie. Single mom. Writer. Teacher.
My kids, of course, under the influence, are foodies. They are both, respectively, 16 and 15.
This was amazing.
We are french.
We eat foods inspired from global endeavours.
I made two changes.
I added 1/2 cup more of vegetable broth.
(Of course, I put the canned tomatoes with their juices.)
And I added cumin to your stated spices- about one tablespoon.
I doubled your recipe on first try.
It was …….amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for posting this.
My cousin, Julie, was the one who grasped this recipe. She sent it to me a week ago.
I never follow a recipe. I look at four of them and get inspired.
Your recipe was the first that I didn’t cross-link. My cousin followed it to a tee. I’m use to quinoa…an I use organic…so it sucks liquids.
My added liquid was just perfect.
Then again, we have different stoves, pans, etc.
Absolutely amazing.
vous pourriez peu etre traduire en francais cette recette
merci
Thanks!! Sharing with my peeps!!
Thank you for sharing!
Hi can you put this in the freezer???
I haven’t tried freezing the leftovers but I would imagine that they would freeze well! You might want to add a bit of extra broth so it doesn’t dry out.
Thank you!! I made this last night and it was a big hit! Easy to make and super yummy. I will definitely be making this again soon and adding it to my regular rotation. We had it with garlic dill mashed potatoes and it was a really good combination for dinner.
So happy to hear that, Yvette! Thanks for your comment 🙂
This has already become a core staple of our meal list. Plus, i have to make it in double batches because my mother loves it too!
Maybe I added too much garam masala but I really didn’t like how this came out. It was much darker than the photo and tasted much too stronger of the garam masala. Next time I’d like to try with curry instead.
Hi Erin,
Thanks for your comment! I’m sorry that the recipe wasn’t to your liking. I appreciate your feedback. It may be that our garam masala blends are different (I’ll make a note in the recipe about this when I get back home to check what brand I used), the garam masala was toasted for too long, or just a matter of taste. I’m sure it would be good when made with curry powder or a mixture of curry powder and garam masala.
Can we use regular water instead of vegetable broth?
Hi Mariam, water will work just fine! You may want to add more seasoning to taste after cooking.
Hi, the flavor was excellent, but I think I did something wrong. The dish seems unnaturally thick and the quinoa is still pretty hard. I used a can of diced tomatoes instead of chopping them fresh. Do you think that could have thrown it off?
Hi Elizabeth, I’m sorry the texture didn’t work out for you. 🙁 It does sound like there wasn’t enough liquid. Next time feel free to add more liquid and continue simmering until the quinoa is cooked through. I’ll add a note to the recipe now. I appreciate your feedback.
Oh my gosh… this is blowing my mind right now. I would eat this every day if I could. The only thing I changed is I added an extra 1/4 cup of water and a can of coconut milk and subbed fresh tomatoes and curry powder because that’s all I had on hand. Turned out the best! Thank you so much!
Finally made this for dinner. It was wonderful. I caramelized the onions first to add an extra layer of flavor. I also added a few handfuls of spinach at the end of cooking since the husband and I love Saag dishes. We both loved it
I just made this and it’s AMAZING.
I just made this and my husband and I loved it! I doubled the recipe and now we have left overs for the week. The spices give it a very different and flavorful taste!
I’m not a fan of quinoa. I don’t know what’s wrong with me (bad vegan, I guess). I’ve tried it many different ways, and I think I just don’t like the texture. That said, this recipe looks amazing. I put the ingredients in my shopping list, but I will sub rice (with the appropriate amount of liquid) for the quinoa. Can’t wait to try it!
Would love to hear how it turned out using rice!
I absolutely ADORE this recipe!! It’s my new favourite thing to make every week, can’t thank you enough for it! This week I used 2 cups of stock and added some frozen cauliflower and frozen green beans – absolutely gorgeous!!
I’ve always left out the sugar as I’m refined sugar-free but it still tastes amazing. Thanks!!
How long do the sweet potatoes take to cook once you add the broth and other ingredients? I want to make this with cous cous and considering the drastically different cooking time I was thinking of making it separate and mixing in later. How does that affect the liquid you put into the pan after cooking the sweet potatoes for 6-8 minutes?
Hi Liz,
Since the sweet potatoes are cut fairly small they should only take another 10 minutes or so to cook after the initial saute. The liquid from the tomatoes and maybe a splash of broth would probably be sufficient to cook them the rest of the way through with the pot covered, if you wanted to cook the couscous in broth and recombine the components later on. If you do this experiment please let me know how it goes! I haven’t tried this with other grains but making it with couscous sounds delicious to me!
Hi I love this recipe, its become a regular favorite in our house! Very easy to make and tastes delicious! This recipe makes plenty, so there is left overs for lunch the next day to make my co-workers jealous!! Thanks!
I read all the rave reviews and had to give this recipe a try. It’s really tasty! Thanks for the great recipe! I made this one oil-free and was super easy to first sweat the onions, add the sugar and 2Tbsp of broth to caramelize. Then I added the garlic, ginger and jalepenos and cooked for ~2 min. Finally, I added the diced sweet potato with 3Tbsp of broth and cooked ~ 8 min with it covered. At this point I added the garam masala… and I was a bit shocked that recipe called for 2tb. So I wasn’t sure if this was a typo? Generally the abbreviation for a tablespoon is with a capital T, so I added 2 tsp of garam masala. It was seasoned about right for my taste. I think with garam masala a little goes a long way, but I could have used a full Tbsp and perhaps I will next time. Other than that, I pretty much followed your instructions to the letter, just modified it a bit to make it oil-free. Oh, and I also added baby spinach as one reviewer had done and it was really nice. I served some to my mom and she said, this is awesome! Thanks again!
Hi Juliana,
Sorry for the late reply.. I do make this with the full two tablespoons, actually, but because of the thoughtful comment from you and several others, I have added a note in the recipe to use anywhere from 2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons of garam masala, as different brands of the spice mix and personal preferences can definitely vary. I’m glad that you enjoyed the dish and that’s awesome you were able to successfully make it oil-free! Thanks for your comment!
Wow, big hit with me and my 3 year old son. Added black onion seeds and coriander seeds whilst frying the sweet potatoes. Served on a bed of fresh spinach topped with hummous, fresh black pepper and a sprinkle of mixed omega seeds. Winner!!!
Thanks
Made this last night in our efforts to eat healthier. We’re typical meat and potatoe eaters, so I thought we’d struggle with the flavor of this dish. My husband’s palate is pretty bland, but he especially likes it and went back for seconds and thirds! Almost immediately, however, his stomach began cramping. I had a small portion and didn’t have stomach pain until this morning. I’ve read that Garam Masala can have that effect when using too much of the spice. Pretty bummed about the pain it’s caused both of us, this recipe was so delicious it was going into my staple recipes list. Not sure I dare to make it again and only use 1Tbs of Garam Masala. The pain probably isn’t worth it ?
Hi Lindsey, first of all.. I’m glad you enjoyed the flavor of the recipe! Thanks for your comment. It’s definitely important to listen to your body when it comes to these things, and some people don’t take well to very spiced foods. Also, if you guys don’t often eat very high fiber meals (of which this dish has a lot), it could definitely cause stomach pain as well. Sometimes I’ve seen it recommended to increase fiber intake very slowly. Anyway, I appreciate learning of your experience, and wish you and your husband all the best in your efforts to eat healthier!
Thanks so much for your response. I hadn’t considered the fiber content being a possible contributor to the discomfort. It certainly could be part of it! I think we’ll try it again with a little less spice and work our way up to 2 Tbs. It really was a wonderful dish! Thank you for sharing it and for your thoughtful response!
Hi made this tonight for dinner and it was delicious. I am trying to include more meals using legumes and cutting back on meat based meals and have been pleasantly surprised with recipes I have found on Pinterest. Love your blog and look forward to trying more of your recipes. Thank you
Thanks for the recipe! Made it tonight and it was a big hit with the whole family. I got it too spicy but next time I’ll just adjust the seasoning a bit. To counter some of the heat I added some diced avocado to the bowl. Super tasty!
I was very impressed with you recipe! The only difference was the color was darker but the taste was amazing.
Perfect amount of spice, added some courgette for extra nutrients and texture. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t rinse it (first time cooking with quinoa) but it took a solid 35mins to cook rather than 20.
Even my brother and father who don’t really eat vegetarian or gluten-free loved it!
Very versatile and healthy as well, will definitely make this again !
Hi! Love this recipe. How long will leftovers last in the fridge?
Hi Penny, leftovers should last for up to a week in the fridge.
I make this all the time, especially when I’m serving non-vegans. EVERYONE loves it! I just saw your other one pot Moroccan dish with Quinoa and red lentils. Can’t wait to give it a try!!! Thank you so much!
I made this tonight, and it was really great! I had drained my canned tomatoes, so I added a bit more broth (possibly 1/4-1/2 cup more), and it seemed to be just enough. Although next time I may just use all of the juice. If anything, I really would like to add more tomatoes next time. Typically I’m not a huge fan of tomatoes, but this recipe made them taste awesome! I think the chickpeas needed a little bit more time, but overall I’m really happy with this. Thank you!
Glad you liked it, Lisa, thanks for your feedback!
I cooked this tonight for a veggie, a gluten free and a meat eater and we all loved it! Served with Greek yogurt and popadoms. Missed the coriander as I’d ran out so would have been even better with that.
I’m never really sure what to do with quinoa but this has given me a few ideas to try too and I’ll definitely be making this again. Thanks!
Fantastic recipe, especially for me who does not like to cook. This was quick, easy and painless. As I LOVE spice I added your suggested amount of Garam Masala I found it a bit over powering, so will add less next time. I used hot red chillies so left out the Cayenne. I also added 1 cup of extra liquid to thoroughly cook the quinoa, it took an extra 20 minutes. This was devine with natural yoghurt, papadams and lashings of coriander. Thanks.
I have this simmering on the hob as I type! I didn’t have any chickpeas though which I”m gutted about so have substituted cannelini beans – hopefully they taste okay and aren’t too soft! Can’t wait to try it anyway!
Just made this for dinner and after one bite my husband said it was a keeper!
I followed everything exact, using the 2 tbsp garam. At the end I thought it needed a little something so I added 1/2 tbsp curry powder per your suggestion and a little extra garam. I know it makes it not vegan, but I think we’d put a dollop of greek yogurt on top next time.
Thank you! We’ll be making this regularly.
I’ve just written a post about this amazing recipe and a few others for this week after overeating during Christmas! Thank you so much, it’s amazing
http://areadingcat.com/2016/12/28/a-week-to-rebalance-yourself/
Awesome I am so glad to hear it!
This was terrific! I am a college student who’s relatively new to cooking. I made a huge batch of this dish and will eat it for lunch this week. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Glad you liked it Bianca!
Made this today and we love it. It felt a bit dry at first, so instead of adding more broth, I stirred in a half can of coconut milk. Yum! I will definitely put this on our regular rotation and play with different spices as well, just for variety.