Coconut Quinoa
Published 3/8/2020 • Updated 7/9/2023
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Coconut quinoa is a sweet and creamy way to serve quinoa and pairs quite nicely with bowls, stir fry, or curry.
A Spin on Coconut Rice!
Coconut quinoa is the new coconut rice. We love how sweet and creamy coconut quinoa is and how great it pairs with dishes such as curries and stir-fries.
Coconut quinoa is made with just a few ingredients — uncooked quinoa , full-fat coconut milk, and water making this recipe a winner.
In addition, it comes together on the stovetop in no time! Make a double or triple batch for the whole week. I promise you’ll want to gobble it up.
What You Need
Full-Fat Coconut Milk: We like to use full-fat coconut milk for our coconut quinoa because it offers the best flavor and the best creamy texture. Other coconut milks that would work are below!
Quinoa: we recommend white quinoa for this recipe, but you can get by with red or tri-colored too!
Sweetener: Maple syrup is one of our favorite natural sweeteners. We love the flavor the maple gives the coconut quinoa. However, feel free to use honey or agave as a sweetener substitute!
How to Make it
- lace coconut milk, water, maple syrup, and quinoa into a saucepan.
- Bring it to a boil over high heat.
- Turn the heat to low, cover the saucepan, and let the quinoa cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the quinoa is cooked.
Why is my coconut quinoa watery?
There are a couple of reasons your coconut quinoa could be watery…
- You didn’t measure correctly. Make sure your quinoa-to-liquid ratio is 1:2 cups.
- The coconut quinoa isn’t done cooking.
- Sometimes quinoa doesn’t cook correctly if it’s old and expired, so be sure to check the expiration date of your quinoa!
Serving Suggestions
We love serving our coconut quinoa with Asian-inspired dishes that have a little kick (just like our Thai Coconut Quinoa Bowls!). But feel free to serve it with whatever you’d like. Here are a few more ideas:
- As a side for this General Tso’s Cauliflower
- Replace the grits with coconut quinoa for this cajun shrimp
- Serve coconut quinoa with this Korean Beef
Make it dessert!
We know this coconut quinoa is delicious served next to a savory meal, but a little secret from us – we love it as dessert too!
Drizzle on a bit more maple syrup and a dash of cinnamon and it’s just divine.
Easy Coconut Quinoa
Ingredients
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa
- 15 oz. canned full-fat coconut milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup, or more, to taste
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a medium size pot.
- Bring to a rolling boil over medium/high heat.
- Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for around 20 minutes or until the liquid has absorbed and the quinoa has fully cooked.
Tips & Notes
- Nutrition Information includes full-fat coconut milk
- This recipe was updated on March 6, 2020.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Hello. I finally got around to making this recipe and I’m sorry I waited so long. I followed your directions exactly, to include the note about using less water if you rinse your quinoa. My quinoa turned out perfectly and it’s delicious!
I plan to serve it with my sticky ginger tempeh.
Thank you!
Mine turned out like this too… its like a very creamy and weird quinoa, does not look like the picture at all.
I Don’t like printing an ADD With This Recipe, Can’t Wait to try the Coconut quinoa
Hi – I really like the idea of coconut quinoa, however, the ratio of liquids to grain seems off. Quinoa normally cooks in 15 mins or so with 1 cup of grain to 1 cup of liquid. While I wondered about the full can of coconut milk, we gave it a try. It turned out to be quinoa in a lot of white coconut milk – kind of like rice pudding. It ended up absorbing more once it sat for a while after cooked (I had to cook for 15 mins to get it even partially absorbed), but still very thick with the coconut milk. Yours in the picture doesn’t look white at all. I would try more quinoa with that much milk next time. Thank you.