Coconut Quinoa

4.17 from 6 votes
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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 bowl of coconut quinoa salad with a dipping sauce.
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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.

Quinoa and coconut milk in a sauce pan

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!

Stirring together coconut milk and quinoa

How to Make it

  1. lace coconut milk, water, maple syrup, and quinoa into a saucepan.
  2. Bring it to a boil over high heat.
  3. 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!
Cooked quinoa in a saucepan

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:

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.

4.17 from 6 votes

Easy Coconut Quinoa

Whip up this slightly sweet and creamy coconut quinoa to serve next to your favorite stir fry or bowl.
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Total: 15 minutes
Servings: 4
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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

Calories: 376 kcal, Carbohydrates: 33 g, Protein: 8 g, Fat: 21 g, Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 5 g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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About Lee Funke

Lee is the founder of Fit Foodie Finds and based in Minneapolis, MN. She started this website in 2010 as a way to share her love for real food and wellness. The internet has changed so much since then and so has Fit Foodie Finds. Today we're a female-run recipe website publishing hundreds of tried and true recipes developed and tested by our team.

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Heather
September 16, 2023 11:35 am

5 stars
Hello. I finally got around to making this recipe and Iโ€™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 itโ€™s delicious!
I plan to serve it with my sticky ginger tempeh.
Thank you!

Dara
Dara
January 26, 2020 5:58 pm
Recipe Rating :
     

2 stars
Mine turned out like this too… its like a very creamy and weird quinoa, does not look like the picture at all.

Joan Hopper
Joan Hopper
August 27, 2019 8:31 pm

I Don’t like printing an ADD With This Recipe, Can’t Wait to try the Coconut quinoa

Brenda
Brenda
June 11, 2019 6:48 pm

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 doesnโ€™t look white at all. I would try more quinoa with that much milk next time. Thank you.