Pantry Fajitas

You can absolutely make fajitas from pantry ingredients. The trick is to use quinoa and beans as the proteins, then add any other traditional fajita toppings that you have on hand.

Just because you’re short on fresh ingredients doesn’t mean that you can’t have fajitas for dinner. In fact, this fajita recipe is a great one for using up your pantry staples.

What Kind Of Protein Should I Use?

Fajitas usually center around what kind of meat/protein you’re going to have (chicken, steak, or shrimp, usually). For this recipe the protein instead comes from quinoa and black beans.

Quinoa is a seed that is cooked like a grain. You basically cook it the same was as rice. It’s cooked the same way but it’s different in that it has a lot of protein. Combined with the beans, that makes these vegetarian fajitas really satisfying.

How To Make Pantry Fajitas

What you do is to cook the quinoa together with some drained canned diced tomatoes, drained black beans, water, and seasonings. Then you put the mixture into tortillas.

You can then top the fajitas with any number of things that you might have on hand. Toppings from the pantry include salsa, sliced black olives, and jarred jalapeno rings. If you have some cheese in your fridge, shred some up and put that in there, along with chopped tomatoes, avocado, sour cream, and green onions, if you have them. But if you only have the pantry items, don’t even worry – they’re still going to be some delicious fajitas!

Have a tasty day! – Christine 🙂

Pantry Fajitas

Contributor: Christine Pittman

You can absolutely make fajitas from pantry ingredients. The trick is to use quinoa and beans as the proteins, then add any other traditional fajita toppings that you have on hand.

• Author: Christine Pittman
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 25 minutes
• Yield: 6 servings 1x
• Category: Entrée
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: American

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• Optional vegetables*
• 1 and ½ cups water or low-sodium vegetable stock
• 1 cup quinoa, rinsed
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can low-sodium black beans, drained
• 1 (14.5 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. smoked paprika
• 12 (6 in.) flour tortillas
• Optional toppings**

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Instructions

1. Into a large skillet that has a lid, combine water or stock, quinoa, black beans, diced tomatoes, chili powder, salt, and smoked paprika.
2. Set heat to high and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to low, cover and allow to simmer until all liquid is absorbed and the quinoa is soft, about 13-16 minutes.
4. Remove the skillet from the heat and uncover. Fluff the quinoa with a fork.
5. Serve the quinoa mixture in flour tortillas with the optional toppings.

Notes

*If you have any of the following, heat the skillet over medium heat and add 1 teaspoon of cooking oil. Then sauté the vegetables in the oil, stirring occasionally, until softened, 4-5 minutes. After that, proceed with Step #1 but add the ingredients to the skillet with your cooked vegetables. Optional vegetables to include, use all or some or all of these: 1 small onion (chopped), 1 bell pepper (chopped), 2 ribs of celery (finely chopped), 2 carrots (shredded), 8 oz. mushrooms (chopped).

**If you have any of the following, add them to your fajitas as toppings: sliced black olives, jarred jalapeno slices, salsa, diced avocado, guacamole, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped tomatoes, chopped green onions, cilantro, sour cream, or Greek yogurt.