Vegan Mexican Rice Recipe

The Best Vegan Mexican Rice Recipe

Today we are making a flavorful rice dish: a Vegan Mexican Rice Recipe! No, this isn’t the dish commonly known in Spanish is arroz rojo, which uses a tomato, onion and garlic base for the recipe. Instead, this is a rice recipe using a rice cooker that’s like a deconstructed burrito bowl (or a deconstructed taco … Taco Tuesday anyone)?

The rice cooker has been a kitchen item that I’ve only used for making regular white or brown rice. Frankly, I didn’t think it lived up to the hype, because I could just as well cook the rice in a pot on the stove, rather than leave it in the cooker. UNTIL I used it for this recipe. I thought why not? Let me throw all the ingredients of a taco/burrito bowl in there, and see what it cooks up. It’s only spices, veggies, rice and water right?

Can’t go wrong! And it turns out – can’t go wrong indeed … this rice turned out so good! Everything cooked well – the rice, the veggies, and the beans. I used a can of beans so they were pre-soaked. Otherwise, when cooking dry beans from scratch, you will have to soak them or get them to the consistency of canned beans first.

I’m wondering what other variations this could make? Maybe … Mediterranean Rice? Middle Eastern? Indian? Oh, the wonderful rice cooker. I would normally saute onion and other vegetables on the stovetop before adding them to a rice dish. Here, I didn’t have to turn on any appliance aside from the cooker. Then I left it, went to go do other things, and came back to a full meal!

Deconstructed Taco Bowls & Tex-Mex

Why isn’t this considered Tex-Mex rice? I was curious on what the difference was between Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine. Tex-Mex is a cuisine (inspired by Mexican cuisine) that uses a lot of cheese, meats, beans, peppers, spices, and flour tortillas.

It’s kind of a new invention – it isn’t entirely the same as Mexican cuisine. In the past, Mexican food grew in popularity around the Texas area. When people started experimenting to make it in their own kitchens, they began using beef and wheat flour, which were essential ingredients in Texan cooking. These weren’t common ingredients in Mexican recipes though, but even Mexican restaurants began using more of these ingredients in their dishes (eg. ground beef in tacos and the like) to attract more customers. This new cuisine was titled Tex-Mex!

Why You’ll Love This Vegan Mexican Rice Recipe

Dump & Cook: This is a one pot meal and makes for a great main dish and meal prep. It’s the perfect combination of protein to grains to vegetables, and all you have to do is dump all the ingredients into the rice cooker and put it on the cook setting!

Substitutions

Rice: I used brown long grain rice, and the best type of rice to substitute will be Basmati rice, parboiled rice or plain white rice. All of these types should make fluffy rice in one rice cooker cycle.

Vegetable Broth: You can use bouillon cubes mixed with hot water, carton broth or powdered broth for this.

Olive Oil: Vegan butter or avocado oil will make the best substitutes.

Purple Onion: These are the same as red onion. Substitute with white onions. Purple onion has more of a bitter taste, and white onion is sweeter but will work in the same way.

Black Beans: Substitute with pinto beans. For extra protein, add in some extra-firm tofu!

Pasta Sauce: Substitute with a variation of pasta sauce, without all the added spices that pasta sauce would entail. This includes tomato sauce, tomato paste or tomato puree. Afterward, add in extra spices to taste.

Other Veggies: The other vegetables used are corn, fresh tomatoes and bell pepper. Both green bell pepper and red bell peppers can be used for color!

Vegan Mexican Rice Recipe Notes

• One idea on serving this would be to put a large flour tortilla in a bowl, and add the rice on top. Or bake some tortillas in the shape of a bowl (there are ways to use an upside down circular cake pan to make a baked tortilla “bowl”) to make it crunchy. Then add the rice to eat the “bowl” as tortilla chips. You can also use this to make burrito bowls with vegan meat and vegan cheese!
• I added vegan yogurt/sour cream, lime juice, cilantro, roma tomatoes, and avocado/guacamole to serve!
• Add jalepeno pepper, poblano pepper, green chilies for extra spice!
• Troubleshooting: If rice is undercooked after one cycle, then add more liquid, give it a good stir all the way to the bottom of the pot and set the cooking time again. It won’t need one cycle, but you can check it after every five minutes until the rice are cooked.

More Healthy Recipes You’ll Love

Indian Egg Fried Rice: This Indian Egg Fried Rice Recipe is a vegetable stir fry rice with a vegan version of scrambled egg mixed in. This combination only takes 15 minutes to come together!

Jollof Rice: Jollof Rice is a hearty African dish is rice stewed in tomato broth with a mix of spices and served with a side of plantains!

Buddha Bowls with Miso Ginger Rice Noodles: Making Vegan Protein Bowl Recipes has never been easier! This recipe uses Miso Ginger Dressing, noodles and veggies with crispy tofu!

Tofu Poke Bowls with Homemade Spicy Mayo: Poke bowls are a part of Hawaiian cuisine, and focus on poke, a raw diced fish. This vegan Tofu Poke Bowl Recipe consists of a grain base, tofu poke, homemade spicy mayo and lots of veggies!

If you make this Vegan Mexican Rice Recipe, then leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!