This tasty vegan burrito bowl with refried beans, rice, avocado and kale leaves has a spicy cumin kick. Delicious, vegan, and filling; the perfect comfort food.
Refried Beans Burrito Bowl
Bowl food is a lot more than just an Instagram hashtag. I love relaxing on the sofa in front of the television, bingeing on a box set while eating a healthy, easily prepared bowl. This vegan burrito bowl recipe is a perfect example; simple and quick to make, delicious, and perfect as an all in one meal.
Birds Eye Frozen Pulses
I made this bowl using the Mexican Bean Mix from the Birds Eye Pulses range, which contains a mix of frozen chickpeas, kidney and black beans. There are two other varieties available: Chickpea & Spinach, and Italian 3 Bean Mix.
The great advantage of using frozen pulses, like these Birds Eye mixes, is the time and convenience over dried pulses. No soaking for hours then cooking, and unlike tins, you don’t have to drain and rinse the beans, and then be stuck with the leftovers when I use only half a tin’s worth.
Cooking from frozen means that I can use the exact quantity I want poured straight from the packet, and they take only a few minutes to cook. Freezing locks in the flavour so I find that these mixtures taste really vibrant and fresh.
The Italian mixture includes frozen green beans, and the chickpea and spinach mixture has cauliflower and lentils, making for no-hassle help on the way to my five a day. The mixtures can be cooked with water in a saucepan on the stovetop, but I find the easiest thing to do is to steam them in the microwave in a covered pot with a little water.
Cooking with Birds Eye Pulses also frees up time spent on food preparation, which gives me more time to get creative in the kitchen and experiment with different autumnal flavours. For more ideas for tasty bowl food, follow the hashtag #Goodforyourbowl.
Birds Eye Pulses are available from the freezer department in larger Tesco, Asda stores and online from Ocado for £2.00 per 450g packet.
Extra Veg
I’m always looking for ways to boost the amount of vegetables that I’m eating, and I’m fully signed up to the meat-free Monday concept. A dish like this is perfect: not taking long to make, delicious and filling and 100% meat free.
Why are they called Refried Beans?
They’re only fried once, so why are the called refried beans rather than just fried beans? It’s actually a mistranslation. The Mexican name of frijoles refritos means “well-fried” or “well-cooked” beans.
How to make Mexican Refried Beans
Step One – measure out your ingredients.
Step Two – chop the onion and fry in a large frying pan with a tablespoon of oil. Cook the onion over a medium heat. When the onion has just started to become translucent, add the garlic and cook for a couple more minutes.
Step Three – add the cumin.
Step Four – Stir in the cumin so that the onion is evenly coated. Cook for a few more minutes so that the delicious spicy aromas are released. At the same time, cook the beans; either steam in the microwave or cook in a saucepan on the stove top.
The beans should be cooked until soft – this may make take a little longer than the packet instructions. Keep back about half a cup of the cooking water.
Step Five – add the cooked beans to the onion, spices and garlic. Add chopped coriander and lime juice.
Step Six – cook the beans until soft.
Step Seven – mash with a potato masher into a coarse, textured puree. You can also use a stick blender. If you need to you can add some the cooking water you kept back at the start to loosen the mixture.
How to assemble Vegan Burrito Bowls with Refried Beans
Once you have made the refried beans as shown above, making vegan burrito bowls is very easy
- Cook the rice according to your favourite method. I’m a big fan of cooking it in the microwave.
- Lightly cook some kale leaves.
- Assemble the vegan burrito bowls. Line each bowl with the kale leaves. Add rice, and top with refried beans.
- Garnish with cubes of avocado, slices of jalapeño peppers, and a quartered lime.
Vegan Burrito Bowl Recipe with Refried Beans
Ingredients
Refried beans
- 250 g Mexican bean mix (frozen)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion (small, diced)
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 1 bunch fresh coriander (chopped - or use frozen or puree )
- 1/2 lime (juice)
Burrito bowl
- 1 handful kale leaves (whole)
- 1 cup rice (long grain)
- 1 jalapeño pepper (sliced finely)
- 1 lime (quartered)
- 1 avocado (cut into cubes)
Instructions
To cook refried beans
- If using frozen beans, cook in a microwave according to the instructions on the packet. Reserve the water used for steaming.
- If using tinned beans, drain the beans, keeping back half a cup of the liquid. Then rinse well in a sieve under running tapwater.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium ring. Fry the onion until it starts to turn translucent.
- Add the garlic and fry for about two more minutes.
- Add the cumin and stir well, so that the onion is evenly coated. Continue cooking for a few more minutes, until you can smell the rich aromas from the spices
- Add the beans and cook until soft.
- Add half the coriander and the lime juice. Mash the beans with a potato masher until they reach the desired consistency. You can also use a stick blender. If needed, to loosen the mixture, add the cooking water that was kept back in stage one. I prefer some texture, and not mashing the beans until they're too smooth.
- Add the remaining coriander leaves, check the seasoning and add more lime juice if wanted.
To make vegan burrito bowls.
- Cook the rice using to your favourite method and the instructions on the packet. I am a big fan of microwaving rice - quick, simple and fuss free.
- Cook the kale: microwave for 2 minutes or steam until just wilted
- Assemble the dish: line the bowl with the kale, add rice and refried beans to the middle of the bowl. Top with cubed avocado, sliced jalapeño and serve with a quarter of lime.
Notes
- This recipe is 9 Weight Watchers Smart Points
Recipe for Vegan Burrito Bowl Recipe with Refried Beans commissioned by Birds Eye. All opinions are our own.
If you like this recipe, then try my healthy, tasty and filling 5 bean chilli recipe.
Sharon
This recipe looks so good and really easy to make. Perfect for dinner then for leftovers for lunch the next day.
Helen
Really easy to make.
Valentina
What a great use of the Mexican beans. I love a hearty salad bowl like this one — so fresh and packed with flavor. Thinking my whole family would love it!
Helen
Great for family meals.
Danielle
These look so good and healthy! I especially love that Mexican bean mix! Makes prep quick and easy.
Helen
The bean mixes are such a good idea!
Helen
it is a really nice mix! so good to keep in the freezer.
Caroline
These bowls look and sound tasty! I like the idea of the frozen beans too as I do sometimes find myself wasting part of a can.
Helen
I love the frozen packets of beans, so easy to pour out what you need!
Jenna
I love this recipe! Its so great to be able to use frozen food once in a while, especially for a healthy dish.
Helen
Thank you. I love these beans for how good they are to portion.
Tricia L
Frozen bean mixes are such a good idea. Ideal for dishes like this, my kind of food any day of the week.
Helen
The bean mixes are so useful.
Amber
This sounds yummy Helen. So easy to make and loads of flavour.
Helen
Very tasty.
Bryan B
I often wondered about the whole refried beans thing, now I know. Great tasty dish, perfect for a mid-week meal. The frozen beans are really handy to have.
Helen
The bean mixes are great.
Sophie
I love the sound of the bean mixes. What a brilliant idea. Your burrito bowl looks so tasty, and lovely and healthy too.
Helen
It is a very tasty meal.
Yasmine Kirkwood
I love bowl food, perfect for relaxing with the TV on. And another love of mine is spicy bean dishes. Very tasty and lots of nutrition.
Helen
Bowl food is perfect for TV binging.
Ellie D
These frozen bean mixes would be really handy to have, so versatile.
Helen
They really are a great idea.
Graeme
Nice and easy to make, and great that you don’t have to soak the beans first.
Helen
So quick and easy to use from the packet.
Irene L
I love bowl foods like this. Easy to make and very tasty.
Helen
A tasty bowl of food is always appreciated.
Carly
Yummy! This is the kind of thing I make on a Friday night, glad of the weekend and catching up on TV.
Helen
Sounds perfect.
Natalie M
I love bean dishes, and these frozen packets look so convenient.
Helen
They are really handy to have in the freezer.