The Best Vegan Mexican Rice

This vegan Mexican rice recipe has diced tender peppers, onions, and sweetcorn popping in your mouth, carried there by some incredibly savory moist yet fluffy rice.

It’s a totally inauthentic, but completely tasty recipe. It’s based on this delicious Mexican rice I used to love at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Dublin my dad part-owned when I was a kid, with a little more tomato flavor and some added sweetcorn to what I remember.

It’s an easy one-pot recipe and makes lots so feel free to cut the recipe in half or freeze any extras to enjoy later.

You’re just going to finely dice up some peppers and onions and fry them in some oil, then add spices to toast, and finally add some rice, sweetcorn, and vegetable stock along with some crushed garlic and tomato paste.

Trust me, I’m very particular about my rice (I will not eat overcooked rice, I banish it back to the kitchen to become rice pudding) and this recipe is SO good. If you love Mexican rice then I’d also suggest checking out my even easier lemon rice with coconut recipe.

Serve it with:

This vegan Mexican rice is seriously tasty enough to eat by itself but also goes really well:

• In burritos or burrito bowls. Add some shredded lettuce, chunky tomato salsa, vegan sour cream, sliced avocado, and frijoles charros for a meal to remember!
• As a side for lighter less filling sides like these thin crispy vegan quesadillas.
• As a side dish, along with some guacamole and pico de gallo for some fajita veggies and flour tortillas.
• Topped with some vegan refried beans, vegan sour cream, vegan nacho cheese sauce, pico de gallo, and some sliced pickled jalapeños for some crazily tasty nacho-style rice.
• Alongside some vegan tacos, such as these tasty buffalo jackfruit tacos or some delicious black bean tacos.
• In taco salad
• Anywhere you’d use regular rice really, to jazz up your meal a bit.

Some delicious vegan chickpea chocolate chip cookies (super low in sugar, flourless, healthy really!) with a kick of cayenne would also make a great dessert after your tasty meal with this rice on the side…Just saying…in for a penny in for a pound!

Which rice should you use?

I want to say any rice…but no. I still haven’t figured out why but rice tends to wildly misbehave and needs more liquid in the presence of tomatoes.

It takes quite a bit of testing to get the right ratio depending on the other ingredients in the recipe, and I haven’t tested this yet with other types of rice so stick with plain old (white, not brown) long-grain rice for now.

I feel like basmati and extra-long grain would be great, but basmati is way more prone to overcooking and needs a little less liquid than sturdy long-grain, so watch this space and I’ll update in the future!

How to make it

As tends to be the case with most of the recipes you’ll find here on this website, my version of vegan Mexican rice is pretty easy to make. Having said that, here I’ll included detailed instructions and progress photos so you can make sure you’re on the right path.

First things first, gather your ingredients. You can check out the image below to make sure you’ve got the right ones.

Next, finely chop the onion and the red and green pepper (image numbered one below). Note that you can use any two peppers of different colors or even two of the same color, it won’t make a huge difference flavorwise, it’s just prettier with those pops of red and green.

Add the oil to a large non-stick pot and heat on high. You can use any flavorless oil such as sunflower, grapeseed or canola.

Fry the peppers and onions on medium-high heat for five minutes stirring often, you want them to quickly soften, not burn (image numbered two below). Now would be a good time to rinse your rice.

Do not skip this step please – getting rid of all that gluey starch gives the final rice dish much better-separated grains.

You can either place the rice in a fine-mesh sieve and rinse with cold water until the water runs clear, or add to a bowl, add in cold water and swirl the rice around with your hand until the water is cloudy and pour off the water (you’ll have to repeat at least four times). Make sure the rice is well-drained as any residual water will put off the rice to water ratio.

Measure out the cumin, turmeric, and paprika and add to the pot with the peppers and onions and mix well. Toast no longer than 30 seconds, stirring continuously to avoid the spices burning (image numbered three above).

I like the extra color turmeric gives the rice and the subtle flavor, and before you get angry with me I assure you that here in Spain, where I live, turmeric is commonly added to Spanish rice dishes seasoning packets instead of the super-expensive saffron, so it isn’t a huge jump.

As an aside, the dish called “Spanish rice” in the USA doesn’t exist here although I hear it is very similar to Mexican rice.

Add the drained rice in and mix well. Add in all the remaining ingredients except the lemon juice (image four above: vegetable stock, sweetcorn, onion powder, garlic powder, crushed garlic cloves, tomato paste, hot sauce, and salt) and mix well (image five below).

The sweetcorn can be canned or frozen, and the hot sauce is optional but does give a nice mild kick of heat. Any vinegar-based hot sauce like Tabasco or Frank’s will do, and double the amount for more spice.

Allow to come to a lively simmer uncovered, then cover with a tightly fitting lid or aluminum foil, and turn the heat down to the lowest setting possible.

Leave for twenty minutes with no peaking, then remove from the heat. Remove the lid (image six above), add in the lemon juice, quickly stir, paying special attention to lifting up the rice at the bottom and mixing it well through the pot, then replace the lid and leave to one side for ten minutes.

Done! You can serve immediately, but I prefer to remove the lid and fluff the rice up really well with a fork and let cool to just above room temperature uncovered as the flavors really intensify, but you do you.

And if you really want to kick your rice up a notch, and you laugh in the face of calories, you can add two-three tablespoons of vegan butter or plant-based spread and mix through once melted.

Leftovers

This recipe for vegan Mexican rice does make around eight large portions, so if you don’t end up with leftovers don’t worry because the flavors get even better with more time to develop.

You can keep your leftover rice in a tightly covered container in the fridge for up to four days, and reheat on high in the microwave for three minutes.

Sometimes after the second day or so, the grains of rice can dry out a little- if this happens just add in two-three tablespoons of water before microwaving.

In the same container or in a freezer bag, this rice will keep for up to four weeks. To reheat, defrost and add to a pan with no oil and cook over low heat until heated through.

You can also heat it up in the oven uncovered for about ten minutes on 300ºF, stirring halfway through.

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