Burritos are one of the many types of wraps found in Mexico that have become popular globally. Traditionally, burritos, meaning “little donkey,” use a flour tortilla instead of a corn one. You can buy these ready-made, ensuring they contain no animal ingredients like lard, or make your own at home.
However, what makes a burrito flavorful is the toppings you choose before rolling it into a delicious parcel. The ingredients you choose to customize your burrito will depend primarily on you. Still, some ideas include rice, beans, corn, tofu, salsa, guacamole, and anything else that takes your plant-based diet fancy.
Here’s how to make the best vegan burritos that everyone will love:
Bursting with Flavor: The Best Vegan Burritos
Burritos, often likened to fast food, are anything but. These wraps make an excellent dish to serve at home or to take to work for a healthy lunchtime meal. It’s up to you to layer the ingredients in any way you prefer, creating a nutritious and filling meal.
Fill your burritos with some plant-based protein, add the vegetables, grain, salsa, and anything else that tickles your fancy, and enjoy!
If you are short on ideas for creating burritos bursting with flavor, The Eat Down makes it easier to find a combination you will enjoy. Get wrapping with these 10 Best Vegan Burrito Recipes. These include a recipe for a burrito brimming with Mexican flavors and simple ingredients, the delicious Chipotle Vegan Burrito with Cilantro Lime Rice, an Easy Vegan Breakfast Burrito, and the Easy Tofu Vegan Burritos. The collection also includes a recipe that uses taco “meat” for a more traditional flavor. Many of these you can prepare ahead and freeze for busy days.
Simple and Delicious: The Ultimate Vegan Burrito Recipe
A simple burrito recipe should include ingredients everyone has at home, taste delicious, and be easy to prepare.
The recipe below comes from Nora Cooks, creating enough filling for eight burritos. You prepare the filling ingredients in one pot, and you can then add toppings like pico de gallo, vegan sour cream, guacamole, jalapeno slices, chopped cilantro, shredded lettuce, some shredded vegan cheese, etc. You can also leave out or substitute the red bell pepper or kale. See the recipe to prepare the filling in an InstantPot; we provide the stove top instructions.
Ingredients
- 2 T. olive oil
- 1 finely chopped medium red onion
- 1 chopped red bell pepper
- 3 minced cloves garlic
- A 15-ounce can of black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 1/2 cups short-grain brown rice, uncooked
- 1 1/2 cups corn, it doesn’t matter if it’s fresh, frozen, or canned
- 1 cup kale, finely chopped
- 12 oz salsa (your favorite type will do)
- 2 cups water
- 1 t. each ground cumin and smoked paprika
- 2 t. chili powder
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Heat the two tablespoons of olive oil on medium in a pot.
- Add the onion, red pepper, and garlic. Saute for about 3, stirring constantly.
- Add the rice, beans, corn, kale, salsa, water, spices and salt. Stir to mix all the ingredients and turn the heat to high, bringing to a boil. Cover the pot and lower the heat. Leave the food to simmer for about 45 minutes, and then check that the rice has cooked well.
- Remove the cooked rice mixture from heat and let it rest for 10 minutes. Stir and serve with the toppings, creating one of the best vegan burritos.
Creative Vegan Burrito Ideas You’ll Love
The challenge when creating great vegan burritos is to ensure you find good-sized vegan flour tortillas and create great-tasting fillings. Finding ingredients that mimic meat for vegans who prefer a meaty or chicken-like flavor has become easier. Still, the plant-based world is also full of delicious ingredients for creative burrito ideas.
Insanely Good recipe creator Kim has some creative vegan burrito ideas, including using black beans, rice, mushrooms, refried beans, and even one with potatoes and vegan nacho cheese. You will want to try every one of these, especially the Best Vegan Breakfast Burritos with scrambled tofu.
Elevate Your Vegan Game: Unveiling the Best Vegan Burrito
Variations and changes allow you to create the greatest vegan burritos to elevate your game by accommodating those who don’t eat certain ingredients. Variations also ensure your burritos never become boring.
Unveiling the best vegan burrito is not easy because it all depends on your favorite flavor combinations. However, this Vegan Burrito from Love & Lemons has hearty Spanish rice (or cilantro lime rice), black beans, and pickled onions filling that you can prepare up to three days ahead. Serve them with a homemade or bought salsa, spinach leaves, and toppings you prefer. If you want to serve with guacamole, make it before serving or get store-bought vegan guacamole.
You can change the black beans with pinto beans and lettuce instead of spinach. You can swap the peppers with grilled broccoli, pico di gallo, or corn salsa.
Quick and Easy Vegan Burrito Recipe for Busy Days
On busy days, you need a quick and easy vegan burrito recipe. Even though most people use rice, here’s a recipe for Super Easy Everyday Vegan Burrito from World of Vegan creator Michelle that’s very fast to prepare because it uses quinoa. The grain requires only 20 minutes of cooking on a stovetop and five minutes in a microwave.
All the other ingredients required are either ready or quick to prep. These include heated refried beans, diced tomatoes, canned corn, sliced avo or guacamole, shredded cabbage, and chopped cilantro for the filling, and some sauce for serving. Heat your burritos in a hot pan on both sides for a few seconds before filling. You can also lightly brown the filled burritos before enjoying them.
Lip-Smacking Vegan Burrito Ideas to Satisfy Your Cravings
As we saw above, the best vegan burritos don’t need rice to make them filling. Besides quinoa, here are some other ideas:
Cauliflower Rice – Make cauliflower rice by cutting a medium-sized cauliflower into large pieces. Shred these in your food processor or with a box grater using the large side to shred it. The cauliflower must resemble grains of rice. You can cook the cauliflower rice in a skillet with the right herbs and spices to resemble Spanish or cilantro-lime rice.
Chickpea Rice – If you want a high-protein alternative to rice, then use chickpea rice.
Vegan Chorizo – No, this chorizo does not contain animal-based products and is a delicious filler for your burritos. Besides chickpeas, it contains mushrooms, chilis, and spices.
Tofu Picadillo – Try this delicious plant-based version of the Cuban fragrant classic of stewed tomatoes, herbs, and spices from Dishing Out Health to replace rice in your burritos.
Vegan Burrito Recipe Made Easy: A Crowd-Pleasing Delight
Burritos are a crowd-pleasing delight, but you are looking for something to serve quickly for midweek dinners. No problem, here’s the best vegan burrito recipe made easy, as seen from Vegan Heaven.
If you are too busy, use canned black beans, corn, and shop-bought salsa and guacamole, meaning you only have to cook the rice. Once the rice is ready, it only takes a few minutes to assemble the six burritos in the recipe. The recipe also calls for vegan cheese and sour cream for their deliciously creamy wow factor.
Like most vegan burrito recipes, you can lay around with the ingredients to create customized burritos.
Unleash Your Inner Chef: Mastering the Art of Vegan Burritos
You should know the following secrets to help you unleash your inner chef. Mastering making the best vegan burritos is easier than you thought. Here are some tips to remember:
- Flour tortillas are the best for making burritos. They must be large, soft, and pliable to ensure they don’t break while you wrap them. You can also use gluten-free tortillas.
- Create filling combo variations and dipping sauce ideas to please you and your crowd. Turn up the desired heat by using adobo sauce in your filling or salsa and slicing jalapenos into your guacamole.
- Filling burritos is not tricky. Place them on a flat surface, layer your ingredients, and fold. Folding starts with the sides to ensure the filling stays inside. Then, roll up the tortilla. You can wrap the rolled tortilla in foil or sandwich paper, making it easier to cut in half.
- Don’t throw your leftover burritos away. They can be eaten for up to two days if stored in the fridge. You can also prepare the cooked ingredients up to three days ahead. Chop the fresh ingredients just before rolling the burritos.
- If your burritos don’t have fresh salad ingredients, you can freeze them in foil or plastic for up to 3 months. Reheat in the microwave to serve.
- You can heat tortillas in the oven or on a pan before filling. After filling, you can also make your burritos crisp by heating them in a pan for a few minutes on each side.
- What’s great about the ingredients used to make burritos is that you can turn them into bowls if you forget to buy tortillas or feel like omitting them.
