I recently shared three Budget-Friendly Easy Vegan Instant Pot recipes over on Youtube, and one of them is for Vegan Instant Pot Mexican Rice and Beans.
Why you’ll love this recipe
Itโs my version of Mexican Rice and Beans but made vegan and simplified. After you sautรฉ a few aromatics, youโll dump the remaining ingredients into the Instant Pot and thatโs all! Itโs a super simple recipe and a great option for meal prep. Plus, like many bean recipes, itโs made with inexpensive, everyday ingredients so itโs also really affordable to make.
Tips for making this recipe
To keep this dish budget-friendly, I use dried beans (instead of canned beans) that I purchase in bulk (along with the brown rice). Since dried beans typically take anywhere from 25-40 minutes to cook in the Instant Pot, I first soak the beans overnight to reduce their cook time. This enables you to cook the beans and the rice (and all the other ingredients) at the same cook time. If you donโt soak the beans, they wonโt fully cook through in the 12-minute cook time.
If you forget to soak your beans overnight, you can try this quick soak method.
Oh, and if you want more than 90 incredible vegan Instant Pot recipes, be sure to order my 5-star-rated cookbook, The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook!
Vegan Instant Pot Mexican Rice and Beans Recipe Video
EASY VEGAN INSTANT POT RECIPES (Budget-Friendly)
More Mexican Inspired Recipes
Okay so none of these are authentically Mexican, but they’re all so delicious I don’t think you’ll mind:
Big Vegan Flavor
Techniques and 150 recipes to master vegan cooking.
Vegan Instant Pot Mexican Rice and Beans
Ingredients
- 1 cup (165-175g) dried pinto beans, soaked for 8 hours or overnight
- 1 tablespoons olive oil or neutral cooking oil of choice
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 1 small green bell pepper, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 ยฝ teaspoons kosher salt + more to taste
- Freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- 4 cups water
- 1 ยฝ cups (270g) long-grain brown rice
- 1 (15-ounce) (425g) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (8-ounce) (227g) can tomato sauce
- ยฝ of a lime, juiced
- ยฝ cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
Instructions
- Place the beans in a large bowl and cover with plenty of cold water. Soak for 8 hours or overnight, then rinse and drain the beans. Alternatively, use the quick soak method described here.
- Sect the Sauteฬ setting on the Instant Pot and let the pot heat up for a few minutes before adding the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the onion and bell pepper along with a pinch of salt and cook until the onions are translucent, 3-5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, tossing frequently to prevent burning.
- Add the spices, salt, and pepper, and stir frequently until very fragrant and the vegetables are well coated with the spices, about 30 seconds.
- Pour in the water to deglaze the pan, using a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape up any browned bits on the bottom of the pot. Add the soaked and drained beans, along with the brown rice, and stir well.
- Pour the crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce on top and gently stir (donโt stir the tomatoes down too much, or they might sink to the bottom and block the Instant Potโs heat sensor, causing it to burn).
- Secure the lid and set the Pressure Release to Sealing. Select the Pressure Cook setting at high pressure and set the cook time to 12 minutes.
- Once the 12-minute timer has completed and beeps, allow a natural pressure release for 15 minutes and then carefully switch the Pressure Release knob from Sealing to Venting to release any remaining steam.
- Stir in the lime juice. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper as needed and garnish with the cilantro.
How many grams is in one serving?
Hi Jamie, we haven’t measured the volume/weight per serving unfortunately… so sorry! One serving is just 1/4 the total batch, so you can weigh the total batch and divide by 4 to figure that out. We hope you enjoy the recipe!
I liked clear instructions and how easy and quick it was to prepare, using the ingredients we all probably have on hand. I wanted it to be a bit more spicy and have something crunchy on a side as it’s quite soft on the mouth. I had it with kimchi and really loved that pairing. You might want to add pickled onions on top instead.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Alina! We are happy to hear the recipe was a hit!
Just made a version of this but I donโt have an instant pot so did it in a large pot on the hob. I also swapped out the beans for canned chickpeas! It was so good! Perfect spice blend. Thank you!
Great to hear you had success with the recipe, Lucy! Thanks for sharing!
Could I make this with black beans instead?
Hi Ann, yes you can! We havenโt tried it ourselves and appreciate the softer, creamier texture of the pinto beans in this recipe more than we would black beans, but you can use black beans if that is your preference.
I made this and it was delicious. It was very easy to follow recipe and instapot made it happen quick. I did pre soak my beans.
Thankyou for the recipe and your cookbook. Love it.
Hi Wendy, thank you so much for your kind review! We’re happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe and love the cookbook!
Hi! I made this today. Love the flavors and it has just enough spice as I do not like the “heat” to overwhelm the seasonings. I do not think the brown rice is too mushy for this recipe. If I used canned beans, I would not cook them in the instant pot because they would turn to mush; just reduce the liquid by maybe 2 cups and stir the canned beans in at the end . I think red kidney beans would be really good in this recipe, would add some color and a little more texture so may try those next time.
Hi Valerie, thank you so much for your kind review!
Hello! I am an American living in Japan who is just starting out cooking vegan food.
Since I have no Instant Pot, I made this recipe with an iron frying pan for the saute part and my Panasonic pressure cooker for the pressure cooking portion. I replaced long-grain brown rice with the same amount/weight of Japanese brown rice (genmai). I didnโt have red pepper flakes available and since there is no lime
juice in the supermarket, I replaced with a squeeze of lemon juice from a bottle. The beans I bought off Amazon.
Despite some of the changes, this turned out great, even after freezing and reheating! I look forward to making this again. Thank you for the delicious recipes! :)
It’s so great to hear the recipe went well with the substitutions/changes, Raz! Thanks for sharing!
I followed the directions exactly and am sad to say that this recipe fell short for me. The rice is mush (so overcooked you can barely tell that it’s rice) and it is very bland. The seasonings aren’t nearly flavorful enough, unlike most of Nisha’s recipes which are always well seasoned in my opinion. The tomato flavor came through too strong for me and overpowered everything else. The recipe as written would need too many changes for me to try making it again.
We’re sorry to hear it, Sheryl. We appreciate your feedback nonetheless!
Hello Nisha, can I substitute the rice for short grain? It’s what I have at home…. (or Basmati). Thank you!
Hi Melina, that should work! Let us know how it goes!
Hello, what do you mean by tomato sauce? Is it pasta tomato sauce or tomato paste? Thank you.
Hi Eva, it’s neither! In the canned tomato product section of the grocery store, next to the crushed/diced/etc. tomatoes there should be tomato sauce there. You’re not looking for concentrated tomato paste or pasta tomato sauce with tons of additional spices and herbs in it (it should just have tomatoes and salt in the ingredient list).
Depending on where you are in the world the terms can be different, in my country this is called pasta sauce, it just comes in a variety that has no added flavours. What we call ‘tomato sauce’ is what Americans call ‘ketchup’ so it’s important to get it right for a recipe!
Tomato sauce in America doesn’t exist in UK (and I assume Europe is the same). From what I read online, it’s reduced tomato passata. What I do – just cook passata or canned chopped tomatoes on high heat for 10 minutes (lid ajar to prevent splatter) until saucier, less watery. Freeze leftovers for easy meal next time. Bonus tomato isn’t tangy because it’s been cooked once. Happy cooking!