Vegetarian Spanish Rice and Beans Recipe - Choosing Chia (2024)

Home » Diet » Gluten Free » Spanish Red Beans and Rice

Jump To Recipe ★★★★★2 reviews posted Feb 15, 2021 by Jessica Hoffman

This recipe for Spanish Rice and Beans comes together in 40 minutes, and is delicious on its own or as a side! This recipe is naturally gluten-free and vegan.

Why You’ll Love This Spanish Rice and Beans Recipe

This recipe for Spanish Rice and Beans is easy to prep and can be whipped up in roughly 30 minutes or so. It’s a great kitchen staple that is popular in Latin America.

Rice and beans is very budget-friendly, and one serving is packed with 7 grams of protein. This dish is also packed full of flavour – the whole family will love it!

Spanish Red Beans and Rice Ingredients and Substitutions

Here are all the main ingredients that go into Spanish Rice and Beans and some substitutions you can use if there’s an ingredient you’d like to swap out.

• Rice: I use a simple long-grain white rice for this recipe, but you could also use a short grain rice like Jasmine rice, or even brown rice if you prefer. If you do use brown rice, you may need to adjust the cooking time slightly, since brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice.
• Beans: Red kidney beans are what is used in this recipe, but any type of beans you love can be used in place. Make sure to use cooked beans (either from a can, or cook up your dry beans) before adding them to the recipe.
• Spices: Salt, pepper and paprika to keep it simple. You can play around with the spices and add some chili powder, cumin, or cayenne pepper if you like!
• Onion & garlic: These are SO important to flavour the rice! So make sure to use fresh onions and garlic for the best reslts.
• Crushed tomatoes: from a can. You can also use tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, chopped tomatoes etc. all of these will work.
• Veggie stock: You can technically cook up the rice using water, though I do recommend a veggie stock because this will infuse the rice with flavour as it cooks and make it extra tasty!

How to Make Spanish Rice and Beans

1. Start by sautéing the onions and garlic together in a pan, then add the spices and mix together before adding in the rice.

2. Next add the crushed tomatoes and mix everything together, then add the stock and beans and let the rice cook on low heat, covered for about 30 minutes. Fluff up the rice with a fork once it’s done.

3. Once the rice is cooked, taste it and adjust any seasoning if needed. You can also top it off with any herbs you love!

How to make Spanish Rice and Beans in an Instant Pot

Want to make this into an Instant Pot Spanish Rice and Beans? No problem, here’s how to do it:

1. Put the Instant pot on sauté mode then sauté the garlic and onions.
2. Then add the rest of the ingredients to the Instant Pot.
3. Close the pot, set the valve to sealing and pressure cook for 20 minutes.
4. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then do a quick release.

Tips for making the perfect Vegetarian Spanish Rice

• Use fresh onion and garlic in this recipe. These will help build up a lot of flavours in the rice and beans!
• Use a good quality veggie stock. Since the rice will absorb the flavour from the stock, you want to start off with a really good-tasting stock!

What Goes Well with Spanish Rice?

Spanish Rice and Beans can be served in so many different ways!

You can serve it:

• As a side with your favourite protein to accompany it.
• In a burrito bowl.
• As a stuffing inside Enchiladas.
• Alongside your favourite tacos, quesadillas or even inside a burrito!

More rice recipes to try

• Forbidden Rice Salad
• Turmeric Rice
• Vegan Fried Rice

If you tried thisSpanish Rice and Beansor any other recipe on the blog let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment/rating below! Be sure to follow along onPinterest,InstagramandFacebookfor even more deliciousness!

Print

posted by Jessica Hoffman on February 15, 2021 (updated June 8, 2022)

6 Comments Leave a Comment »