One Pot Baked Fajita Rice
As you may know, I adore all things Tex-Mex. It’s hard to go wrong with plenty of veggies, black beans (the GOAT of all legumes), rice, gooey cheese, and a bit of tasty spice to bring everything to life. And this baked fajita rice has all of the above!
Best of all, it’s super easy to make, because everything cooks at the same time in a big baking dish (got to love a one pot meal). Just mix everything together – including raw veggies and uncooked rice! – and come back half an hour later to find your dinner has cooked itself. If that isn’t appealing, I don’t know what is.
All of my favourite vegetarian Tex-Mex recipes are easy to adapt, because you can usually swap in different vegetables if you like, and adjust the spice level to your preferences. Plus, you can top your meal with whatever you like – I served my baked rice with a couple of good dollops of sour cream and guacamole.
⭐️ What Makes it Fajita Rice?
I’ve called this baked rice ‘fajita rice’, because it’s reminiscent of my favourite vegetarian fajitas, and it uses my favourite fajita veggies – peppers and red onion. Some mushrooms would also be great in this!
I also added some black beans for extra vegetarian protein, and swapped the tortilla that you’d usually use to wrap up your fajitas for some rice instead. If you’re bored of your usual fajitas, this is a great way to mix things up a bit!
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🥗 Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe. See the printable recipe card below for detailed ingredient quantities.
- rice – any long grain white rice will be fine. I used basmati rice.
- black beans (canned)
- fajita-style vegetables – I used peppers and red onion. Mushrooms would also work really well, or whatever else you usually like to serve in vegetarian fajitas.
- canned tomatoes
- vegetable stock – I used a stock cube (plus water), but you could use the equivalent amount of liquid stock if you prefer.
- spices – I used smoked paprika, chilli powder and ground cumin, which is my favourite combination for Tex-Mex recipes (you can find all three in my homemade enchilada sauce recipe too!).
- grated cheese – I used mozzarella as I find it melts really nicely.
Becca’s Top Tip
I love serving this baked rice with some extra toppings, like sour cream, guacamole, some chopped cilantro or spring onions, or sliced avocado. So remember to buy whatever toppings you’d like as well!
📹 Recipe Video
🖨️ Printable Instructions
One Pot Baked Fajita Rice
If you’ve cooked this recipe, don’t forget to leave a star rating!
Print Pin CommentIngredients
- 1 red onion, sliced or diced
- 2 bell peppers, sliced or diced (I used red and orange)
- 300 g (~ 10 1/2 oz / ~ 1 1/2 cups) long grain white rice (I used basmati rice)
- 400 g tin black beans, drained (240g, or ~ 1 1/4 cups, when drained)
- 400 g tin (~ 1 1/3 cups) chopped tomatoes
- 500 ml (~ 2 cups) vegetable stock (I used a crumbled stock cube and water)
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon mild chilli powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 150 g (~ 1 1/2 cups) grated mozzarella cheese
- To serve: sour cream, guacamole, cilantro, etc. (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180°C (Gas Mark 4 / 350°F). Add the sliced red onion and peppers to a large baking dish – mine measured approximately 11 x 9 inches, and was quite deep. If you don't have a large enough baking dish, you'll need to spread the ingredients across two dishes.
- Add all the other ingredients, apart from the mozzarella cheese.
- Mix well to combine, making sure the rice is submerged in liquid.
- Bake for around 30 minutes, then mix well. The rice should be almost cooked.
- Top with grated mozzarella, and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes, or until the cheese has crisped up to your liking. Serve with guacamole, sour cream, or any other additional toppings, if you like.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.
💭 Recipe FAQs
If needed, you can mix all the ingredients in advance, store in the fridge, then bake just before serving.
This baked rice can easily be reheated in the microwave until piping hot. Be aware that rice must be stored in the fridge as soon as it has cooled, for up to 2 days, and reheated thoroughly to avoid food poisoning.
This recipe already contains protein, carbs and vegetables, so it’s a full meal on its own. However, I love to serve it with some guacamole and sour cream on the side, to add interest. A green salad would also be a great side dish for this recipe.
Sure – just swap the mozzarella cheese for your favourite vegan cheese. The rest of the recipe is already vegan.
Delicious! Simple! Followed the recipe and it came out perfect, just like the pics. Great gluten free meal!
Thanks so much Stuart! :)
followed the recipe but need more turning and longer cooking time and more stock. Disappointed
Sorry it took longer than you planned Denis! Hopefully it still tastes good :)
So delicious. I added some ground coriander too for more flavour. I don’t like cooked bell peppers so I left that out and I added fresh cherry tomatoes to keep it bulked up. I’ll definitely make again!
Thank you! Glad you liked it! :)
Unfortunately the cooking times and rice to liquid ratios are way off. Not even close to what is required. Took about twice as long, that’s with me increasing the temperature to 200. I followed the recipe to the letter and at 30 mins the rice wasn’t even slightly cooked, so I had to deviate.
Sorry this one didn’t work for you James. I do find there can be quite a lot of variance in how long rice takes to cook depending on what kind / even what brand you buy, so it’s always worth keeping an eye on. Hopefully once you knew how long your particular brand of rice needs to cook, it still tasted good?
It has taken 1.5 hours and three liquid top ups and all the rice is still not cooked. I’m sure it will be delicious when cooked but it takes a lot longer than recipe suggests.
Thanks for the feedback Hattie! I do find there can be quite a lot of variance in how long rice takes to cook depending on what kind / even what brand you buy, so it’s always worth keeping an eye on. I’m surprised that rice didn’t cook in 1.5 hours though! Make sure the dish is covered and that the oven is hot enough to get the liquid nice and bubbly. Otherwise perhaps you could try a quick cook kind of rice, if you can find it?
This recipe is literally amazing! I was in a ‘I can’t be bothered to cook mood’ and had even got a previously homemade vegetarian chilli out of the freezer eat and then I was browsing your recipes and was like, ‘I could totally do that’ and went straight to the kitchen to cook. It took minutes to prepare and I had all the ingredients in the fridge (I used a small white onion instead of red, grated cheddar instead of Mozzarella and brown rice as that was what I had). I added mushrooms to it. It did take a lot longer in the oven to cook but I think my baking dish was small than advised and I put it all in it plus I had brown rice. I put it in the middle of the oven on 180 fan oven for half an hour and I had uncooked rice in a tomato broth liquid (it had not reduced). I upped the heat to 200 and after half an hour the liquid had gone but the rice was al dente. I added water to it, put it in the top shelf and left it for another half an hour and it was done and then an extra ten minutes for the cheese. Next time I will cook it on 200 at the top of the oven. It tasted amazing with the sour cream and although it took longer, I was able to do the washing up and clear out some cupboards in my kitchen so it all worked out. Thank you for the great recipe!
Thank you so much Wren! Yes, the brown rice will definitely be why it took longer, and needed more liquid. I’m glad you were able to make it work for you though :)