Slow Cooker Burrito Bowls
These vegetarian slow cooker burrito bowls are SO easy to make, no pre-cooking required! Serve hot with your choice of toppings – I like cheese and avocado!
My veggie burrito bowls are still one of the most popular recipes on this blog, even now, 3 years later. Not to blow my own trumpet or anything (except that I totally am), but I still get pretty regular comments about how much people enjoy the recipe. That’s how I know you guys are my soul mates – anything with spicy black beans, covered in melted cheese, you love about as much as I do.
I’m hoping that you’re also as lazy as I am (read: pretty damn lazy), because I thought it was time to revamp my old burrito bowl recipe into a version that’s even easier, even quicker to prepare, and just as delicious (the italics make it extra true). That’s right, I bring you slow cooker burrito bowls! Huzzah!
The basic process is this:
1. Put some ingredients in the slow cooker. You don’t need to pre-cook anything, because that would be rubbish. Mix it around a bit.
2. Turn it on (this really does need to be a step all on its own, otherwise this list of processes would just be far too short).
3. Wait for three hours. Take a bath or drink a bottle of wine or something.
4. Top the burrito bowls with grated cheese, avocado, sour cream, or whatever else tickles your fancy (this is the fun bit).
5. Eat (…okay, maybe this is the fun bit).
See? Really couldn’t be any easier. You’ve got your beans, your veggies, your rice – all cooked together in one big yummy mix. Feel free to swap around the veggies depending on what you have in the fridge, add a bit more hot sauce if you like things spicy, use different spices to put your own spin on it. The slow cooker burrito bowl is your oyster.
I kept my toppings pretty simple – some grated cheddar, fresh coriander (that’s cilantro, and it’s a must in my book), a dollop of sour cream, and some sliced avocado. You can add whatever toppings you fancy though, of course. Mexican food (even knock-off, untraditional Mexican food like this) has so many options when it comes to toppings, so go crazy. Salsa, guacamole, jalapeños, spring onions, a squeeze of lime… toppings for daaaays.
What would you pile up on top of your slow cooker burrito bowl?
Slow Cooker Burrito Bowls
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Print Pin Comment(if you suffer from allergies, please double check all ingredients before eating)
Ingredients
- 1 onion, diced or thinly sliced
- 1 bell pepper (I used yellow), diced
- 1 mild red chilli, finely chopped
- 400 g tin black beans, drained (240g, or ~ 1 1/4 cups, when drained)
- 215 g uncooked brown rice (~ 1 cup)
- 400 g tin chopped tomatoes (~ 1 1/2 cups)
- 150 ml water (~ 1/2 cup)
- 1 tbsp chipotle hot sauce (or other favourite hot sauce)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- Salt
- Black pepper
- To serve, your choice of: grated cheese, fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped spring onions, sliced avocado, sour cream, guacamole, etc.
Instructions
- Add all the burrito bowl ingredients (not toppings) to a slow cooker – mine is 4.7 litres / 4 quarts. Mix well.
- Cook on low for around 3 hours, or until the rice is cooked *see note below*.
- Serve hot with your choice of toppings.
Notes
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.
Love a Mexican-style dinner made in the slow cooker? You’ll love my slow cooker enchilada chilli:
This looks so good! I really need to invest in a slow cooker, my old housemate had one and I used to use it all the time… maybe it’s time to treat myself! The bath and wine sounds much more appealing than standing over the stove ;)
Haha well a bath and wine sounds more appealing than most things, no? ;)
Judging by your pictures I think I own the same slow cooker! ;)
Do you think Quinoa would cook in the same time? We’re not big on rice… ;)
Hehe mine’s a digital one from Crock-Pot, does that sound about right? :)
I’ve actually never cooked quinoa in the slow cooker – I imagine it would cook a lot quicker, since the grains are so much smaller than rice? It’s definitely worth experimenting, but I imagine you could add the quinoa just for the last hour or so of cooking?
I always find it amazing what you can make in a slow cooker. This really looks amazing Becca – it’s right up my street. Do you deliver? Ha!
Haha no but if you ever fancy a trip to Hertfordshire you’re more than welcome! :P
This looks very tasty. I bet it was.
This sounds so tasty, I have to say I have never put rice in my slow cooker so really need to widen my cookery horizons! I’m wondering if soaked black beans would cook in this time, will have to investigate!
I don’t often cook rice in my slow cooker – it does overcook if you leave it in there too long, and goes a bit mushy. But as long as you turn these off after 3 hours you should be fine! :)
Oh these look so tasty! We love burritos and this is a fab looking recipe. The pictures look great! Thanks for sharing this :) Angela
Oh my gosh I am totally bookmarking this for later. Nom!!
I never like Mexican food as much as I think I’m going to, and I still can’t work out why…. Being me, I would use dried beans, as it’s not much more of a faff to use them in that sort of recipe (you just have to remember to soak them for a couple of hours first, and then boil hard for 10-15 minutes before transferring them to the slow cooker), and I do prefer the texture. And I do love rice and beans….
I use my slow cooker A LOT, especially in the summer when I don’t want the stove on. Now I just need to work out a haybox version (no power source) to use in our motor home….
If you like rice and beans but you’re not a fan of Mexican food, you could always change up the spices a bit in this recipe to give it a slightly different flavour :)
Rather what I was thinking….
Brilliant! Why wouldn’t you cook it in a slow cooker if you can – never even thought of it!!
You need to get yourself one! :)
I love this idea, Becca. I am not very adventurous with my slow cooker (it lives in the garage) but you have inspired me to get the damn thing out and give this a go. And of course I will add loads of cheese. :-)
Whaaaat?! You must get your slow cooker out, it’s so handy! Try these!