Spanish Rice and Beans (Easy Pantry Meal!)

This rice and Spanish beans bring great flavor to humble ingredients! It makes a delicious vegan and vegetarian main dish or an easy side dish.

Here’s a dish with humble ingredients but big flavor: Rice and spanish beans! Alex and I recently shared a recipe for Spanish rice as part of our Ultimate Vegan Burrito, and it was so delicious we wanted to find another way to serve it. Enter: rice and beans! It’s kind of a staple that works as a healthy vegan and vegetarian dinner or savory side dish. Flavored with salsa and adobo sauce, the rice is filled with spicy roasted red peppers, beans and herbed cilantro. Alex and I took a bite and then we couldn’t stop eating it. Here’s more about it and how to do it!

Looking for something more traditional? Try our Black Beans and Rice or Cuban Black Beans recipe. (Or switch it up and have fried rice (to go!).)

Rice and green beans: more of a concept than a recipe!

Spanish rice is actually a Mexican dish, sometimes called Mexican rice Red rice (“red rice” in Spanish). It gets its red color from cooking with tomatoes. Here’s our version of this popular Mexican side dish that’s perfect with tacos and enchiladas. It’s fantastic in this vegan burrito or alongside those flavorful red enchiladas.

Add beans and you have rice and spanish beans! Interestingly, there isn’t really a “recipe standard” for it like there is for Spanish rice. So you can use any type of beans you want! The addition of this plant-based protein turns this classic side dish into a healthy vegetarian and vegan dinner.

Ingredients for rice and spanish beans

There are many variations on how to cook Spanish rice. Like coleslaw or potato salad, everyone has their own version of this side dish. And as I mentioned above, there’s even more variation on the concept when you add beans. What’s in this recipe:

• White Onion
• Medium or long grain white rice
• salsa
• Adobo sauce made from a can of chipotle peppers
• Olive oil, vegetable broth and kosher salt
• kidney beans, pinto beans, or black beans
• Roasted red peppers (from a glass)
• Fresh coriander

Use beans you like!

This Spanish Rice and Beans recipe is more of a concept than a recipe, so remember: you can use whatever beans you want! Alex and I used kidney beans here as it’s a popular variation on the recipe, but you can also use pinto beans or black beans.

The use of kidney beans gave it a sort of vegetarian paella vibe! But the use of black beans gives it a simpler Mexican vibe. You can also try our black beans and rice recipe if you want to use black beans.

Find roasted peppers in a jar

The benefit of using roasted red peppers in a jar is that they are pantry friendly! Alex and I wanted this recipe to be an easy-to-use pantry meal using staples you can have on hand, so instead of fresh peppers we used red peppers in a jar. They’re easy to find at your local grocery store and can usually be found near canned goods alongside olives and artichokes in a jar.

Since the peppers are roasted, their taste is nice and tart. Alex and I loved the spiciness they added to this Spanish bean rice, so we recommend finding a few jars for your pantry and using one for this recipe. You only use about 1-2 peppers so you can store the rest in the fridge to use later! An open jar of roasted peppers will keep in the fridge for about 1 month.

More Roasted Pepper Recipes: Greek Barley Salad and Romesco Gnocchi Sauce.

What you should know about adobo sauce

This Spanish rice and beans recipe also includes adobo sauce: a tomato and chili sauce that adds a hearty, smoky flavor to Mexican dishes. It’s optional in this recipe, but we highly recommend it. It only uses 1 teaspoon so it doesn’t add any heat! Here’s what you need to know about it:

• Chipotle with Adobo sauce are available in the Mexican grocery section of most grocery stores. The box contains both chipotle peppers (smoked and dried jalapeños that are rehydrated) and adobo sauce: a puree of tomatoes, vinegar, garlic, and other spices.
• This recipe only calls for the adobo sauce, not the peppers! Take just 1 teaspoon of sauce from the box and leave the peppers in. Each brand of box contains different amounts of adobo sauce, so you’ll need to experiment and find your favorite.
• Chill or freeze the rest for other recipes. You can keep the box in the fridge for a few weeks, or place the contents in an airtight container and freeze them for a few months.

More recipes with adobo sauce: Enchilada sauce, veggie tortilla soup, quinoa chili, and bean tacos.

Instant Pot variant

If you have a pressure cooker, you can make this Spanish Rice and Beans with it too! Head over to Instant Pot Spanish Rice to prepare the rice, then stir in the beans, roasted red peppers, and fresh cilantro at the end. The benefit of using an Instant Pot is that it’s convenient! (The recipe will take about the same amount of time, so it’s not a huge time saver for this recipe.)

This Spanish Rice and Beans Recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.