Healthy & Flavorful Mexican Rice made with brown rice, topped with sheet-pan roasted yams, red onions, and shishito peppers. Serve with pickled jalapeños and pumpkin seeds for a comforting delicious vegan meal. (Stovetop or Instant Pot) Video!
Forget your voice, sing! Forget your feet, dance! Forget your life, live! Forget yourself and be! ~ Kaman Kojouri
This Mexican Rice is topped with Sheet Pan Veggies is homey and satisfying. The short-grain brown rice has a nutty full flavor that cooks up plump, savory and slightly creamy, reminiscent of risotto. The rice stands alone as totally delicious!
But we make it even tastier topping with roasted yams, red onion, and shishito peppers. These go in the oven all on one sheet pan. Brown rice takes a little time to cook but once you get it going, it is hands-off.
You could go wild with toppings or keep it simple with a little sour cream (vegan or regular) and pickled jalapeños. Oh my, these jalapeños are completely addicting. I really encourage you to try them!
We have links at the bottom of this post for delicious possible topping additions.
Mexican Rice | Video
Ingredients in Mexican Rice:
- onions
- garlic cloves
- short-grain brown rice
- cumin, chili powder, ancho chili powder
- tomato paste
- dried oregano
- chicken or veggie stock
How to make Mexican Rice with Sheet Pan Veggies
Step one:
Make the Mexican Rice: In a heavy bottom pot or dutch oven, sauté onion and garlic in oil over medium heat until softened, about 3-5 minutes. (See recipe notes for Instant Pot Version)
Step two:
Add rice and cumin, stirring a minute more until rice is coated with the oil. Stir in tomato paste until it is fully distributed.
Add stock, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
Step three:
While the rice is cooking roast the veggies.
In a bowl toss sliced yams with oil, maple syrup, cumin, chili powder, ancho chili powder and salt.
Step four:
Lay them out on a parchment-lined sheet pan along with the onions. Scrape out the remaining liquid from the yam bowl and spread over the onion slices on the pan. Add a little oil in the bowl first, if needed, to get them all lightly coated.
Step five:
Roast yams and onions in the oven for 20 minutes. Add peppers and broil for 3-5 minutes.
Step six:
Assemble bowls with Mexican rice, yams, onions and peppers. Garnish with toasted pumpkin seeds and sour cream (vegan or regular).
Serve Mexican Rice with these recipes:
- Pickled Jalapeños
- Guacamole
- Fermented Hot Sauce
- Pico de Gallo
- Mexican Street Corn
- Creamy Avocado Salsa
- Avocado Salad with Oranges, Cilantro and Lime
- Mexican Slaw with Cilantro and Lime
My family left this week on a school backpacking trip. Husband, daughter and son…everyone is out of the house. Just me and the dog. For the first time in 16 years, I am home alone. It has been indeed blissful, though I am realizing on a deeper level that having a family is what makes this solitude special. As I relish in the expansive time and space, I feel a deeper appreciation for the balance in my life. Sometimes I can get so focused on what I don’t have, like freedom of time and space, I forget to recognize what I have. Of course, it is easy to contemplate this now in my quiet clean house. It is my intention to hang on to this awareness as my trail weary people return. To flow and open more resisting less with this current chapter of my life, just allowing it to be what it is, chaotic, messy, profound and deeply rich with joy and love just waiting to be received.
Wishing for you much joy, love, and nourishing food,
Print
Mexican Rice with Roasted Veggies
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
- Yield: 3-4 1x
- Category: Main, vegan, vegetarian
- Method: stovetop and instant pot
- Cuisine: Mexican
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Healthy and flavorful Mexican Rice with roasted yams, red onion, and shishito peppers. Top with pickled jalapeños and pumpkin seeds for a comforting delicious vegan meal.
Ingredients
Mexican Rice
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 clove garlic, diced
- 1 cup short grain brown rice
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt, adjust to taste
- 2 1/2 cups chicken stock or veggie stock
Roasted Veggies
- 1 lb yams, sliced about 1/4 inch thick
- 8 padrones or shishito peppers (sub poblanos or bell peppers)
- 1 red onion, sliced into 1/2 inch rings
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ancho chili powder (optional)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons avocado oil or olive oil
Garnish- toasted pumpkin seeds, sour cream ( or vegan sour cream) and pickled jalapeños
Instructions
Stove Top Rice Method
- In a heavy bottom pot, sauté onion and garlic in oil over medium heat until softened, about 3-5 minutes.
- Add rice and cumin, stirring a minute more until rice is coated with the oil.
- Add tomato paste, dried oregano and salt. Stir until paste is fully distributed.
- Add stock, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 1 hour. Give a stir and test rice for doneness. It may need another 10 -20 minutes.
- Leave covered until ready to serve. The rice will stay warm at least for at least 30 minutes after it is finished.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a bowl toss sliced yams with oil, maple syrup, cumin, chili powder, ancho chili powder and salt. Place in one layer on a lined sheet pan. Add onion to the pan.
- With a rubber spatula scrape out the bowl that you tossed the yams in, spreading the sauce mixture over the sliced onions, add a little oil if needed.
- Place in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes.
- Toss shishito peppers in oil and salt. Add to the sheet pan after the 20 minutes. Put back in the oven on broil 3-5 minutes on the middle rack. (Be careful if using parchment- it can catch on fire under the broiler.)
Put it all together
- Place a scoop of rice in each dish.
- Arrange yams, onions and shishito peppers on top.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro, sour cream, pickled jalapeños, pumpkin seeds.
Notes
Instant Pot Rice Method
- Set Instant Pot to sauté function and follow steps 1-3 above.
- Add stock and seal the lid, close the pressure valve.
- Set on Pressure Cook at High setting for 40 minutes.
- Let naturally release for 10 minutes.
Shishito Peppers are becoming more popular. If not available for you, substitute strips of poblano or bell pepper.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup Mexican rice with 1 cup roasted veggies
- Calories: 445
- Sugar: 8.3 g
- Sodium: 883.8 mg
- Fat: 11.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 81.3 g
- Fiber: 8.5 g
- Protein: 7 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
super delicious! added chicken that i marinated in the same sauce the sweet potatoes got, but omitted maple syrup and added lime juice. totally making this again 🙂
Great! So glad you enjoyed.
I used quinoa instead of brown rice. It was delicious. Cooks a lot quicker too. Thank you.
Great to hear Marc!
AMAZING! I thought the sauce would be too thick but it coated everything great (had to make the sauce recipe x6 because I had bell peppers, poblanos and like 6 sweet potatoes). The rice I made with Instant brown rice and it took about 30 mins for the broth to reduce and the rice turned out great! 10/10 this is going into the recipe rotation! 🙂
Great to hear Julie!
For Pete’s sake, this is fantastic. Thank you! I made this with leftover brown rice and it’s delicious. Love the maple syrup for the pan veggies. We all loved it. You do sublime things with food I’m new with food, thanks for elevating my nights to cook. 🌷
This makes us so happy to hear Barbara!
Could I substitute fresh for the dried oregano? If so, how much? Thank you!
Definitely! A rule of thumb is 1 tablespoon minced fresh herb per 1 teaspoon dried.
Everyone loved it. I used water instead of chicken stock, and pureed tomatoes instead of tomato paste, and the rice was still very flavorful. Thank you.
Perfect!
I love sheet pan recipes and this is no exception! The flavors are wonderful and it was simple to make! 10/10 would make again 🙂 thank you Tonia!
Awesome Angeli! Thanks for sharing!!
Just made this today. Simple yet wonderful dish. Thank you!
Nice! Glad you enjoyed.
WOW! I loved everything about this Mexican Rice with Roasted Veggies recipe… so flavour full. Thank you Tonia/Sylvia🙏
Wonderful Leanda! Thanks so much for letting us know.
Delicious! Thank you, Tonia!!
So glad you liked it!
Super recipe Sylvia cheers! I just wanted the Mexican Brown Rice piece to compliment this magnificent recipe of a Slow Cooked Vegan Chickpea Chilli from Suzy (who I also subscribe to): https://www.themediterraneandish.com/vegan-chickpea-chili/ Both recipes combined with a fresh squeeze of Lime Juice and soaking up the spices with Naan Breads was a great comforting family meal. I will get to making this recipe complete with the vegetables soon! Thanks for the inspiration to cook tasty, healthy and visually appealing meals! Cheers…
Yum! Glad you enjoyed!
This was really good. I used squash, yam, and carrots from the garden. The rice was filling and had a great flavor!
Oh perfect, yay for garden veggies! So happy you enjoyed this Cheryl!