This cauliflower rice burrito bowl is just as good as one from Chipotle, but it's totally different. Plant-based ingredients make it refreshing and fun!
This cauliflower rice burrito bowl delivers all the best parts of a Chipotle burrito bowl – fajita veggies, cilantro lime flavor, plenty of black beans and avocado – and skips the worst part (aka the food coma that comes when you’re done). To make it lighter, I swap seasoned cauliflower rice for regular rice. Then, instead of piling it with cheese or sour cream, I finish it with a creamy cashew green chile sauce. The combination is light, bright, and downright fun. I can’t get enough of it!
Cauliflower Rice Burrito Bowl Components
Here’s what’s you’ll need to make this healthy cauliflower rice burrito bowl:
- Cauliflower rice: You can buy frozen cauliflower rice at the store (looking at you, Trader Joe), but luckily, it’s also super easy to make in the food processor! Homemade broccoli rice would be great here too.
- Black Beans: An essential burrito bowl component! Use canned beans, or cook your own.
- Fajita Veggies: Instead of the typical bell peppers and onions, I use a spicy mix of leeks and poblanos.
- Mango: It adds a surprising sweet pop of flavor to this spicy, savory bowl. Use plain diced mango, or try homemade mango or pineapple salsa.
- Diced Avocado: Obviously, guacamole would be great here too.
- Creamy Green Chile Sauce: This yummy sauce is a mixture of vegan cashew cream and green chiles. I promise that you’re going to drizzle it over everything you eat for the rest of the week!
Top it all with fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime, and serve with margaritas to drink!
Cauliflower Rice Bowl Variations
Feel free to make your cauliflower rice burrito bowl your own! Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Use regular rice. For a heartier bowl, use a 50/50 mix of cauliflower rice and white or brown rice, or make cilantro lime rice.
- Skip the fruit. For a more traditional bowl, replace the mango with diced tomato or pico de gallo. Cubed roasted sweet potato or butternut squash would be great too!
- Add a pickle. Top your cauliflower rice bowl with pickled red onions or jalapeños for a pop of bright flavor.
- Switch the sauce. So many delicious sauces could jazz up this bowl! Swap the green chile cashew sauce for creamy chipotle sauce or cilantro lime dressing, or add dollops of cashew sour cream and tomatillo salsa verde.
Let me know what variations you try!
More Meatless Mexican-Inspired Recipes
If you love these cauliflower rice bowls, try one of these Mexican-inspired recipes next:
- Vegetarian Tacos
- Vegan Jackfruit Tacos
- Homemade Taquitos
- Easy Fajitas
- Vegetarian Black Bean Enchiladas
- Best Breakfast Burrito
Then, head to this post to find more of my favorite rice bowl recipes!
Cauliflower Rice Burrito Bowl
- 1 cup raw cashews*
- ¾ cup water
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 2 tablespoons canned mild green chiles
- ⅓ cup cilantro
- 1 garlic clove
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 3 corn tortillas, sliced into strips
- 1 recipe Seasoned Cauliflower Rice
- 2 leeks, white and light green parts, rinsed well & sliced
- 2 poblano peppers, stem, seeds and ribs removed, thinly sliced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 cup cooked black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 ripe mangoes, cubed
- 1 avocado, diced
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- lime wedges, for serving
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Make the cashew cream. In a blender, combine the cashews, water, lime juice, green chilis, cilantro, garlic, and salt. Blend until creamy.
- Make the burrito bowls. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the tortilla strips on the baking sheet and toss with a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Bake for 10 minutes or until crispy. Remove from the oven and set aside.
- In a medium skillet, heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the leeks and poblanos with generous pinches of salt and pepper. Cook until soft for 7 to 10 minutes, and then add the minced garlic and oregano. Stir, cook for 1 minute, then add a squeeze of lime and remove from heat.
- Assemble the burrito bowls with the cauliflower rice, poblano mixture, black beans, mango, avocado, and cilantro. Drizzle with the cashew cream and top with the crispy tortilla strips. Serve with lime wedges and additional cashew cream.
Tasty and easy, especially loved the addition of mango. But, we both went absolutely GA-GA for the green sauce. Every Friday we make a double recipe (makes a quart) to get us thru the week. My hubby is just a month into the vegan way, and this sauce has been a great help in making things totally yummy for him.
I gave it four stars just because it was a big-time gas-maker ;~)
I’m glad you loved the sauce! You could try half cauliflower rice, half regular rice next time.
This is my kind of gorgeous, but super simple, recipe idea! I never thought about using dressings as marinades before, but that’s a genius thing to do! Love this! 😉
Delicious! AND amazingly I found every single ingredient at my local Trader Joes–it’s literally the world’s smallest TJs (it says so on the front door), so for an awesome recipe like this I often have to make a second stop somewhere else for the slightly more hard to find ingredients.
Okay that was a lie, there weren’t any poblano peppers. However I subbed in jalapenos and they tasted great and weren’t too spicy. I just sauteed them for a little longer than the recipe suggests to make sure I got rid of some of the extra spiciness (I’m a baby about spice).
I also quick soaked the cashews (brought to a boil and then let them sit in the hot water for about 20 min) and they blended pretty nicely in my 6 year old not very fancy ninja blender (I’ve lost the food processor attachment at this point).
Thanks for another great recipe!
Made this for dinner tonight and love the balance of flavorable and textures! Definitely another delicious meal! Thanks for making cooking and meal planning such a joy!
Hello! Just curious – any way to sub cashew for any non-nut? This looks amazing but my fiance is allergic to peanuts/tree nuts. Thanks!
Hi Amber, I would skip the cashew sauce and make the avocado-yogurt from this recipe instead: https://www.loveandlemons.com/sweet-potato-avocado-tacos/
Or if you don’t do dairy, I would skip the diced avocado in here and make a quick guacamole as your “sauce” instead:
1 small avocado
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice, more to taste
¼ teaspoon sea salt, or to taste
(you could add green chiles or jalapeño if you wanted more spice)
Hope that helps!
Hello lovelies! I just came across your beautiful blog this am – I’m already hooked! I love your approach to health without worry about vegan, vegetarian etc, just wholesome goodness that seems to be mostly plant based and not judgmental, only inspirational. We need more of this! Totally going to share this easy Lunch Bowl post with my wellness community.
Thank you for your awesomeness,
Jess. Xo
What other of your recipes do you recommend that will go with the cashew cream? I’m planning to make your vegan cauliflower stuffed poblano peppers tomorrow, and realize I made way more of the cashew cream than I needed. Thanks in advance for additional ideas!!
Could I possibly replace the soaked cashews with soaked sunflower or pumpkin seeds?
Hi Talia – yes, you can use raw sunflower seeds! I usually have to add more water when using sunflower seeds – I’d start with the amount listed here and if your blender gets stuck, add more water until they can blend smoothly.