I really love to add flavors to my rice, and most rice dishes that have spices and additional ingredients are typically cooked in a traditional fashion, in a pot. It may seem easy or expected but one of my rice “hacks” is to cook rice in a rice cooker but add the spices and ingredients that add flavor, right into the rice cooker. To my surprise it worked! I of course used this “hack” for this Easy Mexican-style rice recipe while still being able to maintain my favorite process in the kitchen, set it and forget it!
Similar to Mexican refried beans or beans in general Mexican rice was a staple for me growing up. I would always watch my grandma make it and make delicious versions of it. My grandmother’s traditional Mexican rice is inherently vegan, she doesn’t use any animal products in her recipe. As I am all about convenience, I wanted to try to match her flavors but make it as easy as possible for me to make. Now some might argue that traditional Mexican rice is already easy to make, and I would have to agree, it just takes more time to cook. After a day of work or if I’m meal prepping on the weekend I want something that can be prepared quickly and with as few steps as possible without compromising flavor and taste.
This is why I prepare almost all of my rice in a rice cooker. Some may consider that cheating but I am all about the set it and forget it feature, and when I was making rice on the stovetop I would still manage to find a way to either under-cook it and have hard rice or overcook it to the point where it was too mushy. With my rice cooker, the texture is always perfect whether I’m cooking brown or white rice.
The beautiful thing about this recipe is that it is so quick and easy and takes as long to cook as your rice cooker takes to cook the rice. Of course, this varies on your rice cooker and what kind of rice you are using but I usually have this rice ready to go in under 40 minutes. All the tomato sauce ingredients get blended and then added to the rice in the rice cooker, how much easier can it get!
Mexican rice is traditionally made with white rice, and that is my preferred rice to use. I have made this recipe with brown rice and it is just as good.
Growing up my grandma would always add mixed veggies to her rice so I decided to keep that in my Mexican rice for some nostalgia and I’m always here for extra veggies!
If you’re feeling a little extra add a squeeze of fresh lime juice for some extra flavor!
What can I Pair this Easy Mexican-Style Rice With?
Add this Mexican-style rice along with my Easy Vegan Oil Free Refried Beans to my Vegan Quesadillas de Rajas for a quick and easy Mexican dinner.
Easy Mexican Style Rice
Equipment
- Rice Cooker Preferred but optional
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Cups White Rice
- 2 ½ Cups Water
- 2 tbsp Tomato Paste
- 1/4 White or Yellow Onion
- 2 Garlic Cloves
- 1 tsp Ground Cumin
- 1 Cup Frozen Mixed Vegetables
- Salt
Instructions
- Measure out rice and rinse under cold water until water runs clear.
- In a blender add tomato paste, water, onion, garlic, cumin, and salt to taste. Blend until smooth.
- Add tomato sauce mixture to the rice cooker and cook.
- While the rice is cooking cook frozen bag of mixed veggies and set aside.
- When rice is done cooking add in the cooked veggies and serve
Notes:
My rice cooker came with a small plastic measuring cup that I use to measure out my rice. The cooking container of the rice cooker also has measurement lines based on the number of cups of rice you used for the amount of water to use.
The measurements listed above are for standard measuring cups. If your rice cooker comes with its own measuring cup use that for your rice.
If you are cooking your rice on a stovetop follow the cooking instructions on the package for your rice. The tomato sauce measurements above are for 2 1/2 standard cups of water.
