Mexican Rice Bowl (all in one pot!)
With the weather turning cooler and grey, we are longing for some residual glimpses of sun and heat. So this week, we cooked a one-pot meal for four with plenty of warm spices and filling flavours. Tomatoey rice, fajita spices, easy tinned beans (an affordable source of protein), with the freshness of lime and coriander to finish.
And we tried to make it for under £5. Could we do it?
Notes
Instead of using ready-made fajita spice mix, you can make your own using 4 parts chili powder, 2 parts cumin, 2 parts paprika (sweet or smoked), 2 parts sugar, 1 part garlic powder, 1 part onion powder, and a dash of cayenne pepper.
Alternative: You can use practically any type of bean in this recipe: borlotti, black, kidney, cannellini, and even chickpeas. They're all loaded with protein and fiber! Or, it'll add to the budget, but you can replace or enhance the beans with some mince or chicken strips. If using meat, cook this right after the vegetables, before adding the rice to the pot.
Mexican Rice One-Pot Recipe
Buen provecho!
Ingredients
- Glug of vegetable oil
- 1 red onion, chopped
- 1 red pepper, chopped
- 1 red chili, chopped, plus extra for serving (de-seed as desired, according to your heat tolerance)
- A few garlic cloves, chopped
- 200g tin sweetcorn, drained
- 425ml tin plum tomatoes
- 425ml tin beans, rinsed and drained (we like borlotti)
- 300g white rice, rinsed
- 30g fajita spices
- Juice of 1/2 lime, plus extra lime wedges for serving
- 15g chopped coriander, plus 15g for serving
- 1 avocado, sliced, for serving
Directions
Vamos!
- Cook the veg. Put a large pot on a medium heat, and when it's warm, add the oil and chopped onion, pepper and chili. Cook and stir, with the pot hot enough to brown and caramelise bits of the onion and pepper. Add the garlic and corn, stirring until you smell the garlic. Add the tinned tomatoes, breaking them with the back of a large spoon.
- Cook the rice & beans (in the same pot!). Add the rice, beans and fajita mix. Stir to combine, adding a generous 0.5 liter of water. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to barely simmer, put the lid on the pot and let it cook on low heat for ten minutes. After ten minutes, turn the burner off and leave the pan to sit with the lid on. During this time, the rice will steam and finish cooking.
- Serve. Stir in the chopped coriander and lime juice, then dish out into large bowls with extra coriander and avocado slices on top. Serve with lime slices on the side.
How to make Mexican rice for £5
The NimbleFins team went to Lidl to see if we could make this recipe for under £5. Long story short, we could—despite what looks like a long grocery list! Here's the cost breakdown:
| Lidl cost | Product size | Cost to buy | Amount needed for recipe | Recipe cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red onions | 3 | £0.89 | 1 | £0.30 |
| Red pepper | 1 | £0.59 | 1 | £0.59 |
| Red chilis | 4 | £0.53 | 1 | £0.13 |
| Garlic bulb | 1 | £0.39 | 1/2 bulb | £0.20 |
| Sweetcorn | 300g | £0.65 | 200g | £0.43 |
| Borlotti beans | 425ml | £0.49 | 425ml | £0.49 |
| Peeled plum tomatoes | 425ml | £0.39 | 425ml | £0.39 |
| Long grain rice | 500g | £0.52 | 300g | £0.31 |
| Fajita spice mix | 30g packet | £0.55 | 1 | £0.55 |
| Lime | 1 | £0.24 | 1 | £0.24 |
| Fresh coriander | 30g packet | £0.52 | 30g | £0.52 |
| Avocado | 1 | £0.75 | 1 | £0.75 |
| Total | £6.5 | £4.9 |
While the total spend for ingredients was £6.5 at Lidl, we didn't use everything so you're left with extra onions, garlic, rice and red chilis to use later.
Does this meal have enough protein?
This meal is higher carb/lower protein. Each serving has approximately 13 grams of protein, mostly coming from the rice and the beans. It'd be easy to add more protein by adding another can of beans (you could use a different kind of bean for variety!) or some meat (see the note at the top) or even by sprinkling some grated cheese on top when you serve—cheddar would be an easy choice here. And adding 200g of cheddar (50g per serving) would nearly DOUBLE the grams of protein per serving (at a cost of £1-£2 total additional cost, depending on which cheese you buy, of course).
| Protein grams per serving | |
|---|---|
| Red onions | 0.3 |
| Red pepper | 0.3 |
| Sweetcorn | 1.0 |
| Borlotti beans | 4.3 |
| Peeled plum tomatoes | 1.0 |
| Long grain rice | 5.3 |
| Avocado | 0.8 |
| Total | 12.9 |
It's commonly said that adults need 0.75 grams of protein per day, per kg of bodyweight. That means around 50 grams of protein is needed per day on average, as a rough estimate. So, this meal could benefit from some additional protein (at an added cost).
Inspired by and adapted from Mitch Lane's Feed Your Family for Under a Fiv£r.