Healthy Burrito Bowls

This fresh and colourful Healthy Burrito Bowl is quick and easy to prepare, made with ground beef and a few simple ingredients that come together to make a delicious, saucy, spicy mexican favourite. There's a perfect amount of salad crunch, soft black beans, ripe avocado and luscious sour cream to top it off.

Why Make This Recipe?

This is healthy comfort food you'll want to eat over and over again. It'll satisfy your craving for a burrito bowl recipe, but you won't feel the need to undo a few buttons before you get up from the dining table.

• Only 15 minutes of prep and its on the table in under 30 minutes
• Multiple uses for the beef: Use it in burritos, tacos and fajitas
• Makes great leftover Mexican burrito bowl for lunch the next day
• Easy to make more or less spicy depending on your preferences
• Easy one bowl dinner or lunch, using premade spice mix and salsa
• Its healthy, fresh, colourful, with loads of texture for crunch, and that unbeatable combination of avocado and sour cream
• Easy to make at home and better for you than buying takeout

Ingredients For Ground Beef Sauce

Ingredients for Fresh Salsa

How To Make A Healthy Burrito Bowl

1. Use a skillet or frypan to brown the onions and garlic, then add the meat.
2. Add the seasoning to a cup of water and pour in, along with half of the taco sauce.  Mix it all together for a few minutes, and add the tinned black beans (make sure you've drained and rinsed them first).  Stir them in and meat is done.

3. For the rice, you can either make it, or use a pre cooked rice that you reheat for a minute or two in the microwave. If you're pressed for time, go the convenience option.
4. Chop the lettuce into thin strands, chop the 3 salsa ingredients: cherry tomatoes, red onion, cucumber and add to a bowl with the tinned corn. Stir and done.

How To Build A Burrito Bowl

My favourite recipe for building a burrito bowl with lots of layers:

1. Rice on the bottom
2. Strands of lettuce (as much as you like)
3. A dollop of taco sauce
4. Beef mixture
5. Another dollop of sauce
6. Salsa mix
7. Your favourite grated cheese, but not too much
8. Chopped chunks of ripe avocado
9. A squeeze of lime juice
10. A dollop of Sour cream

The best thing?  Digging your fork in and messing it all up!  Moving all the flavours around so that everything is working together. 

You've got crunch from the lettuce, spiciness from the meat, soft grains of rice, tangy salsa, zingy lime, and the smooth creaminess of avocado, sour cream and the cheese.

Variations and Substitutions

1. MEAT: For this recipe you could use any type of ground meat: I typically use beef, but you could use ground chicken or turkey as well.
2. LOW CARB Instead of regular rice, use cauliflower rice. I love the convenience of frozen cauliflower rice you can buy at the supermarket. Just a few minutes in the microwave and its done.
3. MORE HEAT: If you like you burrito extra spicy, so for the medium or hot taco sauce.
4. LESS HEAT: If you're making this recipe and some like it hot and some don't, use the mild taco sauce, and add some sriracha over the top of yours at the end.
5. GRAINS: I always tend to use brown rice however you could use quinoa as a substitute
6. BEANS: You don't have to put the black beans into the ground beef, they could be completely separate and used as a layer on their own. Instead of black beans, you could use chickpeas, or canned butter beans.

[convertkit form=1545387]

Expert Tips

• Storing Leftovers: Store the meat separately from the salad and sauce ingredients, so that it can be easily reheated. The meat can be kept in the fridge for 2 days.
• Reheating Leftovers: reheat the beef in the microwave, in a microwave safe dish for a couple of minutes, then add the build your bowl, and layer in the condiments.
• Freezing: this beef sauce freezes well and is a great idea for easy and convenient weeknight meals as it has a multitude of uses.
• Avoiding lumpy meat sauce: use a spatula to press out and lumps and I find using a chopping action with the spatula really works to stop the meat from clumping.

5 Additional Way to Use Mexican Ground Beef

• Use it in tacos with a quick and easy slaw
• Use it in enchiladas, fajitas, and wraps
• Eat it on toast or with eggs
• Add a jar of bolognase sauce and some spaghetti for a quick spag bol
• Turn it into a mexican pasta bake with your favourite pasta and some cheese

Healthy burrito bowls are the go if you're looking to get a healthy Mexican fix at home.  You can get them on the table in under 30 minutes, they make great leftovers for lunch the next day.

It's a bowl of superfood goodness packed with protein, fibre and good fats, keeping you fuller for longer. 

Other Mexican Recipes

• Creamy Spinach Cob Loaf Dip
• Shredded Chicken Burrito Bowl
• Salmon Burrito Bowl
• Fish Tacos with Pineapple Salsa
• Low Carb Corn Fritters
• Chilli Salt Chicken