This Vegan Rice Bake is an easy one-pan, throw-all-ingredients dinner that you can prepare in just a few minutes and can make many servings of a delicious high-protein meal with over 24 grams of protein.
I wanted to create a hearty and nutritious meal-preppable dish, like my Vegan Baked Feta Pasta or Quinoa Bake With Veggies that’s easy to whip up and packed with flavors. This rice bake is perfect for meal prep, weeknight dinners, or as a delicious side dish. With a blend of rice, veggies, and savory seasonings, it’s both super simple to make and full of taste.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Long Grain White Rice – While this recipe can work with any rice, you’ll get the perfect cooking only with long-grain white rice. Do not use brown rice, sushi rice, or jasmine rice.
- Vegetable Stock – You can use pre-mixed vegetable stock, a veggie seasoning cube mixed in warm water, or your homemade stock form cooking vegetables.
- Light Soy Sauce – Any shoyu sauce works, from gluten-free to regular soy sauce.
- Mirin – Mirin is a sweet cooking rice wine in which the alcohol evaporates when cooking. It brings a delicious flavor.
- Veggie Mix – You can either use a frozen veggie mix or make your own. I like to use diced carrots, corn, and peas.
- Garlic Cloves – For flavor.
- Roasted Sesame Oil – Add the sesame oil after the cooking is finished to give a perfect flavor to the rice.
- Scallions – Fresh iced scallion brings a great flavor. You can alternatively add chives or shallots.
- Edamame – Cook the edamame in boiling water and add them after baking the dish. It would overcook if added at the same time as the rest. Edamame bring a lot of protein to the dish.
- Sriracha Sauce – A dash of sriracha sauce before serving adds more zing too the dish. You can also add dairy-free mayo if you want something milder.
How to Make Vegan Rice Bake
This recipe is made with minimal prep, just throw all the ingredients in the backing dish!
Measure the rice and place it at the bottom of the pan.
Add the fresh or frozen veggies and pour the veggie stock on top of it.
Spread the veggies gently to keep the rice at the bottom.
Bake the vegan rice bake in the oven covered with aluminum foil.
Cook the edamame in boiling water for a few minutes.
Spread the edamame and chopped scallions on the baked dish and add a drizzle of sesame oil and sriracha sauce.
Expert Tips
- Use a Heavy-Duty Baking Dish: A ceramic or glass baking dish distributes heat evenly, ensuring that the rice cooks uniformly. This helps avoid any undercooked or overcooked spots.
- Layering Ingredients: When assembling the bake, layer the vegetables over the rice evenly. This ensures that each bite has a good mix of flavors and textures.
- Cover While Baking: Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil during the initial baking phase. This traps the steam, helping the rice cook through evenly. Remove the foil before the end to allow the top to crisp up slightly.
- Stirring the Rice: Halfway through baking, give the rice a gentle stir. This helps distribute the flavors evenly and prevents the bottom layer from becoming too dense.
- Rest Before Serving: After baking, let the dish sit for about 10 minutes before serving. This allows the flavors to blend and the rice to firm up slightly, making it easier to serve.
- Boost the Protein: For added protein, you can add cooked lentils or chickpeas along with the edamame. This turns the rice bake into a complete meal with even more nutritional benefits.
- Add Fresh Herbs: Decorate the served plates with fresh herbs like cilantro, parsley, or basil just before serving. This adds flavor and colors.
- Zesty Finishes: Add a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice over the top just before serving. The acidity cuts through the richness and enhances the overall flavor.
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Vegan Rice Bake
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup Long Grain White Rice - Measure uncooked. Do not use jasmine rice or brown rice.
- 2 cups Vegetable Stock
- 1 ½ tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
- 1 tablespoon Mirin
- 2 cups Veggie Mix - You can use a frozen peas, carrots, and corn mix.
- 2 Garlic Cloves - crushed
To serve
- 2 teaspoons Roasted Sesame Oil
- 3-4 Scallions - sliced
- 14 ounces Edamame - frozen shelled
- 1 drizzle Sriracha Sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C). Lightly spray with oil a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
- In the baking dish, add the uncooked rice (do not rinse it), vegetable stock, mirin, frozen peas, carrot cubes, corn, frozen edamame, soy sauce, and crushed garlic cloves.
- Cover the baking dish tightly with foil and bake it for 40 minutes at 400 °F (200 °C).
- Uncover and keep the foil for later. Bake it again for 15 minutes at the same temperature. The liquid should be absorbed and the rice should be cooked after that step.
- Remove from the oven, foil again, and set aside for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the frozen edamame in a bowl, cover it with boiling water and microwave for 3 minutes,
- Drain the edamame and add a pinch of salt.
- Remove the foil from the dish and use a fork to fluff the rice. Stir in the roasted sesame oil, cooked edamame, and spring onion.
- Serve with a drizzle of sriracha sauce.
Can you make this with brown rice?
Absolutely!!
I’m confused. The directions show frozen edamame going into the baking dish in step 2, then show frozen edamame going into boiling water in step 6. Which is it? Thanks.
The second picture shows green peas, they are not edamame!
That was good, simple to make, very good!