Freezer Burrito Bowls
Component meal prep at it's finest
You might have seen a few videos lately of me making burrito bowls with frozen meal-prepped components. You could make so many variations on this meal; it’s endlessly customizable!
Think about what you would order when you go to a place like Chipotle. Do you like white rice or brown rice? Do you want black beans or pinto beans? What protein do you want? I find grains, legumes, and proteins the three categories easiest to freeze.
Since so many of you have asked, here are a few recipes for the components that are in my freezer now that I’ve been using in these bowls.
Cilantro Lime Rice
Ingredients
1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice (I use Jasmine)
1 1/4 cup water
1 lime
1/4 cup chopped cilantro (leaves and stems)
1/2 tablespoon of salted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)
First, cook your rice how you prefer. I use a rice cooker to steam the jasmine rice, but you can also cook it on the stovetop.
I get a lot of questions about freezing rice and whether freezing will make it mushy. I have never had my rice get mushy after freezing, so I can only assume it was overcooked or you used too much water when making your rice.
When the rice is cooked, add in the juice of one lime, the chopped cilantro, and the butter while the rice is still warm. Mix everything well to incorporate. Taste the rice and add any additional salt to your taste. Depending on the juiciness of your lime, you might prefer more lime juice as well.
Then spoon the rice into Souper Cubes in your preferred portion size. I froze it in 1-cup cubes here, and this recipe should fill the 1-cup tray.
Black Beans
This recipe uses dried black beans; you can use canned, but your cooking times will be a lot shorter. The beans are already cooked with canned beans, so you’re just adding flavor to the sauce.
Ingredients
2 cups dried black beans
1 yellow onion
3-4 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lime juice (or red wine vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
I’ve heard debates over whether or not soaking is necessary for a smaller bean like black beans. I’ve done it both ways, but for this recipe, I will say, soak the beans overnight. Before soaking, rinse the beans and look through them for any small rocks or things that aren’t beans.
Cover the beans with about double the amount of water in a large bowl or measuring cup. Let the beans soak overnight. When I posted a video of this recipe online, I got many comments on this next part. I don’t drain the bean soaking liquid. If this doesn’t sit right with you, you’re better off not soaking the beans at all. You can read about the different black bean experiments that Kenji Lopez-Alt did at Serious Eats a few years ago, where he concluded that soaking black beans wasn’t necessary, but if you were going to soak, throwing out the soaking liquid resulted in a much less dark and less flavorful black bean.
Transfer the beans and their soaking liquid to a large pot. Add 4-5 cups of water, enough to cover the beans by about 1 inch. Cut your onion in half, remove the skins, and add it to the pot along with the garlic cloves (give these a quick smash with your knife), bay leaves, oregano, salt and pepper.
Bring the pot of water to a boil and then turn the heat down so the pot is at a low simmer. Keep an eye on the beans and add more water if they look dry. How long they take to get tender will vary, but start checking them after an hour. To test for doneness, take out a bean and try smashing it with a fork. If it smashes easily, then they are done. If not, continue cooking and check every 15-20 minutes. Once they are tender, if there is a lot of liquid left, you can turn up the heat to allow the liquid to reduce to a thicker consistency.
Once the beans are done, turn the heat off and add the lime juice or vinegar. This just adds some brightness to the beans. Taste for salt and add any needed.
I like to freeze beans in the 1/2 cup Souper Cubes tray, and this recipe should make 5-6 cups of cooked beans.
Birria Beef (or pork)
This last one is hardly a recipe since I’ve been using these seasoning bombs to meal-prep it. In my most recent viral videos, it’s pork, but I recently made beef, which will show up in videos soon. If you have a favorite recipe for birria or a more authentic recipe, feel free to use that. It will still freeze beautifully.
Ingredients
2-4 lbs beef chuck roast or pork butt
4 cups water
You can cook this in an Instant Pot, a slow cooker, or a Dutch oven. I usually go for the Dutch oven or slow cooker method. Cut your chuck roast or pork butt into large pieces or thick 2 inch thick strips. You want to cut it so that the seasoning can better penetrate the meat, but you don’t want the pieces to be so small that it’s hard to take them out to shred later.
Add the meat, seasoning bomb, and water to your cooking vessel. If you’re using an electric pressure cooker like the Instant Pot, cook on high for 1 hour and 45 minutes. If you’re using a slow cooker, cook it on high for 6 hours or low for 8 hours. If you’re using a dutch oven, bring the water up to a boil, then cover and place in a 325ºF oven for 3-4 hours. Cook until the meat is easily shredded with a fork.
Take out the meat and shred it. For freezing, I like to portion out the meat into 1/2 cup trays (I’ve also done 1-cup), and then once the meat is evenly portioned, I spoon the birria consommé (the cooking liquid) over the meat. You can also freeze any extra consommé on its own, which is great for making birria tacos, birria ramen, etc.
Guacamole
I also recently froze guacamole, and it was successful. But I don’t think I have done it enough frequently to have a recipe to share. But I will work on it and get you one soon. I froze the guac in the 2-tablespoon tray, and it thawed quickly between leaving for the office and lunchtime. I didn’t heat it; I just mixed it with a fork before serving.
To serve
You can reheat these items in a few different ways. I like taking everything for lunch and just microwaving it together. You can use the defrost button on the microwave first before microwaving in 1-minute increments until everything is as hot as you’d like. Otherwise, you can microwave without defrosting. Our microwave at work is pretty weak, so it does take about 5 minutes to warm up even on high. I usually check and stir in 2-minute increments.
If you wanted to heat these elements individually or if you wanted to heat them as sides for a build-your-own burrito bowl party, you can heat the beans and meat in a low oven, 325-350ºF covered until the internal temp reaches 165ºF. For the rice, if not microwaving, let it thaw in the fridge overnight, then warm it up in a pot or pan with a splash of water to help it reheat.
Great content! Thank you!
👏 🤩 Amazing