Grilled Fiesta Bowl

Layers of grilled vegetables and potatoes, refried beans, cheez sauce, brown rice, sweet corn, guacamole, and salsa – it’s a fiesta!

This Grilled Fiesta Bowl is a dream. You can take a lot of liberties with this and substitute or add whatever you like and it still tastes delicious every single time. It’s one of our favorite meals since it’s so versatile, nutritious, scrumptious, and oh so satisfying.

As with many recipes, this Grilled Fiesta Bowl is comprised of a few incredible recipes and ingredients. Many of these can be made in advance and used in other meals throughout the week. This makes meal planning and meal prep super easy. The keys include seasoned grilled vegetables and potatoes, a grain, tasty sauce, and loads of vegetable toppings.

The best part of this bowl are the grilled veggies and potatoes! So, I recommend you grill your favorite veggies. Honestly, you’ll enjoy this Grilled Fiesta Bowl even more if you are eating your favorites. I like to use bell peppers, zucchini, onion, and potatoes. But you could easily add yellow squash, eggplant, asparagus, and mushrooms. It all works! I like to chop them up for easy serving and eating. But it’s not required. You can definitely serve them in larger pieces if you prefer to.

Please note that this recipe does not call for oil on the grilled vegetables. Instead, the vegetables are cooked on a lined pan or wire rack over a baking sheet or directly on a grill.  If your vegetables tend to stick to your grill or pan, use a nonstick spray as necessary. When we’re camping and things are sticking, I spray a little avocado oil on the grill and that works well.  The key is to cook the vegetables quickly.  If not, they start to dry out too much.  It’s also important to cut them as uniform as possible to encourage even cooking.

You can use any grains but we enjoy brown rice the most.  And better yet, leftover grains are awesome in this dish. Either deliberately make extra grains when making another meal, or use leftovers that don’t have another designated use. Either way, this Grilled Fiesta Bowl loves grains. We have used quinoa, sorghum, and couscous; though brown rice is our favorite.

And there’s quite a bit of leeway with what green you choose, too. We use whatever we have on hand, whether it’s curly tuscan or lacinato kale, rainbow chard, baby spinach, arugula, romaine, or mesclun blend. Chop it as fine or large as you like. I just fill my bowl with greens, add a scoop of brown rice, and all of the remaining toppings. And bam! Just like that, there’s a party in my bowl and with very little effort!

Just look at these colors! Flavors bursting up out of this photo!

Same goes for the sauce you choose.  I highly recommend my Mighty Cheez Sauce or Romesco Sauce as they are our favorites in this Grilled Fiesta Bowl; but you can use any sauce.  Hope makes a delicious plant-based chipotle dip that is fantastic in this bowl.  But you can use whatever sauce, dip, or dressing that you have on hand or make your favorite sauce. 

The links for Romesco Sauce and Mighty Cheez Sauce are included here. Just click on the titles in this paragraph or down below. Both sauces can be made in advance so that this meal comes together super quickly, are 100% whole food plant-based, and are delicious when made oil-free.

I like using my Instant Pot Refried Beans in this Grilled Fiesta Bowl. They’re super flavorful and add a hint of spice and smokiness from the chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. And my recipe doesn’t add any unnecessary oil or salt to the beans. They’re the perfect accompaniment to this bowl. I tend to make a batch on a weekend and then use them in two or three meals during the week, whether it’s fajitas, tacos, layered fiesta stack, quesadillas, and so on. They’re so good in so many dishes. And they’re so easy to make, too.

Now, all that’s left is pico de Gallo or salsa, some chopped cilantro, chopped onions, and corn. If you have corn on the cob, you can grill them while you’re grilling your veggies and potatoes. Or you can thaw frozen corn. All work great in this bowl.

I hope you enjoy this Grilled Fiesta Bowl as much as I do.  Similar to tacos with out the shells, this is a fun and healthy dish when you’re camping, entertaining, or relaxing on a weekend. It’s also easy to bring together with a little weekend prep. In that case, a weeknight dinner can be done in just a few minutes.

Please leave a comment and rate it down below, tag a picture @pebblesandtoast and #pebblesandtoast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!   I’m just starting out and would love to see your results.  Enjoy!!

Layer Ingredients

• 1 onion, thickly sliced
• 3 medium bell peppers
• 1 zucchini, sliced
• 2-3 potatoes, sliced

Seasoning Blend Ingredients

• ¼ tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ¼ tsp chili powder
• ¼ tsp cumin
• ¼ tsp oregano
• ¼ tsp black pepper

Grilled Fiesta Bowl Ingredients

• Grilled vegetables
• 1 cup Instant Pot Refried Beans
• 1 cup frozen or fresh corn
• 2-3 cups cooked rice or any other grain
• Guacamole or sliced/cubed avocado
• Pico de gallo or salsa
• Onion, chopped
• Tomato, chopped
• Spinach or kale or lettuce, roughly chopped
• Mighty Cheese Sauce or nacho cheez sauce or Romesco Sauce
• Fresh cilantro, chopped

Instructions

1. Par cook potatoes in microwave or in boiling water on stove for 4-5 minutes until mostly cooked. Set aside.
2. Cook rice according to package directions. I cook 2 cups light brown rice with 2 ½ cups water in the Instant Pot for 4 minutes, and release pressure naturally.  Set aside.
3. Evenly lay all of the vegetables and potatoes on a lined baking sheet.  
4. Combine the spice blend and sprinkle evenly over vegetables and potatoes.
5. Grill on open flame, in smoker, or in oven at 400° F for 15 minutes.  Turn over and grill another 10-15 minutes, until desired doneness.

1. Assemble the bowl by spooning greens, grains, grilled vegetables, refried beans, and remaining ingredients in desired order and quantity.
2. Garnish with cilantro.

Notes

– You can use any grains but we enjoy brown rice the most.  Same goes for the sauce.  Romesco Sauce and Mighty Cheese Sauce are our favorites here; but you can use any sauce.  Hope makes a delicious chipotle sauce that we like a lot, too.  But you can use whatever sauce you have on hand or your favorite sauce. 

– This recipe does not use oil on the grilled vegetables, but I use a lined pan or lay them on a wire rack over a baking sheet to avoid sticking.  If your vegetables tend to stick to your grill or pan, use a nonstick spray first – when necessary, I prefer using avocado oil spray.  The key here is to cook the vegetables quickly.  If not, they start to dry out too much, as indicated in my photos.  I accidentally overcooked mine.