Joey Bruno is co-owner of Thrive Cuisine. Cooking healthy, delicious, plant-based meals has been Joey’s true passion since he went vegan in 2015. He has a master’s degree in nutrition and food science and is committed to making the internet a place of education and knowledge rather than misinformation and click bait. He currently lives in Delaware with his wife.
Vegan Steak Black Bean Fajita Bowl
Joey says: “For vegans, replacing meat with beans/legumes/pulses is an excellent choice for satiety and protein. Chipotle-style bowls tend to be a staple in my household, topped with black beans, onions, corn, guacamole, and tomatoes. However, craving may arise for something a bit meatier. In this case, seitan is the perfect way to add a new element of texture to any dish and is a perfect way to upgrade the standard vegan burrito bowl.
“Enter the Vegan Steak & Black Bean Fajita Bowl! It’s got black beans, seitan steak tips, a bunch of veggies, and a cashew cheese sauce (or guac if you want) to top it all off.
“Just know that if you want to omit the seitan in this recipe you can, as it is still awesome with just beans and all the other ingredients.”
Here’s what you’ll need:
Seitan Fajita Ingredients:
- 1 package of Seitan
- 1 medium onion (onion type doesn’t matter)
- 1 green or red bell pepper
- Liquid from the canned beans
- Salt and pepper to taste
Smoky TexMex Black Beans Ingredients:
- 2 – 15.5 oz cans of black beans, drained
- Liquid smoke
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Juice of ½ lemon
Rice:
- 2 cups of dried rice (any style)
- 1 bay leaf
“Cheeze” Sauce Ingredients:
- ½ cup of raw cashews
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- Water
- Juice of ½ lemon
- Salt to taste
Optional Toppings:
- Chopped tomatoes
- Sliced avocado or guacamole
- Additional nutritional yeast flakes
Directions:
- Open both cans of black beans. Pour only the liquid from both cans into a medium saucepan.
- Put the beans, which now have no liquid, into another saucepan.
- Add the rest of the ingredients for the TexMex beans into your pan and turn on medium to low heat. Simmer slowly and add more water if needed (or vegetable stock) just so that the beans don’t try out. The longer you cook these the better, but 30 minutes is enough to embed them with flavor.
- Cook 2 cups of rice in a standard rice cooker or pot. Follow the water-to-rice ratio on your given bag of rice and add the bay before starting for extra flavor.
- Slice seitan into thin strips and add to the pan with the bean liquid.
- Slice the peppers and onion and add those to the same pan.
- Season lightly with salt and pepper and put on a medium-to-low heat, stirring until the onions and pepper cook down. Add more liquid as necessary.
- Add all the cheese sauce ingredients to a high-powered blender (hold the water). If your blender isn’t that strong, soak the cashews for 15 minutes to one hour to soften them up.
- Add water to cover around ¼ of the dry ingredients and blend. Add more water to thin out the sauce. We recommend starting with less because you can always add more if it’s too thick.
- Plate up all the ingredients and add some cilantro if your heart desires!
There you have it! There are a lot of steps to this recipe, but don’t worry – it’s worth it in the end. If you don’t have access to seitan you can also substitute it with tofu or tempeh.
Enjoy!