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This Vegan Taco Casserole is the perfect dinner for a family or dish a crowd. This layered vegan taco casserole comes together in just minutes and is ready in under 45 minutes total. Completely customizable, Top 8 Allergen free!
Whether you’ve been dairy free/vegan for a few days or years, one thing always happens. You have no idea what to make for dinner. This delicious vegan taco casserole is one of the best dinner recipes to have in your cookbook!
Whether you are cooking for one person or a whole family, there’s only so many ideas you can come up with.
Scouring on Pinterest sometimes leads to good results and if you found your way from there to this recipe, I’m going to let you know that you found a winner.
This easy taco casserole recipe is a hit for get togethers and crowds, like hosting a football game watch party or your next potluck get together. No matter what the reason, this dairy free taco casserole should be on rotation in your house.
This easy taco casserole recipe is:
- dairy free
- vegan
- plant based
- gluten free
- Top 8 Allergen Friendly
What’s even more amazing about this dairy free taco casserole recipe is completely customizable.
While the recipe calls for a specific set of ingredients listed below in the recipe, if there’s something that you don’t like, you can simply omit that part of this layered taco casserole.
And of course, if there is a specific ingredient that goes along with Spanish/Mexican cuisine that isn’t included, you can totally add that into the recipe too!
It’s a win/win for everyone.
What ingredients do you need to make a dairy free taco casserole?
Listen, casseroles sometimes get a bad wrap.
They are notoriously known for just a bunch of seemingly random ingredients, some of which may or may not seem to go together, but this….this amazing dairy free taco casserole recipe..it’s all makes perfect sense.
The ingredients you need to make this healthy taco casserole are:
- green pepper
- red onion
- garlic
- homemade taco seasoning
- black beans
- corn
- refried beans
- cooked rice
- dairy free cheese
- salsa
- Optional: cilantro, green onions, avocado, jalapeño, vegan sour cream, etc
You also may want tortilla chips or taco shells to with serve with the dairy free taco casserole.
How do you make a vegan taco casserole?
This dairy free casserole takes under 45 mins to get on the table, but it can be even quicker than that.
The first step is to cook your rice.
You can use brown rice or white rice, Spanish style or plain. It’s completely up to you. We often switch up how we’ve made this dairy free taco casserole, but either way it’s a hit.
You want between 2-3 cups of cooked rice for this easy taco casserole recipe. If you need it to go further, add the full 3 cups.
One way to make this recipe cook quicker is to prep the rice earlier in the week and that way it’s ready to go.
Our go to is 1 cup of uncooked rice to 2 cups of vegetable stock mixed with 1 teaspoon of taco seasoning and then cooked according to the package.
While you wait for the rice to cook, heat up some olive oil in a large skillet.
Add to it the peppers, onions and garlic until translucent. Then, add in the black beans, corn, taco seasoning and salsa.
Stir together until combined and heated through. Turn off heat.
One you have your cooked rice, spread it evenly across the bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish. Next, carefully spread a can of refried beans, warmed, across the rice. Then top with the bean mixture. Lastly, spread dairy free cheese across the top.
Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for 20 minutes or until dairy free cheese on top has melted.
Remove from oven. Top with cilantro if desired. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve with avocado and additional salsa on the side. Serve this dairy free taco casserole with tortilla chips for dipping.
Can I make this Top 8 Allergen Friendly Taco Casserole?
This recipe is already written to be Top 8 Allergen Friendly.
Many dairy free cheeses are Top 8 Free safe; however, you do want to make sure that you double check the ingredients on the package you intend to buy to make sure that it is compatible with your dietary needs.
Can I prep this Vegan Taco Casserole ahead of time?
Yes!
You have two options.
First, you could pre-cook the rice up to 4 days in advance and then just proceed with the recipe as directed.
The other option would be to make the entire dish and then cover it and place in the fridge until ready to serve. It would be good for 4 to 5 days if stored properly.
Then just reheat in the oven or microwave.
WHAT OTHER VEGAN DINNER IDEAS SHOULD I TRY?
If you love this easy dairy free dinner recipe, you may be wondering what other dairy free dinner ideas we have. Here are some ideas we have (all are vegan):
- Vegan Instant Pot Tex-Mex Rice
- Easy Vegan Cheesy Hamburger Helper
- Dairy Free Pizza
- Vegan Italian Meatballs
- Dairy Free Alfredo
- Dairy Free Nachos
Vegan Taco Casserole
This Vegan Taco Casserole is the perfect dinner for a family or dish a crowd. This layered dairy free taco casserole comes together in just minutes and is ready in under 45 minutes total. Completely customizable, Top 8 Allergen free!
Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time20 minutes mins
Total Time35 minutes mins
Course: Appetizer, brunch, Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican
Servings: 8 servings
Calories: 278kcal
Author: Andrew Bernard
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried rice (or 2-3 cups ready or cooked rice)
- 1 can vegan refried beans, warmed
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 green pepper, diced
- 1 red onion, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, mined
- 1 ½ tablespoon homemade taco seasoning (can substitute for taco seasoning packet)
- 1 can black beans
- 1 cup salsa
- 1 can corn
- 1 cup dairy free cheese
Optional Ingredients:
- 1 avocado, cubed
- cilantro or green onions chopped
- salsa
- vegan sour cream
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cook your rice according to package. *See tips in post above about types of rice to use and how we cook it.
While rice is cooking, heat 2 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet and saute the peppers, onions and garlic over medium heat until translucent (2-3 minutes).
Add in the black beans, corn, taco seasoning and salsa. Stir together until combined and heated through. Turn off heat
Spread cooked rice evenly across the bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish.
Next, carefully spread a can of refried beans, warmed, across the rice.
Top with the bean mixture.
Sprinkle dairy free cheese evenly across the top.
Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for 20 minutes or until dairy free cheese on top has melted.
Remove from oven.
Top with any optional toppings if desired.
Let cool for 10 minutes and serve with avocado and additional salsa on the side.
Serve with tortilla chips for dipping or taco shells if desired.
Video
Notes
**Nutritional facts are just estimates. Please utilize your own brand nutritional values to double check against our estimates.
*Nutritional values do not include optional toppings and sides.
*This dish is customizable. Don’t like refried beans? Omit this. Can’t have corn? Double up the beans. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 278kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 288mg | Potassium: 303mg | Fiber: 6g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 215IU | Vitamin C: 16.4mg | Calcium: 35mg | Iron: 1.5mg
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This post was originally published on 2/1/19 and updated on 10/21/19.
