Vegetarian recipes from Mexico
10 recipes
A guide to the food of Mexico
Mexican vegetarian cooking: maize, beans, chilliWhat the milpa and nixtamalisation bring to a meatless meal, how dry charring builds a sauce, and what the Spanish added to the repertoire.Mexican cooking rests on nixtamalised maize, beans and chillies, three staples that make a full meal without meat. Maize becomes a tortilla, tamal masa or a thick flatbread, serving as both plate and cutlery. Black or pinto beans, cooked then mashed and fried again in lard or oil, fill the refried bean tacos. Fat stays restrained, acidity comes from lime and tomatillos, and depth from rehydrated dried chillies, ancho, guajillo and pasilla, blended into sauce. Avocado, worked into guacamole, brings the fresh richness that balances the heat.
A meal is built around a sauce and a starch: the mole or chilli sauce is made ahead, then married to maize on the day. Pozole rojo shows the logic, a hominy broth served with radish, lettuce and oregano that each diner adds at the table. Meatless dishes here are not adaptations: the cheese-stuffed peppers of chiles rellenos, the fried tortilla strips of sopa azteca and the wide Oaxacan flatbread of the tlayuda have long stood on their own, carried by fresh cheese, cream and herbs such as epazote.
The recipes
Mexico⏱ 35 minHuevos rancheros
The Mexican farmhouse breakfast: fried eggs on crisp corn tortillas, covered in a tomato and chili salsa, with black beans and avocado.
Mexico⏱ 45 minMexican Tortilla Soup (Sopa Azteca)
Mexico's ultimate comfort soup: a rich, roasted tomato and mild pasilla chilli broth poured over crisp corn tortilla strips, avocado, and crumbled cheese.
Mexico⏱ 40 minTlayuda
Oaxaca's large thin tortilla, spread with black bean paste and quesillo, topped with cabbage and avocado, then grilled until crisp.
Mexico⏱ 60 minVegetarian enchiladas with vegetables
Corn tortillas dipped in guajillo chilli sauce, filled with courgette and black beans, then baked under a layer of melted cheese.
Mexico⏱ 70 minChiles rellenos
Poblano peppers charred and peeled, stuffed with queso fresco, coated in whipped egg batter and fried, then served in a tomato broth.
Mexico⏱ 75 minVegan red pozole
A brick-red hominy and mushroom soup in a guajillo and ancho chilli broth, piled high with radish, cabbage and lime.
Mexico⏱ 115 minVegan tamales
Fluffy corn dough wrapped around a chilli-spiked black bean and mushroom filling, folded in corn husks and gently steamed.
Mexico⏱ 15 minGuacamole
Ripe avocados fork-mashed with lime, coriander, white onion and jalapeño. Fresh, creamy and ready in fifteen minutes.
Mexico⏱ 50 minVegetarian red bean chili sin carne
The meat-free Mexican chili, kidney beans, peppers and soy mince in a cumin and chilli tomato sauce.
Mexico⏱ 35 minRefried bean tacos
Mashed, fragrant black beans on warm corn tortillas with avocado, red onion and salsa verde.
At a glance
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Recipes on the site | 10 |
| Of which vegan | 4 |
| Of which gluten-free | 10 |
| Quickest | Guacamole, 15 min |
These recipes keep coming back to the same few things: beans, avocado, chilli, tomato.
Elsewhere in Americas: Peru, French Caribbean, Brazil, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Haiti, Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic.
Read more
- Vegetarian and gluten free, from maize to teff
The kitchens that never needed wheat, from nixtamalised maize to teff and cassava, and the places gluten hides where nobody thinks to look.
- The tomato, three centuries to conquer the world
The tomato reached Europe in the sixteenth century and was distrusted for two hundred years. What each kitchen made of it, and the handling that matters.