Pan Roasted Corn and Black Bean Burrito Bowls with Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice and Crispy Carnitas

I didn’t record the exact weight of one of these burrito bowls, but you could safely say it’s over 1.5 pounds of food. And with only 556 calories per burrito bowl, that qualifies as a bonafide high volume meal in my book. A high volume meal, if you’re unfamiliar, is a meal that’s low in calories relative to its size or the amount of food. High volume meals like these burrito bowls keep you full and allow you to simply eat more food while staying in a caloric deficit.

Enough about that, let’s talk about what really matters—the deliciousness.

I’ll be the first to admit, I’m a texture eater. Meaning, I love a bit of crunch in almost every dish. With most burrito bowls, I really love eating it with or on chips. And while it’s nearly impossible to supplant chips, the crispness of the ingredients in these burrito bowls do a standup job. The perfectly pan-fried cilantro lime cauliflower rice gives a slight crunch while the roasted corn and black beans lend a savory, salty-sweet flavor. And I’d be remiss to not mention the crispy carnitas and their beautifully smoky taste and crispy exterior.

Are you hungry yet?

Ingredients for Burrito Bowls

This recipe is super simple and really could be cooked in a single pan as long as you’re okay with losing some aesthetic value. I won’t spend a ton of time in the ingredients section simply because the recipe is straightforward and covers everything.

For protein pairings, I have a ton of options that would work great with these bowls. Here’s a handful:

• crockpot shredded chicken
• chicken thighs carnitas
• reverse seared ribeye
• Dutch oven pulled Mexican chicken
• shortcut beef birria
• pressure cooker shredded Mexican chicken thighs
• slow cooked pulled beef

No worries if you want to go with another meat, though. You could use shredded chicken, ground beef or turkey, or even tofu Sofritos-style like Chipotle.

For the pan roasted corn and beans, we’ll be keeping it simple as always with canned versions of both. You can get as fancy as you’d like with fresh corn off the cob and soaking beans overnight, but it’s not a requirement. The same goes for the cilantro lime cauliflower rice, where the recipe calls for frozen cauliflower rice as usual. I find this saves time in prep and cleaning, and avoids food waste. Not to mention, my recipes always turn out better using frozen over fresh for some reason.

The only real ingredient note pertains to seasoning your meal. The recipe mentions the bare minimum amounts of cilantro, lime juice, and other seasonings. Taste test your dish as you go and add as you see fit. If you’d like more salt or a stronger lime flavor, there ain’t nothin’ to it but to do it.

And finally, you can top your burrito bowls with anything you’d like. The recipe calls for guacamole and pico de gallo, but you could leave that off or add other ingredients like shredded cheese, a low calorie dressing, hot sauce, or all of it. Not to mention, there’s always the option to stuff everything in a tortilla for an actual burrito, taco, or grilled quesadilla (see below). Get creative!

How to Make Low Calorie Tortilla Chips

Okay, one last update (for now). Since making these burrito bowls, I’ve been eating it nearly every day for lunch. One final tip I’ll leave you with is eating it with homemade low calorie tortilla chips. The video below goes through the recipe I use. You’ll get the salty, crunchy texture of tortilla chips and a ton of volume for only 120 calories!