Vegan burritos with beans, chorizo & tots

Vegan burritos bring the fun to dinner. These hearty & satiating burritos are filled with black beans, seitan chorizo, and tater tots for crunch.

They’re all wrapped up in whole wheat tortillas for a delicious & filling meal the whole family will love.

When you crave a “meat and potatoes” style burrito that you can really sink your teeth into, call in this vegan burrito.

These protein-packed wraps are filled with both seitan and beans. Each burrito has 18 grams of protein.

Seitan chorizo

Seitan is one of my favorite vegan meat options. It’s made of wheat. And it has a great chewy texture.

For this burrito, I use seitan chorizo.

If you’re not familiar with seitan chorizo, it’s the plant-based version of a popular Mexican and Spanish pork sausage.

Since seitan chorizo is already seasoned, it does a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of taste.

You can find vegan chorizo in the refrigerated section of natural grocery stores. I’ve even seen it at Target. It’s usually near other vegan meats & specialty products.

I used Upton’s Naturals seitan chorizo for this recipe. I also really like Herbivorous Butcher’s seitan chorizo.

If you prefer, you can use soyrizo instead. Soyrizo is one of my favorite Trader Joe’s vegan products.

Keep in mind, though, that soyrizo tubes are usually 12 ounces. While seitan chorizo comes in 8 ounce packages. So plan on using a little more than half of the package of soyrizo for this recipe.

Finally, you could replace the seitan with an equal amount of vegan ground beef crumbles. If you go with that option, you may want to increase the spices since it’s not as highly seasoned as vegan chorizo.

Black beans

The seitan is joined by black beans. The mild flavor of black beans goes well in any taco or burrito, because it keeps its texture & lets the spices shine.

If you prefer, black beans can easily be replaced with almost any bean like pinto, Great Northern, cannellini, or kidney beans.

Tater tots

Finally, it’s filled out with tater tots. (They’re also known as potato gems or potato tots.)

If you love potato tacos or breakfast burritos with potatoes, you’ll love the ease and crunch of tater tots in this dish.

They make this burrito feel all the more indulgent. Plus, they’re easy to keep on hand in the freezer and cook as needed.

I use the air fryer to prepare tater tots. But feel free to bake, if you prefer.

If tots aren’t your jam, they can be replaced with air fryer breakfast potatoes or air fryer baby potatoes.

Vegan cheese

Finish the vegan burritos with a sprinkling of non-dairy cheese.

Any kind of cheddar-style cheese you like will work here. You can buy it pre-shredded. Or shred your own from a block.

If you prefer, you can omit it. Or replace it with guacamole.

How to make them

Here’s what you’ll need to make this vegan burrito recipe.

Start by putting the tater tots in the air fryer basket to cook. Air fry at 400 degrees for 9 minutes, stopping occasionally to shake the basket.

Times may vary depending on your air fryer. Cook until beautifully browned.

(Or pop them in a preheated oven if you prefer to bake. See full recipe instructions below for details.)

While the tater tots cook, bring a large non-stick skillet to a medium heat with oil. Add onions & garlic. Sauté until fragrant.

Add seitan chorizo & sauté a couple minutes more.

Add black beans, spices, salt, and water. Fully combine & cook a few minutes more, until it’s warmed & the spices are incorporated.

Warm tortillas one by one in a dry skillet.

(In a pinch for time? Microwave the tortillas on a plate until just warmed.)

After each tortilla is warm & pliable, fill it with seitan & black beans, 4 or 5 tater tots, and a sprinkling of vegan cheese.

Roll the burrito by folding the sides in on the tortilla. Then fold down the side nearest you, and tuck it underneath the fillings. Keep rolling until you have the shape of a burrito.

Continue until all of the burritos have been rolled.

Make them your own

You can make these burritos your own by varying the ingredients.

• Use 8 ounces of soyrizo or vegan ground beef crumbles instead of seitan chorizo
• Add ½ cup chopped bell peppers with the onions & garlic
• Replace black beans with pinto, Great Northern, cannellini, or kidney beans
• Use standard chili powder instead of ancho chili powder
• To the finished burrito, add hot sauce, pickled jalapeños and/or pickled red onions
• Add brown rice
• Add shredded lettuce or cabbage, salsa, vegan sour cream, and/or tomatoes
• Drizzle with cilantro chimichurri sauce

For crispy burritos, put the rolled burritos into the air fryer. Air fry at 400 degrees for 5 minutes, until the tortilla is browned and toasted.

These savory burritos taste wonderful with vegan sriracha mayonnaise spooned onto each bite (shown below). It adds creaminess and a little kick of garlicky heat.

Instead of having the chorizo black bean mixture in a burrito, it’s also delicious in a taco salad, burrito bowl, fried tacos, nachos, or taco pizza.

What to serve with them

These protein-packed burritos could be a full meal on their own. But it’s nice to round them out with something green for balance.

Here are some side dish ideas:

• Black bean corn avocado salad
• Southwest salad
• Sweet fried plantains
• Chips & pineapple salsa
• Refried pinto beans or refried black beans

How to store and reheat

Vegan burritos store beautifully in the refrigerator. You can either store the tortillas, vegan taco meat, and tater tots separately. Or you can refrigerate the fully rolled & prepared burritos.

If storing the taco meat separately, keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will keep for about 4 days.

When you’re ready to reheat it, warm it in a non-stick skillet or in the microwave. Then re-toast the tater tots in the air fryer at 400 degrees until warm and crispy.

If you’re storing pre-made burritos in the refrigerator, I recommend wrapping each of them in cellophane, so that they don’t get dried out.

To reheat, you can either warm them in the microwave or air fry them. Remove the plastic cellophane before warming them.

After that they can go straight into the microwave or air fryer from the refrigerator. Microwave until warm.

Or air fry at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes or until toasty brown on the outside. Air fryers cook at different rates, so check on it occasionally.

Content, recipe, and photos updated February 11, 2022. Originally posted September 3, 2017.