It's so easy to make delicious pinwheels without cream cheese! These vegan pinwheels are packed with delicious Southwest-inspired flavors.
Table of Contents
Add a little oomph to your next party or packed lunch with these super easy vegan pinwheels. They're made without any cream cheese. Instead, they use refried beans to hold everything together for a Southwest-inspired vibe that's super delicious.
I use a few shortcuts to make these super quickly, and I'll share all of that info with you, too!
If you're on the lookout for more vegan lunches and finger foods, don't miss my vegan party food recipes and vegan packed lunch ideas.
💖 Why You'll Love this Recipe
- 20 minutes of active time
- packed with refried beans, veggies, and FLAVOR!
- easy to make ahead for quick assembly
- perfect for lunchboxes, picnics, cookouts, etc.
✓ Ingredients and Substitutions
- vegan refried beans - I am not making these refried beans from scratch. You are welcome to, but the canned ones will work just fine. When you're shopping for refried beans, just look out for lard in the ingredients list.
- garlic powder and chili powder - To season the refried beans.
- corn - If you want to, you can use raw corn kernels, sliced fresh off of the cob. When corn is in season, I recommend doing this, because there is nothing like the snap of raw corn. To save time (or when the fresh corn isn't looking so good), you can use thawed, frozen corn or even canned corn.
- sliced black olives - Another shortcut is to use pre-sliced black olives instead of slicing them myself.
- green onion - This is the only cutting you'll need to do besides slicing the pinwheels themselves, if you follow all of my shortcuts!
- pickled jalapeños - You can use store-bought or substitute my pickled onions and jalapeños. I love the flavor that pickled jalapenos (with or without onion) bring to tacos, burritos, guacamole, and these vegan rollups. And I love that everything is already sliced, so you just have to use a fork to pull them out of the jar. If you don't want these to be spicy, you can use pickled onions instead.
- flour tortillas - You want 12" tortillas for this recipe, and you can use any kind you like! Regular flour, gluten-free, whole wheat, spinach, etc. As long as you can roll it up without it cracking, it's fair game.
🔪How to Make Vegan Pinwheels
In a large bowl, mix together the refried beans, garlic powder, and chili powder. Fold in the corn, olives, green onions, and pickled jalapeños.
Spread ¼ to ⅓ of the bean mixture onto one of the tortillas, leaving ½" of the tortilla bare all around the edge.
Layer on ¼ to ⅓ of the sliced avocado, which should cover about ½ of the tortilla.
Starting at one end, roll the up tortilla tightly. Repeat the filling and rolling with 2 or 3 more tortillas, depending on how generous you were with filling. When you finish rolling, place them seam-side-down on a plate, and place it in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Remove the plate from the freezer, and transfer the vegan rollups to a cutting board. Use a serrated knife to slice off the messy ends. You can serve the ends, if you want, or just snack on them separately.
Then, slice the remainder of the roll into 6 to 8 pinwheels.
💡 Helpful Tips
- You want to roll these pretty tightly, but don't do it so tightly that filling squirts out of the ends! A nice, tight roll will slice the best and look the best.
- Use a serrated knife to slice the pinwheels, so they'll maintain their shape.
💬 Frequently Asked Questions
These are best served the day that you make them, but they will keep for up to four days in the refrigerator. Store in an airtight container, like a meal prep container.
If you know that you want to make them more than a day ahead, store the bean mixture, unsliced avocado, and the tortillas separately. Assemble and slice the vegan pinwheels on the day you plan to serve.
Rolling tightly definitely helps the pinwheels staying together. If they're still being stubborn, use a toothpick. I like to stick a toothpick on top with a grape tomato, because it looks so pretty!
😋 More Vegan Finger Foods
📖 Recipe
Vegan Pinwheels
Ingredients
- 15 ounces vegan refried beans check the ingredients for lard
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 cup corn kernels fresh, frozen (and thawed), or canned are all fine
- ⅓ cup sliced black olives
- ¼ cup chopped green onion
- ¼ to ½ cup pickled jalapenos drained (depending on how spicy you want these). Or use pickled onions.
- 2 Haas avocados sliced just before rolling
- 3 to 4 12-inch flour tortillas whole wheat, spinach, sundried tomato, etc are all fine
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together the refried beans, garlic powder, and chili powder. Fold in the corn, olives, green onions, and pickled jalapenos.
- Spread ¼ to ⅓ of the bean mixture onto one of the tortillas, leaving ½" of the tortilla bare all around the edge. Layer on ¼ to ⅓ of the sliced avocado, which should cover about ½ of the tortilla.
- Starting at one end, roll the up tortilla tightly. Repeat the filling and rolling with 2 or 3 more tortillas, depending on how generous you were with filling. When you finish rolling, place them seam-side-down on a plate, and place it in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Remove the plate from the freezer, and transfer the vegan rollups to a cutting board. Use a serrated knife to slice off the messy ends. You can serve the ends, if you want, or just snack on them separately. Then, slice the remainder of the roll into 6 to 8 pinwheels.
Got a question? Tried this recipe? Leave a reply!