veggie fried rice
Homemade fried rice - one of our go-to weeknight meals. It is healthy, quick and delicious. Rice, tofu and edamame are staples in our house so those are always on hand. And this can be a great impromptu recipe to use what is left of the week's veggies.
This recipe is so flexible, so I won’t leave an exact recipe here rather a few of our tips and tricks with this dish. The rendition here included tofu, peppers, carrots, celery, broccoli, garlic, onions and mushrooms.
The instapot makes absolutely perfect rice in about five minutes (highly recommend this kitchen tool if you don't already have it). If you don’t have one cook as directed on the package.
The rice should be cooked prior to frying and comes out significantly better if it is refrigerated first for 24 hours. Significantly better - highly recommend you don’t skip this!!
For tofu (we sometimes rotate between tofu and edamame or both) use a tofu press or some other method to press out as much liquid as possible. Before we had a tofu press we simply used a clean towel and a heavy pan for several minutes. Slice the tofu to your preference and brown it separately with some salt and pepper. Then cut into cubes and brown some more. This makes it nice and crispy. Set aside until close to the end of cooking the fried rice.
Chop up whatever veggies you have on hand. Saute the veggies in a bit of sesame oil. Season. We use Trader Joe’s onion salt seasoning, Trader Joe’s mushroom umami seasoning, salt and pepper. Cook for 5-10 minutes until desired texture.
Add in the pre-cooked rice to the cooked veggies. We then add a touch of rice vinegar, tamari and vegetarian oyster mushroom sauce. Mix it all so everything is covered evenly. Start with a small amount of tamari and taste adding more as needed.
Once everything is mixed well - heat the pan to high and let it cook undisturbed for five minutes. Stir and repeat. I do this until it achieves the “fried” texture.
Add tofu to the mixture and heat for a couple minutes and voila!
Topping suggestions/options: cilantro, parsley, green onion, truffle oil, truffle salt, sweet and sour sauce.
It is hard to go wrong with this fried rice. Play with the ingredients and flavors and that keeps it interesting!