I can’t even explain how good this fried rice is. I came up with the recipe on a whim awhile back. It was my first time making fried rice since becoming vegan in September of last year, and I wanted it to taste as good as I remembered fried rice tasting.
Thankfully, with a few additions (and subtractions!), this dish turned out remarkable. Even my husband, who only groans like crazy when his food is MEGA GOOD, couldn’t keep his mouth shut about it.
“You HAVE to blog this”, he said. “You HAVE TO. It’s SO GOOD.”
And so, here I am. Blogging it.
Traditional fried rice is made with fried egg and some kind of meat. Usually bacon – at least, that’s what was always in my fried rice growing up.
So, I had to either eliminate those ingredients, or come up with some substitutions.
I went the substitution route.
Instead of fried egg, I added scrambled tofu, which gave the dish that yellow colour that cooked eggs do.
For bacon, I had a few options. I could use fake meat, but didn’t want to, I could use coconut bacon – but I’m not a big fan of coconut bacon, and I didn’t feel like making anything bacon-like, so I did the next best thing – I used liquid smoke in the sauce.
And guess what – it worked like a charm. Bacon flavour without the bacon. Hurrah!
This is now one of my go-to meals when I am too tired to dream up something creative.
If you can cook the rice in advance, that will save you a lot of cooking time, since rice can take up to 45 minutes to cook (depending on the type you use – brown rice takes me 45 minutes to cook).
- Rice
- 1 1/2 cups uncooked rice (I used brown rice)
- Scrambled Tofu
- 1/2 block extra firm tofu, pressed for at least 20 minutes
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- Vegetables
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 medium carrot, diced (very small!)
- 2/3 cup frozen peas
- Green onions for garnish (optional)
- Sauce
- 2 tbsp tamari
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 tsp liquid smoke
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 medium garlic clove, minced or grated
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp sriracha sauce (or to the heat of your liking!)
- Cook rice according to package directions and set aside.
- Crumble the pressed tofu in a small bowl. Add in the turmeric, nutritional yeast, salt, onion powder, and pepper. Mix well and set aside.
- Heat the oil in a medium pan over medium heat.
- Add the minced garlic and cook for a minute or so, or until the garlic has browned lightly.
- Add in the tofu mixture and cook for about 5-7 minutes more, stirring often. Remove from pan and set aside.
- In the same pan that you used to cook your tofu, heat 2 tsp olive oil over medium heat, then add in the carrots and peas.
- Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the carrots can easily be pierced with a sharp knife. Set aside.
- Whisk together all of the sauce ingredients and set aside.
- In a large pan or wok over medium heat, add your sauce, then the rice, then the vegetables, then the scrambled tofu.
- Mix everything together very well, and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.
- Serve, topped with a sprinkling of chopped green onions, if desired.
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