Spicy Vegetable Fried Rice

Name: Spicy Vegetable Fried Rice
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 3 cups of basmati rice; Some salt for seasoning; 2 carrots (or 1 large carrot peeled and finely diced); 1/2 a red capsicum/pepper finely diced; 150 g of frozen peas; A light oil such as vegetable oil, grape-seed oil or rice bran oil; 3 eggs cracked in a bowl, (seasoned with salt and pepper then whisked); 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil; 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped; 1 thumb sized piece of ginger peeled and finely chopped; 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes; 1 ½ tablespoons of hoisin sauce; 2 tablespoons of soy sauce; 1 handful flat leaf parsley roughly chopped; 2 spring onions finely sliced; Store brought fried shallots

June 20, 2018 by Nicolas 34 Comments

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A vegetable fried rice recipe that is super tasty and vibrant. If you want to know how to completely pimp out plain rice, this is the recipe for you.

It took a while for me to find some of the fundamentals that are required to make a good fried rice. The first 3 that come to mind are fast, hot and cooking that doesn’t involve a lot of moisture, as that would just ruin the FRIED element of the dish.

The rice is the most important ingredient to be aware off, and we definitely don’t want too much moisture lurking around in it once it’s cooked. This is why I spread it out flat on a tray to let some of the steam escape. Putting it in the freezer for a short while cools it down quickly, and helps to prevent it from sticking and clumping up together.

Now like I said, when you start frying, the cooking is quick and hot. It shouldn’t be a difficult process if you have all of your ingredients prepared. If your ingredients aren’t prepared, then you may find yourself struggling. So make sure every ingredient on that list is chopped, measured out and ready to go.

It is also important to cut your vegetables nice and small. Big, chunky vegetables will take forever to cook, and just won’t work in something like fried rice.

And if you want to add meat, the same rules apply. Cut it up nice and small, season it and cook it hot and fast to prevent any moisture from flooding the pan. I recommend cooking any meat in the wok first, then follow through with the vegetables and the egg etc.

Now if you want to spice this vegetable fried rice up even more, don’t be afraid to pimp out the rice a bit. Boil it with aromatics such as bay leafs, star anise, cloves and cardamom pods. Rice loves those ingredients.

A couple more tips for flavour. Use light oils for 2 reasons. One, they don’t burn easily and 2, the flavour of stronger oils can interfere with fried rice or any other kind of stir-fry. So oils like vegetable oil, grape-seed oil or in my case, rice bran oil are perfect for this recipe.

Also, I have recently discovered the power of hoi-sin sauce. It’s thick, sweet, dark and rich. So I always use it when making fried rice and noodle dishes because it gives such an incredible base of flavour. If you like making recipes like this, I highly recommend keeping a jar of this in your fridge.

My last tip is when it’s time to add the rice, add it bit by bit, not all at once. Remember, we want the rice to be nice and separated, making sure every grain gets tossed in the flavour and the heat. Rather than having it all clumped together. Here is what the process should look like.

Other than that, have an awesome day ladies and gents!! I really hope you enjoyed this post. Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t yet. And feel free to share and rate this recipe if you enjoyed it!!

Some crispy fried shallots getting sprinkled over a nice big bowl of vegetable fried rice.

5 from 3 votes