July 31, 2020

Vegan lemongrass fried rice

Name: Vegan lemongrass fried rice
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 10 min
Ingredients: ⅔ cup uncooked jasmine rice (about 2 cups cooked); 4 cups bean sprouts (about 2 cups when blanched or add one cup of extra vegetables instead.); 2 cups vegetables of choice (chopped); 1½ tbsp lemongrass, finely chopped (uses about two stalks); 1½ tbsp finely chopped garlic (about 4-5 big cloves); 2 stalks green/spring onion (use shallots or onions instead); 4 tsp soy sauce, naturally brewed whenever possible (adjust to suit your taste); ¼ tsp black pepper (powder/crushed); ¼ tsp red chilli flakes (or use fresh chillies ); ¼ tsp salt; 1 tbsp oil (preferably one with a higher smoke point)

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Vegan lemongrass fried rice is every lemongrass fan’s dream come true!

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1. Ingredients used to make Vegan Lemongrass fried rice.

2. Preparations needed to make Vegan lemongrass fried rice

3. Vegan lemongrass fried rice

I once ate a Vietnamese bahn-mi sandwich at a restaurant and was blown away at how they made tofu taste so good by sauteing it with lemongrass, learn how to use lemongrass from the Vietnamese! 🙂 I fell so in love with lemongrass that I have been cooking with it ever since!

This vegan lemongrass fried rice is easy to make, uses only a handful of ingredients but is so packed with flavour, thanks to lemongrass!

Lemongrass fried rice tastes great on it’s own. In the picture above, I have served it with Vegan lemongrass tofu.

Ingredients used to make Vegan Lemongrass fried rice.

Lemongrass (Majjige soppu)

Lemongrass is a herb native to tropical regions. It grows like a shrub. In India, the leaves of lemongrass are used in homemade remedies. South-east Asian cuisine uses the stem/stalk of lemongrass in cooking. If you are growing your own lemongrass, be sure to use the stalk found at the base of the plant to cook lemongrass fried rice, not the leaves.

In North America, lemongrass stalks can be found in Asian grocery stores, both fresh and chopped(frozen). The chopped lemongrass usually has added food colouring, so I like to buy the fresh stalks.

Rice-I use jasmine rice to make my fried rice. Any other rice can be use as long as it does not turn mushy on cooking.

If using Jasmine rice, I recommend using a good quality rice for consistent results. Look for ‘Thai Hom Mali’ seal from Thai department of foreign trade, on the package. It is a circular logo with golden rice grains, surrounded by the words ‘Thai Hom Mali rice/Originated in Thailand’.

I buy my Thai Hom Mali Jasmine rice from Asian stores, can be found online as well.

Vegetables – Use any vegetables of your choice that you think would go well in a fried rice. I also like to use blanched mung bean sprouts for crunch and nutrition. Bean sprouts are available at Asian grocery stores.

Soy sauce – Use naturally fermented soy sauce whenever possible.

Garlic – needs no introduction 🙂

Red pepper flakes – Fresh chillies can be used too or use both! 🙂

Green onions/Spring onions – Optional, Can be replaced with shallots and chopped onions

Preparations needed to make Vegan lemongrass fried rice

PREPARING LEMONGRASS

As I mentioned earlier, the stalk of the lemongrass(not the leaves) is used in our lemongrass fried rice.

Lemongrass is woody, so the entire stem cannot be used in fried rice. We need to use the most tender, inner part of the stem.
Chop off the hard part at the bottom of the stem. (Red line to the left, in the picture above.)
Cut off the top part of the stem. (Red line to the right, in the picture above.)
You are now left with the portion of the stalk in between the two red lines.
Remove the outermost layer.
Remove more layers until you reach the tender inner layers. (The part inside the purple circle in the picture of the cross section)
The inner tender layer is woody too and if not finely chopped, they can be hard to chew on.
So, mince the lemongrass very fine into tiniest of pieces. Can be done with a knife or a food-processor. I like to mince a bunch of lemongrass at a time. Minced lemongrass freezes well, so I freeze the leftovers as it is always convenient to have it minced and ready to go when in need of a quick meal.
Do not discard the layers that could not be used in making fried rice, including the top of the stalk. Discard the outermost layer if dirty. The rest of the stalk can be chopped up into 1 inch pieces and frozen. They can be smashed and bruised to release their flavours and used in lemongrass tea, masala chai, soups etc.

lemongrass-inner-view — Cross section of lemongrass. The inner core is more tender and is chopped very fine to be used in fried rice. Outer layers can be frozen for other use mentioned above.

RICE

Fried rice is best made with cooked rice that has been chilled in the refrigerator or has at-least been brought down to room temperature. This is an important step to avoid mushy, sticky fried rice. Cooking rice with the right amount of water and cooling the rice ensures separate grains. I like to cook rice a day ahead and store it in the refrigerator.

Wash rice well until water runs clear. This removes excess starch from the surface of the rice and makes it less sticky on cooking.

Also, when cooking rice for fried rice, use a little less water than you otherwise would, to ensure separate grains. For example, if I am cooking Jasmine rice to go with a curry, I add 1.5 cups of water for a cup of rice. For fried rice, I use 1:1 ratio of water to rice. Please note that this ratio applies to Jasmine rice. If using any other rice, the ratio will be different.

Jasmine rice will look sticky after cooking. Compared to other rice, jasmine rice looks more sticky post cooking. Worry not, if you have used the right ratio of water to rice and have your rice chilled or at room temperature, the clumpy looking rice will easily break up when you add soy sauce.

You can cook rice on a stove top, rice cooker or an instant pot. I generally use a rice cooker.

To cook Jasmine rice in an instant pot, use 1:1 ratio of rice to water and cook on high pressure for 3 minutes. Release pressure after 10 minutes.

For a quick weekday meal, cook rice ahead and store in the refrigerator. Cooked rice can last for 4 days in the fridge when stored properly. Prep lemongrass in bulk and store in the freezer and use whenever required.

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