Vegan Thai basil fried rice, #1 vegan fried rice
Delicious vegan fried rice loaded with the goodness of vegetables and herbs.
Equipment
- I use standard measuring cups to measure all the ingredients in my recipes.
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup Jasmine rice uncooked, makes about 2 cups of cooked rice.
- ½ pack Tofu about 250 grams
- ¾-1 cup Capsicum/bell peppers
- 1 cup Blanched mung bean sprouts About 2 cups un-blanched
- 1 cup enoki mushrooms
- 1 cup Thai basil or use any other basil, loosely packed
- ½ cup Onions
- 5-6 Garlic cloves
- 1 Thai green chilli optional adjust to suit your taste
- ¼ tsp White pepper
- ½ tsp Black pepper
- 1½ tbsp Soy sauce
- ½ tbsp Dark soy sauce
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1½ tbsp Oil
Instructions
Prepare rice, ideally one day ahead
- Wash rice a few times till water runs clear. Washing until water runs clear removes excess starch from the surface of the rice, thereby making it less sticky.
- Cook the rice. I do it in a rice cooker, any method of your choice can be used. Note: For fried rice, it is best to plan ahead and make your rice well ahead of time. The rice should have cooled down. You can make it a day ahead and keep it refrigerated. This ensures separate grains of rice in fried rice.
- If using jasmine rice, rice to water ratio is 1:1 to make fried rice. This ensures perfect grains of rice in your fried rice.
Prep mung bean sprouts
- If using bean sprouts, wash them well and blanch them in boiling water for 1-2 minutes to get rid of any bad bacteria. You can transfer them into cold water to stop further cooking.
Prep tofu
- Squeeze tofu and break tofu into small pieces.
- Transfer tofu to a clean towel to drain excess water
- In a non stick pan, in a few drops of oil, saute tofu on medium heat until it is slightly browned and excess water is evaporated.
Stir fry on high heat
- Heat a wok or a pan on high heat. Add oil. (I like to add oil with a high smoke point when cooking on high heat)
- Add in the onions, garlic and Thai green chillies. Stir fry for 30 seconds.
- Add bell peppers and any other vegetables that you may be using.
- When bell peppers are half cooked, add the mushrooms.
- Add salt, white and black pepper powders.
- Add the rice and break it up.
- Add bean sprouts, scrambled tofu.
- Add soy sauce and dark soy sauce.
- Mix everything well. You will see that after adding the sauce, the rice grains break up and become separate.
- Check for seasonings and adjust it to your preference.
- Add the Thai basil leaves.
- Mix and stir fry till the sauces are absorbed.
Video
Notes
- Have all the ingredients prepped and ready to go. Fried rice is best done on high heat from start to end. So have all the ingredients ready and close to you.
- If not using Tofu, or if you are using lesser vegetables than mentioned in the recipe, remember to reduce the quantity of soy sauce accordingly.
- Jasmine rice will look sticky after cooking. Worry not, if you have used the right ratio of water to rice, the clumpy looking rice will easily break up when you add soy sauce.
- For fried rice, it is best to plan ahead and make your rice well ahead of time. The rice should have cooled down. You can make it a day ahead and keep it refrigerated. This ensures separate grains of rice in fried rice.
- Please check sections 'Ingredients' and 'Preparation' in the write-up for more information.
- If adding purple cabbage, I like to add it in the end with Thai basil to retain its crunch and colour.
- You can also add Thai basil in the very end, just before turning off the heat.