Veggie Fried Rice with Tropical Tahini

veggie fried rice with tropical tahini sauce

What do you get when you cross a food processor with a word processor? Go ahead, I’ll give you some time to think about this one. What could possibly come out of this odd mixture?….minced words! LOL. Hopefully that cheesy humor perked up your day as much as it did mine.

Similar to that cheesy joke, this Veggie Fried Rice with Tropical Tahini will perk up your taste buds. Why? Because the taste profile is different than any other fried recipe you’ve tried before. Typically, the recipes include a handful of chopped veggies, soy sauce, oil, a sweetener (like syrup or japanese mirin sauce), garlic, ginger, and other similar Asian inspired ingredients.

This recipe, however, falls outside of the norm. Typically, when a nut based sauce is used for fried rice, its peanut based. While nothing is wrong that (because I love me some peanut butter), I felt it was time to innovate and introduce an underutilized ingredient in all of cooking, tahini sauce.

Tahini originated in the Middle-eastern region and comes from ground up sesame seeds. On its own, the taste is very bitter, but when mixed with the right ingredients, the flavor morphs into a delicious, smooth and creamy sauce.

Since my craving for champagne mangoes has been top of mind recently, I found a way to infuse that into this recipe as natural source of sugar. The blood orange integration came from my intrigue during smoothie testing awhile back.

When you slice a blood orange open, you understand how it got its name. The innards look like blood! Thankfully, the flavor is far from how it looks, which is little sourer than traditional oranges. Making it an ideal addition into tahini sauce.

As for the fried rice, preparing it at home is 10x better than ordering take out. Restaurants usually drown their noodle and rice dishes in oil.

The reason for that is because oil is a cheaper ingredient to enhance the flavor versus using exotic spices, additional veggies, fresh herbs. That subsequently drives the price down, making it ideal for fast food. This recipe however, uses a minimal amount of oil and you get a better flavor than takeout.

One important takeaway for this recipe is to freeze your rice (or letting it cool) before you fry it. This allows the grains to firm up so you don’t end up with soggy fried rice. It will make eating much more pleasurable, because after all, we should enjoy the food that goes into our bellies!

If you forget to freeze the rice overnight ahead of time, then after your rice is done cooking, pour it onto a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spread out the rice as evenly as you can (if some of it is layered, that is fine) and put into the fridge or freezer for a minimum of 10 minutes.

If you did freeze the rice overnight, you will need to reheat it before frying. Add the rice into a microwaveable-safe dish and wrap with plastic wrap, leaving one side open to vent. Heat for 1-2 minutes on high. Carefully pull back plastic wrap and fluff with a fork. This should help break up the frozen grains without making it soggy.

To save yourself time for future rice-based meals, plan ahead by cooking a batch or two of rice on Sunday. Then, you’ll always have cooked rice ready to go!

This Veggie Fried Rice with Tropical Tahini should take no longer than 30 minutes if you’re rice is pre-cooked. You can expect a sweet, nutty taste from the sauce.

Top with some sliced almonds, green onions, or purple cabbage and a pinch of salt/pepper. Alternatively, you could make this same recipe with Mango Teriyaki Sauce as well. Happy cooking!

veggie fried rice with tropical tahini sauce

Prep Time

Total Time

15 minutes

25 minutes

Prep Time:

15 minutes

Total Time:

25 minutes

Servings:

2 Cuisine:

vegan

entree

Diet:

gluten free

Author:

plant based scotty

ingredients :

tropical tahini :

1 champagne (yellow) mango, sliced and contents spooned out

1/2 blood orange, juiced (can sub for regular orange)

2 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari if gluten-free)

2 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp tahini

1 tsp olive oil

Two-finger pinch of sea salt

veggie fried rice :

1/2 large sweet onion, finely diced (can sub with white onion)

1 yellow bell pepper, finely diced (can sub with green or red bell pepper)

1 large carrot, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced (sub for 1.5 tsp garlic powder)

2 tsp fresh ginger, grated or minced (sub for 1 tsp ginger powder)

1 cup broccoli florets

1 cup shelled edamame (cooked if frozen)

2 cups brown rice (pre-cooked and frozen overnight)*

Sea salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp coconut oil

serve with (optional) :

chopped purple cabbage

chopped green onions

chopped cilantro

sesame seeds

notes :

*Freezing the rice helps firm up the grains for better frying and eating. If you do freeze, pour cooked rice onto a rimmed baking sheet in a single layer. Freeze overnight. Then before cooking, put rice in a microwave safe-dish, cover with plastic wrap and vent slightly. Heat for 2 minutes, then fluff with fork before frying.

directions :

See notes below for heating frozen rice.
Heat a large pan over medium-high heat. While your pan is heating, combine all tahini ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.
Once large pan is hot, add 1 tsp of coconut oil. Immediately add onion, a three finger pinch of salt, and sauté for 1-2 minutes or until onion begins to brown (stir frequently to prevent sticking).
Heat a separate, small saucepan over medium-low heat. One hot, pour in sauce and heat for 4-8 minutes, stirring frequently (your sauce should be thick and bubbly).
To the large pan, add bean sprouts, garlic, ginger. Continue sautéing for 1 minute.
Then, in the same, add broccoli, bell pepper, carrots, edamame, and tbsp of tropical tahini sauce.
Finally, add brown rice and the remaining tahini sauce. Stir thoroughly and cooked for 2 minutes or until heated thoroughly.