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Thai Fried Rice

This recipe uses leftover rice and some traditional Thai flavors to create a delicious and healthy one-dish meal.

Ingredients

  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 TBSP soy sauce
  • 1 TBSP rice vinegar
  • 1 tsp fish sauce optional
  • 1/2 TBSP brown sugar
  • 1 tsp sirracha or crushed red pepper flakes or more to taste
  • 1 inch piece of ginger finely minced or grated*
  • 4-5 oz extra firm fresh tofu pressed to extract liquid and pan-fried in a little bit of peanut oil**
  • 1 TBSP coconut peanut or canola oil
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup onion finely diced
  • 2 small carrots peeled and finely diced
  • 1/2 small red pepper finely diced
  • 1 small serrano chile minced
  • 6 fresh water chestnuts peeled and diced
  • 1 small mango a small champagne mango works well here, diced
  • 1/3 cup chopped red cabbage
  • 3-4 cups leftover rice***
  • 1 scallion thinly sliced
  • 1 handful cilantro coarsely chopped
  • 10 thai basil leaves torn
  • 1/3 cup dry roasted and salted peanuts chopped

Instructions

  • Combine first 7 ingredients (lime juice through ginger) in a small bowl and set aside.
  • Heat oil on medium high heat in a very large frying pan or wok.
  • Add garlic, onion and carrot and cook for ~3 minutes until onion is starting to soften.
  • Add pepper and chile and cook for another 3 minutes.
  • Add water chestnuts, mango and rice and stir to combine.
  • Cook for a couple of minutes until rice is heated through.
  • Remove rice from heat and stir in lime and soy mixture.
  • Add scallion, cilantro and basil and serve garnished with peanuts.

Notes

* A tip for working with ginger is to peel it and then freeze it in a plastic bag. Whenever you need ginger, just pull it out of the freezer and grate it using a microplane.
**See here for instructions on the best way to prepare tofu.
*** I used a combination of white jasmine and brown rice. Any leftover rice would work well, just make sure that it's refrigerated and cold prior to putting it in the pan. You could even use frozen rice straight from the freezer.