Simple Fried Rice for One

Simple Fried Rice for One is a nutritious and quick to make meal mostly made with food staples—rice and frozen vegetables. It’s easy to customise to suit your taste and mood. Enjoy it in less than 15 minutes!

While living in Singapore, my husband was working long hours. I would often have dinner on my own. Also, fresh ingredients could be quite expensive and eating out significantly cheaper. Thus, I would eat out more often than not.

However, I did get into the routine of cooking up a batch of brown rice so that I could quickly whip up a brown rice salad or a bowl of simple fried rice. It was in Singapore that I developed this recipe for Simple Fried Rice for One.

The recipe comprises mostly of food staples. Thus, making it an excellent fall-back meal when you aren’t sure if you’ll be eating at home or out.

Ingredients for Simple Fried Rice for One

Now, that I live in New Zealand and mostly work from home, I continue to fall back on this recipe, particularly on days I want something warm for lunch, rather than a cold salad.

Customise it to your taste

You can modify the recipe to suit your taste and choose proteins that you like.

I’m vegetarian and don’t particularly like the texture of scrambled eggs, which is traditional in fried rice. In its place, I often add beans or tempeh for added protein.

For this reason, this recipe doesn’t include egg. But, don’t let me stop you adding an egg if you’d like!

Print Recipe

Simple Fried Rice for One

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Keyword: vegetarian, vegan

Servings: 1

Author: Tansy Boggon

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon peanut or sesame oil
• ¼ cup cashews or peanuts optional
• 1 medium carrot, grated or finely diced (alternatively use a frozen carrot, peas and corn combo)
• ½ cup frozen peas and corn
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon chilli powder or chilli flakes
• 1 cup cooked brown rice or microwave cup of brown rice mixture
• 2 tablespoons coconut aminos or reduced salt tamari or soy sauce
• Pinch pepper
• Coriander, chives or green onion, thinly sliced to garnish (optional)

Instructions

• Heat oil in a medium fry pan on medium-high heat.
• Add cashews or peanuts. Stir until lightly brown, keeping a close eye on them to ensure they don’t burn.
• Add the carrot, peas and corn with the turmeric, garlic powder and chilli. Stir through for 2-3 minutes.
• Then add rice and coconut aminos.
• Stir through, until veggies and rice warmed through. If this takes some time, you may need to add a tablespoon, or more, of water to stop the rice sticking to the pan.
• Serve topped with your chosen optional garnish. You could even serve with a little chilli-garlic sauce.

Notes

Rice Options

I chose brown rather than white rice due to the higher fibre content and nutrition. You can cook up a batch of brown rice and have it ready in the fridge for this meal. It is always best to use cooled rice.

Microwave rice cups and bags are a great easy alternative. You can store them in the pantry and throw them into the fried rice without any other preparation. I often use the brown rice and quinoa combination , which is what I used in the dish pictured.

Protein Options

You could add proteins of your choice. Great options in fried rice, include chicken, prawns, tofu, tempeh and eggs.

All these ingredients, except eggs, could be cooked in oil before the cashews or peanuts.

Adding Egg to Your Fried Rice

1. Whisk one egg in a bowl.
2. Push the rice and veggie mixture to the side and pour the beaten egg into the pan.
3. Use a spatula to scramble the eggs. Once cooked, mix the egg with the rice and veggies.

 

Cooking the egg in the same pan minimises on washing up while maximising flavour—sounds like a win-win to me!

Coconut Aminos

Coconut aminos is a soy sauce flavoured seasoning made from the fermented sap of coconut palm flowers. It is signifiantly lower in salt than reduced-salt tamari and soy sauce. And has the advantge of being soy, wheat and gluten-free for those with allergies or intolerances. You can generally find it in the health food section of the supermarket.

Storage

You can store this simple fried rice in the fridge for 3-4 days or freeze it for later.

Note on Veggie Selection

Frozen Vegetables

Fried rice commonly contains corn, peas and carrot, which come conveniently packaged in the frozen food section in the supermarket. They’re a nutritious option, packed fresh. Furthermore, they are handy when eating for one as you don’t have to worry about vegetables wilting or getting mouldy in the fridge should you not use them.

Fresh Vegetables

You could combine other fresh vegetables, such as broccoli, snow peas, capsicum, shredded cabbage or kale.

Do you have any favourite fried rice additions?

Let me know in the comments below so that we can share ideas to customise and vary the recipe.