Peanut butter fried rice

What is that one recipe that makes you smile when you are revamping the leftover rice?

For me, it is this peanut butter fried rice. It is

• Quick
• Flavoursome
• Trendy
• Lunchbox efficient
• Vegan
• Mealprep friendly
• Paired with steamed veggies or a salad it makes the perfect meals under 15 minutes.

This recipe idea started when the dishwasher refus3d to tackle the stubborn lumps of  peanut butter in the jars. While on one side making fried rice and trying to tackle a peanutbutter jar, on the other I happened to pour the ingredients for the fried rice sauce into the jar and shake the hell out of it! It was under the desperate attempt to dislodge the peanut butter stuck in the jar (the one that my dishwasher scorns at, jezz). The resultant fried rice was super delicious and from then we have peanut butter fried rice.

Ingredients for peanut butter rice

The peanut butter fried rice is a gluten free, vegan preparation that comes together in under 10 minutes if you have your grains precooked. It is not super spicy, however you are totally in control of this factor.

Grains: Though I love to call it peanut butter rice, what I actually use is rice along with quinoa or millets. This is just a personal choice. You can just use cooked rice, quinoa, buckwheat, barley, millets or broken wheat to make this recipe. Each turn out slightly different in the chewiness based on the type of grain used. If using rice, try medium or shortgrain rice.
The key factor to keep in consideration is to precook your grain. This gives it ample time to absorb the liquid. The resultant grain is not soggy and easy to stirfry. Ideally cook the rice and leave it overnight in your fridge. Fluff it and use for stirfry. As a variation you can use noodles too.

Sauce:  this is probably the easiest sticky sauce you would have made. You need smooth peanut butter, Chinese style chilli oil with the crushed chilli mixed in, dark soy sauce, vinegar, palmsugar and crushed garlic.

Oil: for the optimal fragrance use sesame oil, preferably the roasted sesame oil. The oil is strong in fragrance . however you can use peanut oil too to make a batch.

Herbs: Since I make the recipe without any vegetables added, for this recipe, I prefer shallots. Firstly fry some shallot green stalk with the oil to give it additional flavour. Then add the rice to it so that it absorbs the flavours as it is being tossed. You can choose, coriander parsley or lemon grass to sit with this recipe.

Let’s make peanut butter rice

Cooking the grains: For making this recipe I have chosen a half and half mix of rice and quinoa. This is washes a couple of times to remove the saponins from quinoa and then cooked. I have used instant pot under rice mode with 1:2 water ratio. I make this combo overnight so as to get the grains separated for stirfry.

Saute the shallots: the first step of the recipe is to saute the  shallots. the sesame oil is already fragrant but the shallots add a additional layer of flavour to it to coat the rice. Wash and slice the shallots into 1 once pieces. I prefer to use the green parts for this step and save the white part for garnishes.

Make the sauce: while the sha0llots saute mix up the sauce. Into a bowl add the crushed garlic, soy, a bit of palm sugar, peanut butter and the crushed chilli oil. Mix this thick paste well. Add some warm water to help you mix this better, but don’t make it runny. A table spoon or two of water will help you mix everything smoothly.

Stirfy the rice:add the rice to the frying shallots and mix a couple of times to coat the rice with the oil. Now add the sauce, reduce the heat and toss well.. once the rice is well coated with the sauce, bring up the heat and stirfry for a quick 3 to 4 minutes. The recipe is now ready to be served 

What pairs well with this rice?

Any style of roasted vegetables or stir fried vegetables are wonderful with this recipe. For a full meal, we love having a  small portion of soup to start with. Here are some ideas, click on the links to see each one.

Hot and sour soup
Barley water soup
Lotus root and tofu soup
Stirfried lettuce
Spicy and sweet broccolini
Restaurant style gailan

Mealprep and storage

The recipe is one of our favourites when we have a heavy week. It stays well for 3 to 4 days in the fridge. At times, I prep the rice separate  and the sauce in the peanut butter jar. This means it is a fresh batch of fried rice for dinner in under 10 minutes.
I have not tried freezing this recipe, if you do let me know the results.

Can I add vegetables to this fried rice?

Basic vegetables like carrots, peas, beans, Chinese broccoli, mushrooms, spinach  all taste well with this fried rice. Saute the vegetables initially and the add the rice and sauce to get the perfect crispness to the vegetables.

Stay connected

Hope this peanut butter fried rice becomes your new favorite too. When you  make this recipe share with us how you experience was trying out our recipe. Leave us a comment with the five star rating. Do share this recipe with friends, colleagues or family.

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