Faux “Fried Rice” – Paleo, Gluten Free, Dairy Free and Vegan
I’ve been craving Chinese food lately but the thought of all that msg and sodium makes me dizzy. It just doesn’t seem fair that the only way to enjoy Chinese food is to throw all nutritional common sense out the window. So I told the hubby I wanted to make healthy Chinese food and his response was “can’t be done”. I love him 🙂
He doesn’t know all of the ingredients i have in my arsenal and I actually took it as a challenge. I started with a ton of veggies and got to chopping.
While the quinoa was cooking, I prepped my veggies. I find chopping vegetables by hand almost meditative but then I’m a little kooky so you can easily use a food processor if you aren’t a little kooky too.
You can pretty much customize the ingredients. Just know that you honestly can’t put too many vegetables. I had carrots, 3 different color bell peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, scallions, zucchini and red cabbage. Basically everything that was in the fridge.
The most time consuming part of this recipe is prepping the veggies. Because after they are chopped you just put them all in one pan with some sesame oil and stir fry on medium high, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes. Add the quinoa, seasoning and your done, So easy.
This is hands down, the best alternative to fat laden, sodium filled fried rice. It’s got so much flavor, is healthy as heck with all the veggies packed in it. It’s paleo, dairy free, vegan and gluten-free. C’mon, that’s friggin awesome! It’s so good in fact that I’m going to freeze a big stash of the veggies pre-diced so I can make this again in a flash. I’m already planning my next batch.
This is definitely going into my meal rotation and bonus, it reheats really really good.
- *** I ALWAYS RECOMMEND USING ORGANICS WHENEVER POSSIBLE ***
- 1 cup uncooked, rinsed quinoa
- 2¼ cup vegetable broth
- 1½ cup finely chopped red cabbage
- 1 cup finely chopped mushrooms
- 1 cup finely chopped carrots
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- ½ cup finely chopped red bell pepper
- ½ cup finely chopped yellow bell pepper
- ½ cup finely chopped orange bell pepper
- ½ cup finely chopped celery
- 5 scallions chopped fine, use both the white and green parts
- 2 small zucchini, finely chopped
- 4 Tablespoon tahini
- 3 Tablespoon coconut aminos (can sub with soy sauce)
- 2 Tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce or your favorite hot sauce
- In a medium saucepan, combine quinoa and vegetable broth, bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, lower to a simmer and cover, stirring occasionally.
- Continue simmering for 15 - 20 minutes, stirring every few minutes to prevent burning.
- While the quinoa is cooking (don't forget to stir it occasionally) you can chop all of your vegetables and put them all in the same big bowl.
- Heat sesame oil and add chopped vegetables on a medium to high heat, stirring constantly for about 10 minutes or until veggies soften.
- Once the quinoa is cooked and vegetables are fried, mix quinoa into the vegetable mixture.
- Continue heating on low, stirring occasionally for 2 - 3 minutes.
- In a small bowl, whisk tahini, hot sauce and coconut aminos. Pour over fried rice mixture and combine thoroughly.
- Serve warm. The leftovers reheat really good too.
