Quick and Easy Sesame Fried Rice

Fried rice is a popular dish at Chinese and Thai restaurants, but many cuisines have their own delicious version, such as the Hispanic, Spanish, and Japanese equivalents of this tasty and easy-to-make dish. Our take on a vegan and vegetarian-friendly fried rice uses aromatic sesame oil to perfume and flavor brown rice. A few tasty vegetables and optional peas complement the rice and make a wholesome and nutritious meal that you can use as a side dish or as the base of a main meal. (Adding baked tofu or fried tempeh to keep it vegan is an excellent choice, as is cracking a few eggs in it for a vegetarian main.) Besides rice and sesame oil, the dish includes onions, cabbage, carrots, and soy sauce. This is a quick meal to prepare and makes delicious leftovers. For our recipe, we chose brown rice because of its texture and earthy flavor, but whatever you have at hand will work.

Sesame oil comes from sesame seeds and is a nutty oil commonly used in many cuisines for its rich flavor. There are two varieties of this type of oil, toasted and cold-pressed. Toasted oil comes from seeds that have been subjected to heat and has a bolder flavor. It's also darker in color and is usually used to season food before serving rather than to cook the food in. Cold-pressed is the oil obtained from raw seeds. It has a very mild taste and is commonly used for cooking, though it smokes at 350 F so it's not suitable for frying. For our rice, we recommend toasted sesame oil because it will add the intended flavor—because you're not using a lot of it you need something that's really flavorful.

When choosing your brown rice, read the manufacturer's cooking instructions as not all rices require the same amount of water. The ratio ranges from 1:2 (double the water than the amount of rice) to 1 3/4 of a cup of water per cup of rice, or less liquid if the brown rice is parboiled. This dish can be adjusted to your dietary needs and preferences. Use tamari if in need of a gluten-free substitute for soy sauce, add more veggies for volume and nutrition, or swap our suggested veggies for others like broccoli, cauliflower, kale, peppers, bean sprouts, or mushrooms. If you happen to have leftover rice, you can make this recipe by stir-frying the rice in the sesame oil and then proceeding with the recipe as instructed in the method.