I’m a professional chef, and this is the plant-based meal I make every week

March 03, 2020 at 05:05PM by CWC

Meal fatigue is real. You can only make your favorite recipes so many times before your taste buds are begging you to switch things up. But for one chef, something that never gets old is fried rice. Especially when you make it the healthy way.

With years of experience, it’s safe to say chef Dale Talde has mastered the art of cooking fried rice to perfection. He’s perfected his recipe with exacting detail, from the temperature of the pan to all the creative ingredients that boost the flavor. In an episode of Well+Good’s video series Cook With Us, Talde introduces a new way to make fried rice that’s so healthy you can enjoy it multiple nights a week. Better yet, you can make it in less than 30 minutes.

Talde’s plant-based fried rice is loaded with veggies. Instead of actual grains, this heathy fried rice recipe is packed with a mix of cauliflower and broccoli rice, shiitake mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, kimchi, ginger, and other flavorful cooking staples that make it the ultimate healthy comfort meal. “Anything you can eat in a bowl on your couch with the TV on is a win for me, so this is exactly that meal,” he says. It also comes with creative toppings, like shredded seaweed. “To me, it adds another level of umami—that real nice savoriness you want in dishes that keeps you coming back to it. It makes it feel heartier.”

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While this recipe includes eggs in true fried rice fashion, you can also use a substitute like Just Egg or completely ditch them to make it vegan. (I’ve made it without eggs and still think it’s very tasty.) No matter how you wind up making this dish, it’s sure to become a weeknight favorite.

Vegetarian cauliflower fried rice

Ingredients

Fried “rice”:
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 eggs scrambled
2 cloves of garlic smashed and minced
1 medium onion small diced
2 tablespoons ginger minced
3 Thai chilis, minced
3 cups of cauliflower + broccoli rice mix
4 large shiitake mushrooms small dice
6 pcs Brussels sprouts shaved thin
1/2 cup Kimchi sliced thin
1 nori or seaweed to taste

Sauce:
1/2 cup tamari
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoons sesame oil

1. Create the sauce by combining the tamari, rice vinegar, and sesame oil in a small bowl
2. Crack 2 eggs into a bowl and set aside
3. Add a neutral oil to a hot, cast iron pan
4. Add the scrambled eggs to the pan, remove, and set aside once they’re cooked
5. Add more oil, then add the garlic, onion, ginger, thai chilis, mushrooms, brussels sprouts, and kimchi to the pan to sear
6. After a minute, add the cauliflower + broccoli rice
7. After the vegetables start to sear, add the scrambled egg and the sauce. Mix until combined.
8. Use your third egg to make a sunny side up egg to top your fried rice
9. Plate the rice and add the egg on top
10. Top the whole dish with seaweed flakes to taste, and enjoy!

These easy, gut-friendly, plant-based meatballs come together in just 15 minutes. Then meet ‘meat extenders,’ which can make transitioning to a plant-based diet easier.

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Author Tehrene Firman | Well and Good
Selected by CWC