Umami flavor and seasonal veggies shine in my Thai Vegetable Fried Rice. The secret to perfectly tender fried rice is cooking and chilling the rice ahead. When ready to cook, prep the veggies and seasonings for a quick to pull together dinner! Top with texture rich sesame seeds, toasted cashews and green onions, for the best homemade vegetarian fried rice!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reader Review: “This turned out so good. I loved the mushrooms, pepper, garlic and ginger and broccoli. I will definitely be making this again.” ~ Judith
Recipe Inspiration
Thai cuisine quickly became a personal favorite as I adopted a vegetarian way of eating. I found it to be incredibly delicious and easily veggie packed. Inspired recipes made their way into our regular dinner rotation like these now reader favorites, Thai Peanut Noodle Salad and Vegan Thai Lentil Lettuce Wraps. What I love about Thai food is it’s fresh, umami packed and it’s easily plant focused.
I’ve been a fan of fried rice for as long as I can remember. Before making it at home, I wasn’t quite sure what the ingredients created the salty, spicy and umami filled flavors I crave. And, I always assumed vegetable fried rice was vegetarian or, omit the egg to make it vegan.
Not so.
This was in part, motivation to learn how to recreate those flavors and a homemade packed with veggies vegetarian fried rice.
About the Key Ingredients
- White Jasmine Rice – naturally fragrant and lightly sweet in flavor, it makes up the bulk of this recipe.
- Mushrooms – choose fresh crimini or shiitake (pictured here). Either are delicious!
- Tamari – a gluten-free salty, umami-packed condiment. You can substitute soy sauce if not needed.
- Liquid Aminos – a umami flavor builder, I use it as a sub for fish sauce in vegetarian cooking. You can use more Tamari or coconut aminos as a sub.
- Fresh Garlic and Ginger – both add spice and flavor. Use a microplane to get the ginger and garlic extra fine. This carries their flavors further throughout the curry. As a bonus, there’s no need to peel the ginger before microplaning.
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How to Make Vegetarian Fried Rice
Secrets of Vegetarian Fried Rice
In my search of how to make vegetarian fried rice at home, I found fish and/or oyster sauce to be a key ingredient. So, I started exploring substitutes for fish sauce and found it in liquid aminos. While it’s very close in flavor to Tamari and soy sauce, it has a certain edge to it, over-the-top umami (without MSG), enough so that I include in my Asian cooking when fish or oyster sauce is called for. It has a long shelf life, so I don’t have to worry about using it quickly.
I also learned that making vegetarian fried rice with day old rice is key to attain that light, fluffy, lifted and separated effect we all know and love when it comes to fried rice.
Thai fried rice comes together fast, so having all your veggies prepped (and rice chilled) before turning the stove on is key to pulling this recipe together quick.
Traci’s Tips
- Using day old rice for vegetarian fried rice is essential for a fabulous texture and creates a lifted and separated effect – this is what we all want, right? (ahem). And it creates an overall fluffiness that’s hard to resist. Besides, once the rice is done, prepping the veggies and cooking this recipe is a snap – hello weeknight dinner!
- Now is not the time to skimp on oil. This is fried rice after-all. I choose toasted sesame oil because it has a high smoke point and it adds an overall nutty sesame flavor.
- Variations: There are many ways to change-up this recipe using veggies on hand or those that are in season. I love adding a cup of shredded cabbage in place of broccoli or carrots in place of peas… bean sprouts, snow peas… you get the idea.
- Thai Vegetable Fried Rice with Cashews is vegetarian and vegan friendly; a fried egg or prepared tofu is a delicious addition to this recipe.
Thai Vegetable Fried Rice with Cashews
Ingredients
- 1 cup (145 grams) Cashews, whole, raw
- 5 tablespoons (55 grams) Toasted Sesame Oil
- 1 1/2 cups (150 grams) Yellow or Purple Onion, large dice – about 1 medium onion
- 1 cup (60 grams) Shiitake or Crimini Mushrooms, sliced or large dice, stems removed
- 1 cup (140 grams) Red Bell Pepper, large dice – about 1 medium pepper
- 1 tablespoon Fresh Garlic, microplaned
- 1 tablespoon Fresh Ginger, microplaned
- 2 teaspoon Red Chili Pepper Flakes, this is spicy(ish) around spicy 3!
- 4 tablespoons Tamari, divided, plus more for serving
- 2 tablespoons Liquid Aminos* (see note), or more Tamari
- 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
- 4 cups (475 grams) Jasmine Rice ** (see note), cooked, and chilled (day old works best here – see note)*
- 4 cups (300 grams) Broccoli Florets, cut to bite size
- 1 cup (105 grams) Sweet Peas, frozen
- 1/2 Lime
- 2 tablespoons Thai Basil, chopped, or to taste
Serve With (optional):
- lime wedges, green onions, sesame seeds, Sriracha, chopped thai basil and/or cilantro
- Fried Egg or Prepared Tofu, on the top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Place the cashews in a baking pan and bake for about 12-14 minutes until fragrant and golden. Set aside to cool.
- In a large Dutch oven, add the sesame oil and heat until shimmering. To test to see if the oil is hot enough, toss in a piece of onion. If it starts frying, it’s ready! Add the onions and saute for two minutes on medium. To the onions, add the mushrooms and stir fry for two minutes. Add the bell peppers to the onions and mushrooms and stir fry for two more minutes. Add the garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes to the vegetable mixture and saute for one minute on medium-low. Add two Tbs Tamari, Liquid Aminos (or more Tamari) and sugar, stir. To the Dutch oven, spoon in the rice and stir fry for about four to five minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan where needed, until all the rice is coated with the oil and the veggies are evenly distributed. If the rice begins to stick, add a few tablespoons of water to deglaze.
- To the rice mixture, add the broccoli and sweet peas. Stir until vegetable are evenly distributed. Cook on low heat stirring occasionally for 5-8 minutes until broccoli is tender crisp (or until desired tenderness). Taste the rice for seasoning adjustment, adding two more tablespoons of Tamari (or more) if desired. This will also help deglaze the Dutch oven. Squeeze in 1/2 lime juice and stir in the cashews and fresh basil or cilantro. Add more herbs to taste.
- Spoon the rice into big bowls, sprinkle or serve with green onions, sesame seeds, more herbs and lime wedges. If serving with tofu or fried eggs, add to the bowls now. For those that love even more spicy, serve with Sriracha.
- Store in a lidded container for up to three days in the refrigerator.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
Made it? Leave a comment below!
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This recipe is really good. The amounts and times are spot on. I did use oyster sauce instead of tamari, and cauliflower instead of broccoli. In my opinion it is an outstanding recipe. And…. I love the oven treatment of the cashews!
Thank you for your note, Jaap, and sharing your subs! SO glad you enjoyed the recipe!
This recipe has a nice ingredient combo. I recommend high oleic peanut oil instead of the toasted sesame oil. Peanut oil allows you to stir fry at a higher temperature.
I didn’t have Tamari sauce, so I used Soy sauce, and a teaspoon of White miso. Everything else just as in the recipe. Was really tasty!
Ah, miso… that sounds amazing! Thank you for coming back and sharing your review, Liala!
This was amazing. Did everything as described, but I only used 1 tsp of the crushed red pepper. However, I did put the sriracha sauce on the table for my husband! So flavorful & satisfying. Will definitely make this again.
Hi Peggy! Thank you for your note, giving the recipe a go and star rating! Super happy to receive your note :D