I really try to make an effort to bring my lunch to work each day. My office is absolutely freezing, so I tend to gravitate towards warm lunches. Because of this, I am always looking for new pasta and rice recipes that sound like they would reheat well and still taste good. As usual, Cooking Light came to the rescue with the August issue’s Fried Rice with Sweet Soy Saucerecipe. I made all four servings so that I could have a batch for dinner, and get a few lunches out of it.
Ingredients for Fried Rice:
3 tablespoons peanut oil, divided
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 finely chopped shallots
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 serrano chile, seeded and chopped
4 cups cooked rice
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 thinly sliced daikon radish
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 lime wedges
Ingredients for sweet soy sauce:
1/4 cup lower-sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar (The original recipe used dark brown sugar. I didn’t have any. Oh well)
Begin by cooking your rice. You can just cook the rice in water because the soy sauce will add plenty of taste, no need to waste your chicken broth.
While your rice is cooking. prepare your shallots, garlic and chile. I am a wimp about heat and serraro chile can really be hot, so I removed all seeds before chopping. If you like spicy food, keep the seeds in.
Slice your daikon radish. I used a mandoline slicer.
Prepare your herbs.
To make the sweet soy sauce, combine the soy sauce and brown sugar in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat. Simmer for 2 minutes or until the brown sugar is incorporated into the soy sauce. Set aside.
Add 4 eggs to a bowl and lightly beat.
Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to a large saute pan over medium-high heat, swirling to coat the bottom of the pan. Pour eggs into the pan and cook for 2 minutes or until they set. Remove and set aside.
Increase the heat to high and add 2 tablespoons peanut oil to the pan. Add your shallots, garlic and chile and saute for 1 minute.
Add the cooked rice and cook for 3 minutes or until lightly browned.
Add cooked eggs and soy sauce mixture.
Season with salt and pepper and mix to coat. Add to bowls and top with radish and herbs. Serve with a lime wedge.
This meal was really tasty, not only the first time around but also when reheated. The serrano pepper gave a subtle heat to the whole dish which counteracted the sweetness of the soy sauce, great combination! When I packed it for lunch, I kept the rice mixture in one container and a few radish slices,herbs , and a lime wedge in another container. I heated the rice in the microwave and topped them with the radish slices and herbs, then squeezed the lime juice over the whole dish. Perfect!
My sweetie would be thrilled if I could find a use for our serrano peppers. I’ve been too chicken to use them so far. This looks really good.
What a great dish! Love the flavors, looks delicious! 🙂
I love this! It’s amazing how great cooking light recipes are…the radish was really different….I’m glad it made good leftovers!
Lovely fried rice, I like that you have added herbs and radish. I have not tried fried rice with radish before but its a great idea. Thanks for sharing, will try the next time I make fried rice.
I love cooking with Soy sauce. It adds a real zing to a lot of foods when used in the right way. I add that to some of my injection solutions when smoking pork.
This is such a good recipe. I like the idea of topping it with the fresh daikon and herbs. That would have waken up the taste of the rice a lot.
I love warm lunches too, makes them seem a bit more special than that cold sandwich or salad. Fried rice is one of my go to quick dinners and I always make plenty for leftovers.
Although I work in a kitchen I like to have meals like this ready at home because I really enjoy eating when i am relaxing at hoe but am not always up for cooking.
This looks good and simple
beautiful indeed!!!
I just love this recipe and I made it for lunch today… My parents and I loved it (and our canine babies did, too). Its simple and delicious! 🙂
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