Vegetable Fried Rice

Preparation time :10 minutes     

Cooking time : 10 minutes

Serves 2 

Difficulty :  Easy

Whenever we go the restaurant, most of us order vegetable fried rice because it is a favourite dish for many. The restaurants serve the dish in different styles – some soak the dish in  oil, some serve with few strings of vegetable, some simply sauté the rice with salt and name it as fried rice, charging around Rs.180/- for the salted rice. Also, in restaurants, they will definitely add ajinomoto. There are  many controversial statements on the usage of ajinomoto.  I am not going to discuss on that issue but I can say if we prepare fried rice at home, these problems could be eliminated. Since it is easy to prepare, ideal for lunch box too, we can give it a try following the recipe. But the recipe depends mainly on the ingredients rather than preparation. Having the following ingredients on hand, go ahead with vegetable fried rice.

Ingredients:

• Basmathi rice   - 1 cup
• Garlic (very finely chopped)  - 6 pods
• Capsicum         - ¼ cup
• Carrot  - 1 No.
• Beans   -  3 Nos.
• Cabbage – 2 leaves
• Spring onion  - 2 sprigs
• Tomato sauce – 1 tbsp
• Chilli sauce  - 1 tbsp
• Pepper powder - 1 tbsp
• Sugar   - ¼ tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil  - 2 tbsp.

 Method:

Cook the basmathi rice with 1:2 water and salt. Spread the cooked rice in a flat bowl and drizzle some oil over  it so that it will not stick. Cut the vegetable into thin, long pieces , chop finely  the onion in the spring onion and keep it ready.  In a flat bottomed non stick pan, pour oil and add finely chopped garlic and sauté till you get nice aroma. Add onion, sauté a little, then add all vegetables along with a portion of finely chopped spring onion and sauté vegetables in high flame for 2 minutes. Then add sugar, salt required for vegetables and sauce, sauté well for 1 minute. Then add rice ,  pepper powder and the balance spring onion , gently mix rice with vegetables.  Check for salt and add if required. After all the vegetables get mixed with the rice evenly, switch off the stove. You can serve it with tomato sauce, any raita or veg/non-veg Manchurian.

Note:

As I told, fried rice is ingredient specific, capsicum &  spring onion is a must in this recipe.