Vegetable fried rice is one of those dishes that’s very simple to make and can be personalized in so many ways. But there are some dishes you simply can’t recreate (as you remember from your childhood) and to be quite honest I don’t even try, so in this recipe I’ll show you ‘my’ take on a wonderful rice dish. Growing up one of my favorite places to buy ‘chinee’ food was a spot on Mucarapo Street just past the old “Strand” cinema on the right side or the truck which sold food on the Promenade San Fernando (by the train engine). It still amazes me how the Chinese food in Trinidad and Tobago is so unique with it’s Caribbean taste and flavors. I’m still to come up with a recipe for the fried chicken you’d normally get with a combo, but rest assured I’m busy at work on it.
Our mom makes a deadly chicken and/or shrimp fried rice, but my sister is still the best when it comes to a tasty shrimp fried rice… something we look forward to when there’s a family gathering. In this recipe we’ll avoid meats in general, but with the layers of flavor we’ll build.. you’ll be amazed at how scrumptious this will be.
You’ll Need…
4 cups cooked rice (see note below)
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup diced carrot
2 scallions
1/2 cup diced bell pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 cloves of garlic crushed
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 large onion diced
3/4 teaspoon salt (see note below)
1/2 cup diced celery
Note: I used long grain brown rice as I much prefer this rice and it’s supposed to be a healthy rice to consume. I cooked it without salt and took it off the stove about 5 minutes before it was fully cooked. Additionally I allowed it to cool overnight in the fridge. These two things are the tricks to having a grainy fried rice, which will not clump or go soggy when you put the recipe together. You’ll notice that I used 3/4 teaspoon salt in the rice… since your tolerance for salt will be different than mine, do taste near the end of cooking and adjust accordingly.
Important: If you’re making this fried rice gluten free, do read the labels of the soy sauce and sesame oil to ensure they meet your dietary needs.
The first thing we need to do is to chop and cube all the vegetables we’ll be using in the vegetable fried rice. Try to keep the pieces uniform in size to allow for even cooking and try not to be too big as we need everything to cook fast.
Heat the vegetable oil on a med/high heat is a wide pan (I used my wok) then add the crushed garlic and ginger and give it a good stir. We’re trying to release all those wonderful flavors to use as abase for this vegetarian fried rice. That should cook for a minute or two, then add the diced carrots as this would be the one vegetable which will take long to cook. Give it a good stir and cook for a couple minutes.
Now add the diced onion, green pepper and celery. Allow that to cook for a couple minutes, then add the black pepper, soy sauce, salt and sesame oil. Everything will go dark, but have no fear.. once we add the cooked rice it will balance off.
It’s time to quickly add the frozen peas, give it a stir and start adding the rice. Remember to have chilled your rice in the fridge to achieve a grainy consistency when it’s all done. I absolutely hate fried rice which clumps together.
Keep stirring to make sure all the rice grains get coated evenly with the dark base we made. If you find that the colour is not dark enough for you, you can always add some more soy sauce at this point. I say at this point as we’ve not added the salt yet. Remember that the soy sauce is salty so if you add more.. adjust the amount of salt you add. Now is the time to add the salt, taste and adjust accordingly. All you’re doing here is basically heating through the rice, so within 4-5 minutes it should be done.
Turn off the stove, add the chopped scallions and give it a good final stir. Below you’ll find a video I did to use as an additional guide in making this vegetable fried rice.
There’s enough vegetable fried rice here for about 6-8 people and it goes well with the Shrimp Stir Fry recipe I put together a while back or just as good on it’s own.
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Based on 21 Review(s)
Hi thanks for all you do to keep our Caribbean alive, wishing you a very Happy and Prosperous2023.
Chris, it doesn’t look like you used actual brown rice but it looks more like parboiled rice which most trinis use to make fried rice. Chinese fried rice uses cold white rice.
Hello Chris I hope all is well. I just wanted to thank you for all of the recipes that you share. Do you have one for a Trinidadian vegetable noodle with out the meat.
Great recipe chris. I am picking up great tips from you.
great as usual keep them comming
For those who just can’t live without some heat I added very small chopped scotch bonnet peppers. The trick was the very small cut. Great recipe as always Chris!
Hey Chris,
I saw corn in the picture. What corn did you use for this recipe, frozen or canned? I noticed it is not listed in the ingredients. This is one of my favourite rice dishes that i will like to try on my own.
frozen corn
Hey. I’m just wondering if I can use parboiled rice instead?
Thanks!
Yo Chris! The recipe is the bomb.com! I turned it up a notch and added bean sprouts.
ssuperbbbbbbbbbbbb…………………………………….
Hi
I love looking at your recipies I am located in Quebec ( magog) and your recipies bring me back home , I am doing a meal for 100 person and I want to make vegetable fry rice could you please tell me how much cup of rice I needé
i wish you were to work with me .
thank you
merci!
Tried it! Wicked “googlie” on the tongue. No eyes can forsee the flavor to come. Good down to burn,burn (to the last bite) beautiful recipe.
this is one great recipe…..it came out perfect thanks a mill chris!
I´m Wendy Ann from Trinidad,
I can smell it man, I can smell it! what an aroma!.
love this recipe…Chris! You are definitely making life taste better…..
Also, when you take some time off from wining on those trini gems, hunt down an old style curry mix, the one ' tanti used to make with the masala stone'!!!!!
Respect,
i'm glad you have this here… it looks scrumptious…..i will be doing this for part of my holidays lunch coming up….do have any other kind of chicken recipies that will go great with this?…it will be much appreciated…
Wow Chris looks good when I get some extra money I shall be making this for my fiance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chris we make steam veg rice using shredded carrots, cabbage, onions and green peppers. DO you know know anything about this??Please post
Can't wait to try this one!!!!_
I have bookmar=ked your page doll..will try this out for my hubby's birthday barbeque next week…
Finally tried this recipe and I'm so glad I did! Tastes great. I tweaked it a bit (adding cabbage and spinach to the carrots) but everything came together so well and the ginger added that nice Caribbean flavor I was looking for. Thanks for posting the recipe (and video), Chris!
i really like this dish because sometimes when you go to these chineese cook shop somtimes their is not healthy. thank you caribbean pot for your insperation on cooking. I would love to have one your cook book
fried rice is a very famous cooked dish by me, i sometimes add bodi to it and if i don't feel to be veggie i cut up small pieces of chicken breast and turn it to a chicken fried rice
i need some meat to go with this for sunday lunch… any suggestions?
looks good Chris. Will cetainly be giving this a try soon.
this vegetable rice tasted absolutely great. i added chicken and eggs to mine though.
Simply delicious. i just made it. Thanks for these recipes
I’m going to make this for church in Saturday. Thanks Chris!
hi chris going to try the fried rice recipe i will let you know how it comes out
your recipes are the greatest, I am a trini and is as if my grandmother is still here. your dishes are the real thing
nice recipe…we make it this way also minus the peas and of course we add bandanya to give it the trini flare…goes so good with stew chicken or stew beef on the side …or even some fried chicken…yummmm…love these recipes!!
Chris, have you tried adding an egg scrambled as they do in Chinese takeout? Thanks for the recipe!
thanks Chris, I can't wait to try this.