Since I almost always have leftover rice in my fridge, I tend to eat a lot of fried rice. It’s easy, and you can use whatever vegetables or protein you have lying around. Apparently I’ve been making it all wrong though.

Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian was one of my wisest purchases. I use it all the time, and if you’re running low on ingredients I’ll almost guarantee you’d be able to find a delicious way to use whatever few things you have left with this book. I have a surplus of rice right now so I was searching for some easy pilafs or something to make. I ended up reading his recipe for fried rice and thinking that I found it odd that he was cooking all the ingredients separately. I never do that – I just saute everything together.

I was intrigued by this method, and made it for dinner last night (using his Thai style variation), and was impressed at how much better it turned out when you do cook everything seperate. Especially the tofu – it was super crispy. I also added some black salt at the end of cooking to give it the “eggy” taste that I used to love about fried rice in my pregan days. So, apparently, cooking everything separate results in every component of your fried rice being cooked perfectly, and when you combine all the ingredients at the end, it’s delicious.

On the back of the plate is a really sub-par green bean salad I played around with. It was gross, so no recipe.

While I was making the fried rice, I was reminded of how amazing jasmine rice smells when it’s cooked. The slightly-sweet, nutty aroma makes me way too happy. It’s one of my favorite scents. The rest of this post is devoted to a few other things I love.

Brussels sprouts! These were roasted with extra-virgin olive oil, nutritional yeast, and garlic salt. I like to keep some around for smart snacking. They’re good hot or cold.

Potato Pancakes! Crispy fried potatoes dipped in hot sauce and ketchup? Awesome.

Open-faced breakfast sandwiches! This is a slightly new obsession of mine. Whole wheat toast, alfalfa sprouts, and tofu scramble.

 

Have you ever found out you were making a favorite dish wrong?