This super simple and nutritious quinoa fried rice is loaded with vegetables and bursting with flavor. An easy weeknight dinner that everyone will love.
Veggie Loaded Quinoa Fried Rice
As moms, we're required to wear multiple hats every day. We have to be chefs, nurses, professional drivers, math geniuses, architects, counselors... You name it, we do it. Even when we don't have the slightest idea how to, we just wing it.
One of the most challenging ones though is being the house nutritionist. Even when you've been professionally trained, as much as I hate to admit it...
Getting your family to eat their daily dose of fruits and veggies, isn't always an easy task. Unless, of course, you smother them in butter, cheese sauce, or coat them in a deliciously crispy batter and fry the living nutrients out of them.
I'm gonna let you in on a secret though: you don't have to make healthy food unhealthy, to make it taste good. You can accomplish that by playing around with spices, condiments and homemade sauces. That's one of the main reasons we wrote our vegan cookbook, "Tahini & Turmeric"! To encourage you to dig into your spice a cabinet, and to show you that elevating vegetable-centered dishes doesn't have to be a daunting task.
How to Make Quinoa Fried Rice
For this veggie-loaded quinoa fried rice, we went the Asian route, using ginger, garlic, tamari (gluten-free soy sauce), and coconut aminos. We used quinoa as a base to boost the protein and nutrient content and we piled on the veggies!
The topping options we offer take this already delicious dish over the top. We love adding the filling of our lettuce wraps on top for extra protein, roasted cashews for extra crunch, black sesame seeds for nuttiness, and a nice squeeze of sriracha to spice it up.
You can also use your favorite veggies, and add your favorite protein if you'd like! If you customize this dish for your family, we want to hear about it! We love to know how you guys make our recipes your own. So please share it with us!
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Veggie Loaded Quinoa Fried Rice
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 5 servings 1x
Description
This super simple and nutritious quinoa fried rice is loaded with vegetables and bursting with flavor. An easy weeknight dinner that everyone will love.
Ingredients
- 2 tsp oil (you can use any kind here, we used sesame oil)
- 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 tsp toasted sesame oil, divided
- 24 oz frozen broccoli, thawed (see note)
- 1 large zucchini, diced small
- 1 large yellow squash, diced small
- 8oz baby Bella (cremini mushrooms) or white mushrooms, sliced
- 3.5oz oyster mushrooms, sliced
- 1 cup frozen shelled edamame, thawed
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
- 1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, grated
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ¼ cup tamari (or to taste)
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos
- Optional toppings:
- Tofu (we love using this one for this dish )
- Chopped cashews or salted peanuts
- Sriracha
- White or black sesame seeds
Instructions
- To prepare the quinoa, heat the oil in a medium-size saucepan. Add the quinoa and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes, stirring often, so it's well coated with the oil. Add 1 ⅓ cups of water and the salt. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the water has been absorbed and the quinoa is tender but not mushy. Remove from the heat, let sit, covered for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork. Set aside
- In the meantime, heat 2 teaspoons of the sesame oil in a large nonstick skillet or wok. Add the broccoli and cook over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes (depending on how firm you like it), tossing often. Set aside
- Heat the remaining 2 teaspoons of sesame oil. Add the zucchini, yellow squash and mushrooms and cook over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes (again, depending on how firm you like it).
- Reduce the heat to medium, add the cooked broccoli, edamame, corn, grated ginger, garlic, cooked quinoa, tamari, and coconut aminos and toss well. Cook for another 3 minutes.
Notes
Fresh broccoli can be used in this recipe instead of frozen, but take into consideration that the cooking time will increase
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Entree
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Asian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 cups
- Calories: 308
- Sugar: 9
- Sodium: 300.8
- Fat: 10.1
- Saturated Fat: 1.2
- Unsaturated Fat: 6.8
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 44.7
- Fiber: 9.8
- Protein: 15.8
- Cholesterol: 0
juleezee
Delicious dish, nutritious and better than rice! My omnivore husband gave it two thumbs up and that’s a rarity. It gets four stars only because making the quinoa per the recipe instructions made a huge mess of splatter and oil on the entire range, which then had to be cleaned up. I’d just as soon boil the quinoa the usual way and add 1 tsp of sesame oil to it while fluffing it. In my personal opinion, coconut aminos don’t add anything to the recipe, just add a splash or two extra of tamari. And more garlic while you’re at it, 2 cloves sort of get lost. I’m also going to try it with a bag of frozen mixed peppers for stir fry instead of the broccoli, for color and crunch. You really need a large wok for this, use your heavy 8-qt. stockpot if you don’t have one.