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Easy One Pot Peanut Sauce Fried Rice with Tofu, Carrots, red bell pepper, Cabbage. Use cooked chickpeas or more veggies to make soy-free. Vegan Gluten-free Recipe.
Its a fridge clean up meal day. Get your veggies, cooked grains, toss them all up in a flavorful peanut sauce, serve! The days we want a flavorful meal but there is small amounts of veggies and things to finish up, we make up variations of this one pot fried rice. Use whichever ingredients you have to make the peanut butter/ almond butter sauce. That looks like a long list, but believe you me, it makes a sauce that packs a punch. Brown the veggies over high heat, add protein of choice and peanut / almond sauce and bring to a boil, add rice or cooked grains, toss, serve with a dash of lemon. You can use leftover peanut sauce as well. Use a 1/4 cup sauce, thin it out with a few Tbsp non dairy milk and toss with veggies and rice over high heat and serve.
We are all sleeping zombies on limited sleep with Chewie going through a really bad cough this week. Thankfully his heart and lungs results came out ok. So its all about cough management so he can rest. The meds make him nauseous, so he has 5 bowls of foods to choose from in both the living and bed room.
More rice and noodle One pot meals
- Thai Basil Fried Rice GF
- Pad thai GF
- Lentils & Veggies in Thai Peanut Sauce GF
- Garlic Vegetable Fried Rice GF
- Tofu Broccoli bok choy and soba noodles with garlic sesame sauce. easily GF
Use any cooked rice or grains of choice. I use half white an half brown on most days. If you make something from the blog, do tag me on Instagram #veganricha. Also, Pin this post!
Peanut Sauce Fried Rice with Tofu, Carrots, Red bell pepper, Cabbage
Ingredients
For the peanut sauce:
- 3 to 4 tbsp smooth peanut butter or almond butter, I usually use almond butter
- 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, coarsely chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 tsp soy sauce, or use coconut aminos to make soy-free
- 1 to 2 tsp lime juice
- zest of ½ a kaffir lime , or regular lime
- 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
- 2 to 3 teaspoons Sriracha sauce or asian chili sauce, to taste
- ¼ tsp or more cayenne
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp or more sugar or other sweetener
- ½ tsp sesame oil
- 1/4 cup or more coconut milk , or other non dairy milk
For the Fried Rice:
- 2 tsp oil
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1/2 cup sliced carrots
- 1/2 red pepper thinly sliced
- 7 oz Tofu pressed and cubed, or use more veggies or cooked chickpeas
- 3/4 cup loosely packed chopped cabbage , or other veggies like broccoli
- 2.5 cups cooked rice or other grains of choice, I usually use half brown and half white rice
- salt to taste
- red pepper flakes or cayenne as needed
- lime or lemon juice to taste
- 1/4 cup loosely packed chopped cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Blend all the ingredients under peanut sauce until smooth. Taste and adjust spice, salt, sweet. Keep aside.
- In a skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions and a pinch of salt. Toss and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the garlic, carrots and bell pepper. Toss well and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the Tofu and cabbage, toss well and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the peanut sauce and mix well. Reduce heat to medium. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the sauce starts to bubble.
- Add in the cooked rice and salt. Mix well. Taste and adjust salt and spice. Add cayenne or red pepper flakes to taste. If the rice feels too dry, sprinkle in some non dairy milk and mix well. Cover and cook for a minute. Let the rice sit covered for another few minutes.
- Add a good dash of lemon or lime juice. Garnish with cilantro and red pepper flakes or cayenne. Serve hot.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is my go-to! I make it several times per month. It’s forgiving of whichever veggies I have on hand and adjusts perfectly to my preference for heavy garlic. Company worthy. A real winner!
perfect 🧄 me too
It was absolutely delish! I used sheimp instead of tofu and it turned well:)
I had some leftovers basically brown basmati rice and peanut sauce. Not having tofu I added edamame to your recipe and voilà! Lunch !!! Delicious. I’d caution ppl not to skip seasoning each component. I didn’t season the stir fry and while still delicious, it was an important component. I’ll be using this recipe again.
Thank you
Yay
This is one of my favorites. I used Sunbutter as well as almond butter. Tonight I only made the peanut sauce (with almond butter) to put on a side dish of millet and brown rice noodles. I used Chinese chili sauce instead with a dash of green Thai chili. A few dashes of sesame seeds, toasted! Yum.
yummy!!
Am I supposed to be using the canned coconut milk? or the thinner coconut milk that’s similar to soy mik?? Thanks for all the awesome recipes!
Canned coconut milk.
Hi Richa, every time I try to make a nut butter based sauce fried rice (twice, including my attempt at making this today) I end up with nut butter paste covered rice- do you know what am I doing wrong? 🙂 I really wanted my rice to look like the photo of yours.
Maybe its the brand of the nut butter?some peanut butter brands are slicker with added oils, so maybe thats what is happening. Maybe try almond butter or cashew butter.
Thanks Richa. I used almond butter because that’s what you said you use but perhaps it was too thick… Is it important to bring the sauce to a boil too?
yes bring it a boil so that it picks up the flavors from garlic ginger, lime etc.
also use less of the nut buttre and add more of the soy ssauce etc. in case the nut butter is too thick, you want more liquidy things. You can also add some water. So the final mixed sauce is thinner and can coat the rice well rather than make a nut buttery film on the rice.
Loved it, but made it without the heat. I included shiitake mushrooms, bok choy leaves and broccoli…. YUMMY, so satisfying.
This was my first time making a peanut sauce and we all loved it, even my kids. I only made a few substitutions. I used 4 tbsp of regular peanut butter and 2 tbsp of crunchy peanut butter for a little texture, no cilantro because my husband hates it, and substituted rice wine vinegar for the lime because I forgot that at the store. Served over the stir- fry vegetable blend mix from Costco and rice. Will be adding to our regular dinner list. Thank you!
Awesome!
I am planning on making this tonight for dinner but forgot a lime at the store. Is it really that important in this dish? I don’t have a lemon for substitution either. 🙁 Thank you!
do you have rice vinegar, use a bit of that for the tang. The lime tang does add a nice flavor to it.
This was delicious! I substituted chickpeas for the tofu.
So glad I stumbled across this old post because this recipe—like 99% of Richa’s—is a keeper. I wonder though if I wanted to double the servings, should I double the ingredients?
yes double everything except heat. you also might need a bit more of the sauce ingredients. Use a large enough pan that allow the rice to move easily. Too much thick rice layer in a smaller pan will result in sticky and overcooked patches of rice.
It turned out great. I replaced onion and garlic with hing/asafatida
God bless you
awesome!