I love eating my vegetables but it can be exhausting trying to find ways to incorporate these into our diets.

Chinese Vegetable fried rice and paneer manchurian gravy are one of my favourite ways of getting that veg in.

These two are super tasty and just complement each other so well. They are spicy so eating this on a cold day like today when the thunderstorms are about to strike was perfect!

I was supposed to use white rice to cook the vegetable fried rice, however, I use alot of brown rice and prefer to eat as healthy as possible i.e. less refined foods. As you can see from the pictures, the brown rice turned out quite well too.

The trick to making great vegetable fried rice that most Chinese people swear by (especially uncle roger) is that the rice has to be cooked the day before. I knew I was going to make vegetable fried rice today so I made the rice yesterday. Also, if you have any leftover rice, you can just make vegetable fried rice.

I used paneer for my manchurian gravy as I love paneer but you can switch this with tofu if you are vegan. This entire dish of vegetable fried rice and manchurian gravy is vegan apart from the paneer. So just switch it out with tofu, it will still taste delicious!

This vegetarian friend rice and paneer manchurian gravy was so yummy, I could never get tired of it! Check out the recipe below!

 

Makes 2 – 3 portions

INGREDIENTS:

 

Veg Fried Rice:

 

1.5 cups brown rice

3 and 3/4 cups water

3/4 tsp salt

 

1 large cabbage leaf chopped

1 small red onion chopped

3 spring onions chopped

1/2 green bell pepper chopped

1/2 cup chopped green beans

1 carrot chopped

1 tbsp grated garlic

1/2 tbsp grated ginger

2 tbsp oil

1/2 green chilly chopped

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp white vinegar

1/2 tsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp chopped coriander

Salt to taste

 

Paneer Manchurian

 

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp grated garlic

1/2 tbsp grated ginger

1/2 green chilli chopped

1 tsp red shehzuan sauce

1/2 green bell pepper chopped in large chunks

1/4 red bell pepper chopped in large chunks

1 small red onion chopped in large chunks

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp white vinegar

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tsp ketchup

100g dry roasted paneer or tofu

1 tbsp cornflour

Water as required

1 tbsp chopped coriander stems/leaves

Salt to taste

 

 

METHOD:

 

Step 1:

Prepare the vegetable fried rice

In a pan on a low to medium flame, add the rice, water and salt. Leave to cook for about 35 – 40 minutes until the water has dried up. Do not overcook the rice – you need the rice to be on the harder side.

If you are using white rice, then you’ll need a shorter cooking time of about 20 – 25 minutes.

 

Step 2:

Cook the vegetable fried rice

Add oil to a pan on a high flame.

When hot, add garlic, ginger and green chilli.

Add carrots and green beans. Saute on a high flame.

Add green pepper, red onions and saute.

Add cabbage.

Add soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, black pepper and salt. Mix.

Add spring onions and half of the coriander. Mix.

Switch off flame. Add the spring onion greens and rest of the coriander and serve hot.

 

Step 3:

Cook the Paneer (or tofu) manchurian gravy

Add oil to a pan on a medium flame, saute garlic, ginger, chillies and shezhuan sauce.

Add bell pepper, red onion and paneer (or tofu). Toss.

Add soy sauce, vinegar, black pepper, ketchup. Toss.

Add water.

Mix cornflour in water and add to the gravy manchurian mix above.

Add coriander stems and coriander leaves

Add spring onions and serve hot.

 

Chinese Vegetable Fried Rice and Paneer (or Tofu) Manchurian Gravy – Vegetarian Recipes – Plant-based Recipes

 

This vegetable fried rice and paneer (tofu) manchurian does require alot of vegetables which means that there’s going to be alot of chopping. You’ll spend more time actually cutting up the vegetables the cooking the food.

I find it is always fun to cook this with someone else (so that you can split the chopping duties 😀 )

These two complement each other so well and they make for a yummy filling lunch or dinner idea if you are vegetarian or vegan.