Broccoli Fried Rice

This fried rice is delicious. The crunchy broccoli slips you your vitamins, while the garlic, chili oil and soy sauce provide a flavour hit. I can remember having great trouble learning to cook fried rice when I was a child. My first experiment turned out like congee, and even once I had learned to cook the rice first, it always stuck to the bottom The trick is simple but requires some planning: you have to cook the rice on the previous day.

Broccoli Fried Rice

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 onion
1 head broccoli
3 cloves garlic
2 dried chilies
3 cups day-old rice
3 tbsp chili oil
1 tbsp sugar
soy sauce or tamari
sweet chili sauce

Method

1. Dice the onion, mince the broccoli and crush the garlic. Crumble or chop the chilies into small pieces. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Fry garlic and chili over medium heat for a few minutes until golden. Add onion and fry until softened. Add broccoli and fry until softened.

2. Add the rice, chili oil and sugar. Mix well, breaking up the clumps of rice. Cook for around five minutes more, stirring well with a spatula to stop the rice from sticking. Add soy sauce to taste and cook for a minute more. Taste and add more chili oil or soy sauce if you like. Serve with sweet chili sauce.

Best Dinner Recipes

I really enjoy trying out recipes from other blogs, so I thought I'd write a best-of. These are the best dinners I've cooked and managed to take a photo of in the last few weeks. First up: Better-than-Tuna salad on The Fig Tree, originally from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. This salad is great on sandwiches, in pitas or on its own. It's also a great way to get your veggies - it's full of celery, capsicum and carrots.

I also recently made this Sambar from Hungry Desi, a food blog full of delicious-looking and mostly vegan recipes. You can put nearly any vegetable you like in your sambar. I used onions this time and it was very good.

And because the recipes on Hungry Desi are just that appealing, I made another one, Kadai Tofu. It was wonderfully spicy and flavourful. I replaced the milk with soy milk. I expect a little coconut milk would also work great.

That's all for this week, hope you enjoyed the recipes! Let me know if you try any of them out.

Delicious Kimchi Recipes: Part 1

So you made some vegan kimchi last week. Now what should you use it for? Well, you could eat it straight, or you could make one of these great recipes. Kimchi-based recipes taste complex, but are usually quick and easy. So if you find yourself wanting to get dinner on the table fast, it helps if you have some kimchi in the fridge.

Firstly, if you haven't had kimchi before, this kimchi fried rice (with the bacon and egg omitted) is a great introduction. It's tasty and comes together very fast if you have leftover rice.

Or, if you're in more of a mac and cheese mood, you could cook up a creamy pan of kimchi mac & shews, by replacing the sauerkraut with kimchi. Add some more chili flakes if you want this to have a kick - the kimchi doesn't make it very spicy. Warning: this recipe, although wonderful, does take some time to make.

If you're feeling the cold and want a bowl of spicy stew, this kimchi jjigae along with some rice might hit the spot. It's my favourite winter meal, and, best of all, it comes together in less than half an hour, since we don't have to cook the meat. You'll end up with more than you see in my picture - this is the pot minus one serving, and I was a bit short on kimchi.

Looking for more Korean recipes?

Jjajangmyun (Korean-Chinese Black Bean Noodles)

Easy Vegan Kimchi (Mak Kimchi)