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Protein Fried Rice

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Protein Fried Rice: This vegan & gluten free 15 minute meal is full of protein and fresh flavors! It only requires 8 ingredients, and it's a healthy dinner or lunch option! Bet you can't guess the secret ingredient! || fooduzzi.com recipe
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This is one of those times where the word rice should actually be in quotes. Because there ain’t no grain of rice to be found here!

Heck yeah, grain free folk. I’m talking to you.

Protein Fried Rice: This vegan & gluten free 15 minute meal is full of protein and fresh flavors! It only requires 8 ingredients, and it's a healthy dinner or lunch option! Bet you can't guess the secret ingredient! || fooduzzi.com recipe

Protein Fried Rice: This vegan & gluten free 15 minute meal is full of protein and fresh flavors! It only requires 8 ingredients, and it's a healthy dinner or lunch option! Bet you can't guess the secret ingredient! || fooduzzi.com recipe

But before we get to the magical ingredient that transformed normal fried rice to protein fried “rice,” let me tell you just how much Mark loved this stuff.

He got home, and I was just finishing up this photo shoot. He was starving, so he took a couple of bites hanging over the oven.

“Do you like it?” I asked. “This is my Protein Fried Rice!”

He told me he liked it, helped himself to a little more, and we went on with our evening.

Later on, still amazed by this insane recipe, I was [humbly] telling him how impressed I was with myself, having made this recipe without any rice whatsoever.

Well that little truth bomb blew his mind.

“WHAT?! THERE’S NO RICE IN THIS?!”

It was adorable. He freaked out some more. And then we went and finished off the entire recipe.

It’s just SO good, guys.

Protein Fried Rice: This vegan & gluten free 15 minute meal is full of protein and fresh flavors! It only requires 8 ingredients, and it's a healthy dinner or lunch option! Bet you can't guess the secret ingredient! || fooduzzi.com recipe

You miiiight have already guessed the magical secret protein-packed ingredient in this recipe by the photos. But if not…it’s CHICKPEAS!

What?! Yes. And you’re going to love it.

Chickpeas really are one of my favorite sources of vegetarian and vegan protein, but I got the idea of making them into fried rice back when I made these Italian-Style Chickpea Burgers (which, omg yum). I was pulsing some chickpeas in the food processor, and I thought, “Self, this really looks like rice/riced cauliflower. I bet you could make a mean fried rice with this.”

And friends, that’s exactly what I did.

So we have our riced chickpeas, and to it we’ll add some garlic, sautéed carrots, and sautéed peppers. Now, you can use whatever kind of vegetation you so desire here. Corn and peas are traditional I think, but I forgot the corn (whoooops) and Mark hates peas. Mix and match to create your ultimate fried rice.

And the sauce. Ooooh the sauce. It’s a simple mix of soy sauce/gluten free tamari, honey/maple syrup, and dried ginger. Badaboom. That’s really it. It’s got that sweet ‘n’ savory thing going on, which is perfect for fried rice. And the fact that you’ll put a little bit of sweetness in there via the honey/maple syrup helps everything caramelize nicely over the hot veg. Amaze.Ing.

Protein Fried Rice: This vegan & gluten free 15 minute meal is full of protein and fresh flavors! It only requires 8 ingredients, and it's a healthy dinner or lunch option! Bet you can't guess the secret ingredient! || fooduzzi.com recipe

To say we loved this stuff is a complete and total understatement. We like, really loved it. Like, Tom-Cruise-jumping-up-and-down-on-a-couch-on-live-TV loved this stuff.

And the fact that it’s a mere 15 minute meal is like the icing on the cake sesame seeds on the fried rice.

Enjoy, friends!

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Protein Fried Rice

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4.8 from 11 reviews

  • Prep Time: 5 mins
  • Cook Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 15 mins
  • Yield: 3-4 servings

Ingredients

FOR THE SAUCE:

  • 2 Tbsp. gluten free tamari or low sodium soy sauce if not gluten free
  • 1 Tbsp. honey/maple syrup
  • 1/8 tsp. dried ginger

FOR THE RICE:

  • 1 15-oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more for cooking if needed
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced
  • 2 medium carrots, diced
  • 1 bell pepper, diced

TO TOP:

  • 2 radishes, cut into thin strips
  • 3 green onions, roughly chopped
  • black & white sesame seeds, optional

Instructions

  1. Make the sauce: Add soy sauce, honey/maple syrup, and ginger to a small mason jar or bowl, and mix well to combine. Set aside.
  2. Make the rice: Add chickpeas to a food processor and pulse until it looks like rice/riced cauliflower. Don’t over process it or you’ll have mashed chickpeas. Set aside.
  3. Add olive oil to a large sauce pan and heat over medium to medium-high heat. Add garlic and sauté until brown and fragrant. Add carrots and pepper and sauté until caramelized and tender. If the veggies are browning too much, be sure to reduce the heat a bit.
  4. Add riced chickpeas and sauté until warmed through. You can add a bit more olive oil here to help it “fry.”
  5. After a minute or so, add your sauce, and mix to coat completely. Allow to fry and caramelize a bit more, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
  6. Remove from heat and scoop into bowls. Top with radishes, green onion, and sesame seeds.

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Protein Fried Rice: This vegan & gluten free 15 minute meal is full of protein and fresh flavors! It only requires 8 ingredients, and it's a healthy dinner or lunch option! Bet you can't guess the secret ingredient! || fooduzzi.com recipe

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. ah this is so clever! I thought it was gonna be cauliflower which wasn’t very exciting…but you got me! I’m definitely gonna give this a try.

    Reply

  3. Oh my word this is such a great idea! My husband would definitely notice the beans (much to my chagrin he is a bean-hater) but I bet I could sneak them by my kids! And I love beans AND Asian food…so combining the two…brilliant.

    Reply

  5. This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try it. Might do with peas, carrots and broccoli add-in’s (no corn here either.)

    Reply

  9. I made this tonight! It is absolutely delicious and I am so excited. You are very clever and my husband went back for thirds!!! This will now become part of my repertoire. I am so glad I doubled the recipe cause now I will be able to have some for lunch. Very Filling too. Thank you!

    Reply

  10. I made it and it was awesome! My husband loved it even though he doesn’t like food that’s not what it’s supposed to be.
    I made it with beans, carrots and some cabbage

    Reply

  11. Hi there, thanks for the idea! Sorry if this question sounds silly but, are the chickpeas cooked before they are chopped to “rice” form?

    Reply

  12. I made this the other day and it was awesome! Great idea to use the chickpeas and really versatile. We used veggies we had on hand which included what you had plus mushrooms and a little cabbage. It was super filling! Thanks for the wonderful recipe idea. :)

    Reply

  13. I love chickpeas! Thank you for another great way to use them. Your recipes are always easy to make and so yummy.

    Reply

  14. When you say “dried ginger”, is that the same as those caramelized dry ginger pieces? I tried Googling it and got mixed results

    Reply

  15. I almost never comment on the recipes I make from blogs, BUT…this was so good I had to come here and tell you!!! My husband and I ate it all in one sitting and I’m already making it again tonight. Thanks for a great recipe!

    Reply

  16. Genius recipe. We added a generous amount of shredded cabbage to the veggies, and a good tablespoon of chopped fresh ginger with the garlic. Also: less sweetening, and a bit of sesame oil and rice vinegar. Thank you so much.

    Reply

  17. Heard it all now, fried rice with no rice! What a great idea. I have become wary of my favourite brown rice cos of arsenic scares. So rationed and rinsed and soaked crazily. How good to be given an option so thank you.

    Reply

  18. Thanks for a great idea :)

    Tried this with canned soy beans. Didn’t work at all. It all turned to mush when I tried to (gently) chop it in my food processor. Had whole beans still, but more than half was just a smooth paste… Will try with chickpeas next time!

    Reply

  20. That’s a great idea , thank you for sharing hope this would taste the way process looks like
    Something new <3



    Reply

  21. This was so good! I adapted the sauce to my tastes, adding fresh ginger, mirin for sweetness instead of honey, as well as fish sauce and sesame oil. Also subbed out veg for what I had on hand. I also don’t own a food processor so just chopped by hand. But it still turned out so well! Going to add this to my regular meal rotation :)



    Reply

  22. I used this recipe for a food and nutrition assignment towards studying sources of alternative proteins. Stoked on the turnout. Cheers.

    Reply

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