Vegetable fried “rice”, more like bulgur

Just like vegetable fried rice, but with more iron and fiber – use bulgur for this bulgur fried rice – it’s a fast and simple weeknight dinner!

Vegetable Fried Rice + Me = LOVE

Vegetable fried rice has been our favorite since we discovered the only Chinese restaurant in our little home town about 15 years ago. We liked fried rice for two main reasons: it was cheap and it was satisfying.

We would go there with our friends and we would share a big plate of fried rice. 4 people. One dish. 4 plates. Not only all of us had to count our last coins to pay, we also never left any tip. Stayed there for hours. We repeat – 15 years old. Yep, they hated us.

Back then, at the age of 15, when the internet was not full of recipes and we lead a happy social life in front of the TV, watching telenovelas and MTV, we had our first try at making what we hoped to resemble Chinese fried rice.

No luck there. The rice was sticky and bland and nobody would eat it. About 15 tries after we still didn’t manage to make something edible. But we knew that one day, we will.

More than 10 years after, we are in this big city with access to all kinds of foods and to all kinds of cuisines. The last time when we were in a Chinese restaurant to have vegetable fried rice and some dumplings, the people working there were quite unfriendly. We don’t know if it’s the theme of the restaurant and they actually have to greet everyone with the song “F*** you” by Lilly Allen, but they were just incredibly rude.

The waiter didn’t even want to give us a plate for myself, because we were sharing a dish with our friend. Then he threw the menu in our face and he said – In yo face! Can you imagine? What a douche. Okay, he didn’t say “in yo face”. Not in English, or in any other language we would understand at least. Nevertheless, they cook like they’re sent from some kitchen heaven. As happy as we were with the meal, this just isn’t the way you treat someone who’s nice to you and is paying you for a service. So we, dramatically, promised myself we would never get back to the Chinese restaurant, ever again.

Quite like when Scarlett O’Hara held that carrot in the air and promised herself to never be hungry again. Can you picture it? Me with a fork in the Chinese restaurant (cause we can’t use sticks), saying – “we're again never coming back here again”! We know, it’s like you’re there, right? Are you mouthing the words right now?

We had also made a pact with myself on not being hungry a loooong time ago. Mrs. O’Hara, we like your style! No wonder we share the same birthday! We think people in the restaurant were looking and pointing fingers at us.

So we went home with our belly full and head held up high. We were rebelling and whining for weeks against this unfriendliness, unforgivable rudeness and all the physical abuse at the Chinese restaurant. Then we decided we will have to learn to make our own vegetable fried rice. We're not a little scared 15 years old with limited access to food anymore! So we were up for the challenge. China, here we come!

Changing Fried Rice

Of course, we couldn’t leave this dish like that – we mean, that’s it? Vegetable fried rice? As in vegetables with rice? That’s not a reliable it could be. There were a few things we wanted to fix about this dish: 1. rice and 2. fried. There’s not much going for white rice, honestly – not much fiber, not much phytochemicals, we have to also cook it and leave it for a year to chill…What a mess.

So we substituted it with our Bulgur friend. It’s high in iron, fiber, doesn’t even need cooking, it doesn’t stick together and we can even decide to cook it spontaneously, as it’s not needed for it to be chilled overnight or decades. Isn’t that the dream?

Healthier Fried Rice

Bulgur won our heart many years ago, even though it’s not gluten-free and fancy.

And what’s up with stir-frying? There’s not much to do about it – except shorter cooking times and less oil. Plus we added most of the veggies like always at the end of cooking – after heat is turned off to keep all the good nutrients fresh and going.

This is probably not the healthiest Gaical recipe, because of the oil quantities, but it’s still much beautifying, as it uses a lot of different vegetables, which work well in this dish.

High Protein: Thanks to the eggs, bulgur and peas it’s a high protein recipe – complete protein not only from eggs, but also from the combination of peas and bulgur. That’s good news for your skin and for your muscles. What a nice outcome, huh?

Antioxidants: We’ve all heard of them – those little heavenly antioxidants. Guardian angels they are indeed. And Yoda, we are, indeed. Antioxidants protect us from developing all kinds of diseases around the clock.

This vegetable fried bulgur is simply packed with them, as there are so many in every single plant. Yes as shocking as it is, Vitamin C is not the only antioxidant molecule on Earth.

And this meal is almost only plants, so you do the math. Antioxidants protect not only against diseases (also of the skin), but also fight wrinkles and aging.

Now we'll head to the kitchen to try and make some dumplings.