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 (0.25 tsp) or more cayenne
- ¼ tsp (0.25 tsp) salt
- 1 Tbsp or more sugar or other sweetener
- ½ tsp (0.5 tsp) sesame oil
- 1/4 cup (56.5 ml) or more coconut milk or other non dairy milk
For the Fried Rice:
- 2 tsp oil
- 1/2 (0.5 ) red onion thinly sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1/2 cup (64 g) sliced carrots
- 1/2 (0.5 ) red pepper thinly sliced
- 7 oz (198.45 g) Tofu pressed and cubed or use more veggies or cooked chickpeas
- 3/4 cup (52.5 g) loosely packed chopped cabbage or other veggies like broccoli
- 2.5 cups (395 g) 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 (4 g) 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
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!
oh my god just had to pop in and say i loved it! was done in literally 15minutes, which i never thought possible. i’m def going to try this sauce with rice noodles-padthai-style. thank you for the recipe!
awesome!!!
Made this a few days ago and it was delicious!
We’ve made this recipe twice now and it’s definitely going to become a regular in our house. So easy and filled with great flavor. Thanks for sharing it!
I made this recipe to ring in the Lunar New Year with my cooperative living house of 60 people. It was my first time trying my hand at feeding a large number of people, and I was really pleased— everyone raved about the peanut-free peanut sauce! I am thrilled that I spotted your blog on Google, it can be difficult to find recipes that are both vegan and Indian with the right amount of zing. I’m cooking for my house this semester and I’m so excited to produce more of your recipes.
Sending love and thanks from Berkeley,
Vasudha
Okay, seriously. Everything I make from your site tastes so darn good. Thank you!
So you might not love this but I used this recipe in a non-vegan way based on what I had in my fridge. It’s AWESOME. And I promise to try it the vegan way. I don’t eat much meat but dairy is tough for me to cut out. But with recipes like this i can try!
Best,
Jim
hi richa .can i use nomal dairy milk
Thai Sauces use coconut milk. so that would work best.
This blog and I are vegan for ethical reasons. So I cannot recommend using dairy in any of my recipes. India is the largest exporter or beef and veal(baby cow meat) in the World because of the Dairy industry. 2.4 Million Tonnes of beef and veal are exporter each year, almost all of which comes from spent dairy female cows and baby male calfs who are useless for the dairy industry. 38500000 cows are slaughtered every year, that is 105900 per day, 4390 per hour. Animal agriculture is also the largest producer of green house gasses, more than fossil fuels, and uses many times more resources(water, land) of the planet.
The alternate non dairy milks and yogurts taste equally good and are beneficial for people as well as the planet.
The sauce for this recipe was so delicious, Richa, that my family was lucky that there was any left to make dinner. Thank you!
I know. i love that sauce too!
I just made this and we’re still eating it but wanted to let you know it was delicious! I sort of doubled the recipe so we have enough for lunch tomorrow, guess thats why mine turned out to be more wet than dry but still yum!!
yay! awesome!
I used this as a fridge cleanup meal, and it worked so well with all the random stuff I put in it. The sauce is so tasty.
Awesome!
Made this tonight. It was a bit drier than what I was expecting, but was this delicious. I love the smell that lingered afterwards. I was going to make just the sauce and put it on vegetables, then I realized I had all the rest of the ingredients. I will definitely be making this again.
Thats great! You can sprinkle in some more non dairy milk towards the end. It depends on the rice, if it absorbs too much of the sauce moisture or if it is cooked over higher heat (stoves vary), then the sauce dries up as well. Too much sauce makes the rice too sticky. But you can double the sauce for a saucy rice.
How much of the sauce do you put in the pan to start with?
all of it. Drizzle all of the sauce and mix well. its a bit more than 1/3 cup. add some coconut milk if the rice seems dry.
Somehow the sauce ended up being more like more like 3/4 cup for me, but I added about 1/3c, I think. Definitely needed more than 1/4c mylk, because we use freshly ground peanut butter from stores and they tend to be not so dry but thick(?). Thank you for the tip ????
yes it definitely depends on the nut butter. also if you warm the nut butter a bit, it blends more easily. You can add as much sauce to the rice. it will make it more saucy but the sauce is really good, so it doesnt really matter 🙂
That sauce – incredible! We used 3 tbsp. of cashew butter. And did as you suggested with different veg – broccoli, zucchini and spinach with the cilantro when served. And lots more lime over top! Will try snow peas next time. Gotta try the kofta now:) Thanks again!
Awesome!!! Yes, you gotta try the lasooni kofta. Or atleast just that sauce and serve it with veggies!!
Making this on the weekend – looks phenomenal! I made the kofta in garlic fenugreek sauce from your cookbook. Talk about awesome!
Awesome!!
This was delicious. I used a version of the peanut sauce that I had already made but it was very similar and added a bag of precut frozen stir fry vegetables. Delicious. Thanks for the inspiration!
Awesome!!
So sorry to hear about Chewie, thank goodness it doesn’t seem to be anything serious! Hope he’ll get better soon.
And I totally love the sauce! I’m all about leftover managing meals so I’m definitely bookmarking this. Perfect for all the extra veggies that are about to go bad 🙂 Plus as long as there’s peanut butter involved, I’m hooked.
Thanks! Yes indeed I love PB sauce
i hope chewie finds some solid relieve soon. i’m so happy to hear that his lungs and heart are ok <3 also, you know i love this recipe. it looks insanely delicious.
Thanks Caitlin. I hope so too. He has been miserable with the coughing and the meds sedate him way too much. then he keeps making crying sounds because he is too sedated to know what he wants. But thats necessary for him to reduce the inflammation and break the coughing cycle. and now he doesnt want to eat anything, no to all his usual goodies, so I have to figure out how to give him the meds.
For our sick cat, we used pill pockets or nonvegan cream cheese in a tub to coat the pills. Usually worked except sometimes for one pill that must have been vile, he would eat around it and leave the pill.
Thanks Jean. chewie does ok with peanut butter or mashed up rice to use as pill pockets as of now. if he isnt nauseous, then he will eat anything and everything.
Looks great, I really enjoy fridge/pantry clean out meals and this flavor combo sounds perfect. Thanks!
Thanks Christine. This is definitely a favorite clean up combo.