Vegan Egg Fried Rice - Easy and Authentic! ($5 per recipe)

Here’s my vegan take on my childhood favourite dish: fried rice!

Instead of egg, you can use tofu! And it will turn out just like the fried rice from any Chinese restaurant.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing here is that you use DAY OLD RICE. If you use freshly cooked rice then your fried rice will end up sticky - which, if you like that, go for it. It’s just not what I prefer!

Cost Breakdown

The cost analysis is based off of prices on the Loblaws website, as of January 2023, and are localized to Toronto, Canada. I calculate the cost of the ingredients as if I bought a mix of house brand (in this case: No Name) products, and brand name products. All prices are in Canadian dollars.

Cost for the entire recipe: $5.20

Ingredient Costs

Rose brand Jasmine rice: 0.37/100g
Sesame oil: 2.15/100mL
Soya sauce: 1.01/100mL
Frozen vegetables: 0.5/100g
Ginger: 0.63 per root
Garlic: 0.43 per bulb
Vegetable oil: 0.63/100mL
Medium firm tofu: 2.47 per pack
Black pepper: 2.75/100g
Turmeric: 0.62/100g
Salt: 0.15/100g

Ingredients

For the rice:

• 5 cups cooked, day old white rice (it’s important for it to be a day old!)

• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

• 1/2 tablespoon soya sauce

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 cups frozen vegetables

• 2 cloves garlic

• 2 tablespoons ginger

• 3 tablespoons oil (my partner and I always joke: the more oil, the more authentic!)

For the “egg”:

• 1 pack medium firm tofu

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

• 1/2 tsp turmeric for colour

NOTE: normally you would use Shaoxing rice wine but not everyone has access to that — other than the rice wine, this is a pretty authentic recipe :)

Directions

Prepare the tofu “egg”:

1. Combine the tofu with salt, white pepper.

2. Heat a wok or frying pan until it just begins to smoke, and add 2 tablespoons oil to the wok.

3. Add in the tofu. Scramble it and let it cook until the water evaporates. This could take up to 15 minutes. Then when it’s brown, remove it from heat and set aside.

Fry your rice:

1. Heat the wok to medium heat and add 3 tablespoons of oil, along with the ginger and garlic.

2. Turn the heat onto high, and add your rice. Begin stir-frying immediately. Scrape firmly so the rice doesn’t stick! After a few minutes the rice should start to brown. At this point you can add in the sesame oil and soya sauce.

3. Give it a taste and see if you want to add any more seasonings.

4. Add the tofu egg and mix again until the tofu is incorporated.

5. Add green onion on top.

6. Serve and enjoy!