Quick and easy fried rice

I love baking, I can spend hours in the kitchen baking sweet things that in the end of the day I won't really eat as I don't have a sweet tooth. When it comes to savory things, I hate spending more time in the kitchen than necessary. It only hits me from time to time, the mood when I would just experiment and do time demanding recipes. Most of the time though, I would go for some quick yet tasty recipes to enjoy. This fried rice is super fast, easy to make and I am sure that you will enjoy it as you eat it freshly made or if you bring it to work the day after.

Since going vegan, I have been trying to push myself to try new things and to step outside of my comfort zone and try things that I know I dislike. I have to admit it - I am a picky eater. I was picky with the non-vegan food but I am still picky for other stuff that plenty of other people enjoy. Like mushrooms. I just hate mushrooms. At least I used to. In Czech republic, there's a big culture of mushroom picking. People would go for walks to the forests and find mushrooms and then cook them at home. I adored the outside activity, searching for mushrooms and picking them. But when it came to eating them, I would even make scenes when my step mom would make them. And it kinda stayed with me till my adult age. I would just avoid them as if they were the worst thing ever. Now going through so many tasty recipes, I have noticed that the vegan ones seem to include mushrooms quite often. Sure, you can replace or skip pretty much anything in a recipe but I felt like this was the time. So I bought mushrooms and included them in this recipe. And you know what? I LOVED THEM! So... the mission now is to test other recipes and find other ways to enjoy them, I am sure I can grow into liking them.

Never, I repeat NEVER wash your mushrooms. Take a clean dry towel and clean them with it. Mushrooms are tiny little sponges and if you wash them, they will absorb the water and it will become practically impossible to sauté them and make them nice golden and crispy.

You will need:

• 3-4 cups of cooked basmati rice (1 cup of uncooked rice made approximately 3 cups)

• 1/2 small package of mushrooms (go for more, if you really like them), sliced

• 1 whole broccoli

• 2-3 medium sized carrots, grated

• 2 cm ginger, grated

• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped

• 2 tbs curcuma

• 5 tbs tamari sauce

• frech chilli or chilli flakes

• optional - lime juice and peanut crumbs

• vegetable oil

Fried rice is not a rocket science. You need a rather higher heat to brown the vegetables but to keep them nice and crunchy. Make sure that you do your prep before you start because once you do, it will just take a few minutes (10 max) to get this done. Don't wait too long in between the ingredients, just sauté each a bit and then add another one.

Put your pan on medium high to high heat and add the oil. Start with your broccoli - first add the "stalk" chopped to smaller pieces. Follow it by carrots, white parts of your spring onions, mushrooms, garlic, ginger and chilli (small pauses in between each). Once all are nicely sautéed, add the rice, stir well, drizzle in the tamari sauce, add curcuma and finish with the green parts of your spring onions.

Serve drizzled with a bit of lime juice and sprinkle with peanut crumbs.