Sweet Potato Fried Rice Stir Fry

Get some extra veggie goodness into your stir fries by subbing rice with sweet potatoes. Asian sweet potatoes have white flesh, cook up similarly to rice, and have an earthy richness that goes perfectly with vegetables. Sweet Potato Fried Rice Stir Fry is a vegetarian, super healthy, and delicious weeknight meal! {Vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free}

When I was a younger SoupAddict, I went through a long stretch of some, shall we say, exuberant cooking experimentation. It was a nice stretch and ingredient zig-zag for a long-time cook on the verge of crushing kitchen boredom, and several really tasty and unique dishes came out of it (like this soup, which is crazy good, and just crazy in general, lol).

But now, my high-adventure cooking days are on hiatus. Time runs short amiright? and when I step into the kitchen to play with my food, I let my instincts take over, and cook happily along knowing that the outcome will be on point for my tastes, whether it eventually makes it to the blog or not. 😉

And that’s what happened for today’s recipe for sweet potato fried rice and the simple stir fry it inspired.

I’ve become a huge fan of vegetable noodles and vegetable rices, especially cauliflower rice. Not because I’m Ms. Trendy McTrenderson of Yesteryear, lol, or that I have anything at all against regular rice (love rice, especially brown rice).

It’s simply that I’ll jump on any excuse to get more veggies into my day. I’ve riced and noodled just about every backyard garden vegetable that fits into a ricifier or noodler contraption, and it’s all been fabulous. Butternut squash noodles — yeeuuuum. Turnip rice — hokey smokes, was that ever good.

And now, the Japanese sweet potato, which I think has replaced cauliflower as the queen of my vegetable rice heart. More side-by-side taste testing will be necessary. #itsatoughjob

These purple-skinned tubers have butter-colored flesh, and taste simultaneously richer, earthier, and sweeter than the standard orange-fleshed sweet potato, and provide the perfect counterpoint to crispy, astrigent stir fry vegetables.

For the record, you can absolutely use easy-to-find orange-fleshed sweet potatoes here. But if you’re going for presentation points, too, the Japanese sweet potato more closely resembles white rice on the finished plate.

The sweet potato scores another point over regular rice for a stir fry: when grated into rice-sized bits, it cooks up super quick. Which that means a healthy stir fry meal is completely weeknight doable!

This recipe is totally flexible and adaptable to your family’s tastes: use the vegetables you love, and add tempeh or tofu, if you’d like. Or if you have diehard carnivores in da house, add chicken, beef, shrimp, or bay scallops. It’s all good!

Karen xo

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4.50 from 2 votes

Sweet Potato Fried Rice Stir Fry

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Servings: 4 servings

Author: Karen Gibson

Ingredients

• 2 small sweet potatoes scrubbed and peeled (Asian potatoes are white)
• 2 tablespoon coconut or peanut oil
• 2 scallions chopped
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• your favorite stir fry sauce check for gluten-free compliance as needed
• 1 small red bell pepper chopped
• 1 small broccoli crown or head sliced into small florets
• 1 carrot chopped or shredded
• 2 tablespoons cilantro minced

Instructions

• Grate the sweet potatoes with the shredding disk of a food processor (recommended), or on the large-hole side of a box grater.
• Heat the oil in a wok or large skillet (cast iron works best) over medium-high, until the oil shimmers.
• Add the sweet potato grates and cooking, stirring frequently until the edges begin turning golden brown. Mix in the scallions.
• Pour in the egg and stir constantly until the curds have mixed thoroughly into the potatoes.
• Drizzle stir fry sauce over the potatoes (a scant tablespoon) and mix well.
• Add the vegetables and cook until slightly softened but vividly colored.
• Taste, and add more stir fry sauce as desired (I like another tablespoon or two -- everything thinly coated in sauce, but not dripping).

Nutritional information, if shown, is provided as a courtesy only, and is not to be taken as medical information or advice. The nutritional values of your preparation of this recipe are impacted by several factors, including, but not limited to, the ingredient brands you use, any substitutions or measurement changes you make, and measuring accuracy.

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