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
Sweet Potato Fried Rice Stir Fry
Share via TextIngredients
- 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).
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Pinterest fans, feel free to use the images below to pin this recipe to your boards (they’re small here, but thanks to the magic of the interwebs, they’ll be full size when you pin them). Thanks for sharing, and most of all, thank you so much for reading this post! Blogging wouldn’t be any fun without you!
Anna Signorini
Wednesday 7th of March 2018
Where does the rice go? and how much?
SoupAddict
Friday 23rd of March 2018
There's no "rice" in this dish. Rather, the sweet potatoes are grated into rice-sized grains and cooked up in the stir-fry. I think if you read the post before tackling the recipe, it will make sense.
Rocky Mountain Woman
Thursday 12th of January 2017
My local grocery now sells riced and noodelized veggies! While sometimes it's tempting, it's so easy to do at home, that I can USUALLY resist. This recipe looks amazing, as always and I can't wait to try it, as always!
Happy New Year, I can't wait to see what your garden produces this year!
SoupAddict
Friday 13th of January 2017
My local Kroger has a wall of veggie noodles in the produce dept. I'm happy to make my own, but I hope it encourages people to give 'em a try!