Healthier Hawaii-Style Garlic Fried Rice will be one that you can make any day of the week and not feel guilty about it. There are so many versions of fried rice to count. Each Hawaii household has a slightly different twist to their recipes. It will depend on what meats you typically have in your fridge and what types of leftover vegetables you have. This one is a little bit Chinese, a little Japanese, and lots of garlic!
Fried rice is also very welcome at family gatherings, potlucks, sporting game watching snacks, even at Hawaii dinner parties. Great for last-minute party invitations!
Probably the best thing about fried rice is that it is so versatile! Leftover chicken. Leftover pot roast. Leftover breakfast sausage. Leftover roasted vegetables. Random loose vegetables that you bought with good intentions but never touched all week. Fried rice lets you put all these things into this dish. Just swap out the Spam for your leftover protein and your random fresh vegetables replaces the frozen vegetable mix.
Spam Lite can be part of a healthier diet
Okay, hear me out here. You must understand the deep history Spam has in Hawaii food culture to get why Spam Lite is technically healthy-ish. For those of you who know about World War II, it started here in our islands and the war was rough on local families, to put it nicely. Food was hard to come by and Spam was a shelf-stable way to keep protein in our cabinets. Many Hawaii families grew up with Spam as a tasty and trusted meat source, and their children and grandchildren now love Spam. It’s sold at warehouse stores, grocery stores, convenience stores, you name it. There are Spam-based dishes sold at casual restaurants and it is celebrated every year at the Spam Jam block party in Waikiki.
Spam, and other canned processed meats, is a hard thing to take away from the local Hawaii resident (kama’aina). Because of this, I love Spam Lite. It has half the fat and only ¾ of the salt of regular Spam, making it slightly healthier than Spam – Low Sodium. This healthier Spam allows me to still make Spam musubis for airplane rides or potlucks and the occasional fried rice recipe. Plus, if I serve Spam Lite at home, my family generally craves it less when we’re running around and doesn’t buy spam dishes that are full fat, full salt, and extra oily/salty from sauces or being fried. I’m hoping one day that the warehouse stores will sell Spam light so I can fit it into my budget on a more regular basis!
Health Benefits: Fried Rice?
Fried rice is a great way to get vegetables in the mouths of our local men who typically prefer a plate lunch with mac salad. It’s better to get some vegetables in them than none, so I’m all for the fried rice loco moco over one with just plain rice.
Of course, it is healthier and cheaper to make these things at home. Frozen vegetables are easy to add and taste much fresher compared to canned vegetables. If you have a non-stick pan, you can use less oil when cooking the onions (but keep the sesame oil for that toasty flavor). Some of you out there may not have non-stick because of concerns of the coating leaching into the food; I get it. Use all the oil in this recipe and try not to eat more than one serving in a sitting!
What type of rice do I use for fried rice?
Medium grain rice is going to be your best bet. Long grain rice is used in the American-Chinese style of fried rice, but the Hawaii-style uses the medium grain Japanese rice. It’s the type you would use for sushi, not the sweet mochi rice.
Regardless, you must use cooked rice that has been sitting in the fridge so it is drier. Using freshly cooked rice will result in a mushy fried rice that’s not appetizing.
We love Genji Mai brown rice. It’s brown rice but is processed so when it’s cooked it is soft like white rice and not hard on the outside like typical brown rice. The Genji Mai is also supposed to have added vitamins and minerals. I buy it in bulk at the warehouse store because Hawaii households (including ours) eat rice several times a week. It’s super expensive at Amazon, but the link is there if you want to check it out.
How do I cook fried rice for a potluck?
When cooking for a crowd, you can’t always just “double the recipe”. Things cook differently when you have double the ingredients. Here, tweak the cooking method just a little and you can make fried rice for your office potluck or next celebration.
First, when cooking for others, people aren’t necessarily looking for the “healthy version”. To address this, I use 2 cans of Spam Lite. The rest of the ingredients are doubled. Cook your onions and Spam Lite per the instructions for the single batch. When these are cooked, take out half of the onion and Spam Lite mixture and reserve. Next, cook one batch of fried rice following the remaining steps and transfer to your serving dish. When that is done, put the reserved onion and Spam Lite mixture and cook your second batch of fried rice and you’re done!
Looking for more potluck recipes? Your search is taken care of below:
Healthier Hawaii-Style Garlic Fried Rice
Equipment
- 1 large cutting board
- 1 chef's knife
- 1 10" saute pan or wide 5-quart pot
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
- 1 onion diced
- 6 ounces Spam Lite diced
- 12 ounces frozen mixed vegetables
- 12 garlic cloves diced (about ¼ cup)
- 5 cups cooked rice cold leftover rice preferred
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- ¼ cup green onions chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Heat pan on medium high heat. Once hot, add oil and onions to the pan. Cook the onions for 2 to 3 minutes until they start to turn translucent, about 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add Spam Lite and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add frozen mixed vegetables to the pan and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are no longer frozen. Add garlic and stir to combine, cooking for about 1 minute.
- Dump cold cooked leftover rice, sesame oil, and soy sauce into the pan. Break up the clumps of rice and mix everything until thoroughly combined.
- Garnish with green onions (optional).
