Healthier Hawaii-Style Garlic Fried Rice
A quick and easy meal is just 20 minutes away. Mix and match whatever meats and veggies you have on hand. A great way to use up those leftovers!
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).
Video
Notes
Tips and Tricks
What other meat can I use in this recipe? I don’t like Spam…
You can use your favorite breakfast sausage, such as link sausage, Portuguese sausage, Vienna sausage. Little smokies would also work well here. Any pre-seasoned meat, including leftovers, will do.
If you plan to swap the meat for eggs (either scrambled or fried), I would add 1 or 2 more tablespoons of soy sauce to compensate for the lack of salt you will have from not using the seasoned meat.
Which vegetables don’t work as well in fried rice?
Honestly, red and orange bell peppers make fried rice surprisingly sweet. This type of sweetness is not typical in Hawaii-style fried rice. If you have bell peppers, green will work. Yellow might be a little sweet, but you can try it and see if it works within your preferences.
Whatever vegetables you do use, be sure to chop them up small if using fresh vegetables. Eating fried rice with huge pieces of veggies aren’t as appealing or appetizing as nice bite-sized vegetables.
I don’t have soy sauce. What do I do?
Oyster sauce is a great option if you don’t have or ran out of soy sauce. We don’t use oyster sauce as often because it has added sugar, but it sure does taste great. Just 2 or 3 tablespoons should do the trick!
Can I use freshly cooked rice?
Using freshly cooked hot rice for fried rice will result in mushiness. If you are really craving fried rice and can’t wait, this might work with long grain or Jasmine rice because it typically doesn’t stick together like medium grain rice.
You might also try freshly cooked brown rice. Cold leftover brown rice is typically not the best for fried rice because it is still a little hard from the bran on the outside. But it’s possible freshly cooked brown rice would soften just a little bit more if cooked again right afterwards while still hot in a pan to make fried rice. If you give it a try, let me know!