The Challenge: Making Fried Rice Without Rice
I came across a recipe on Inspiralized for butternut squash “rice” and was quite curious about how to transform butternut squash to look like rice. One word: spiralizer. I purchased a spiralizer a few months ago, and I absolutely love the zucchini and summer squash noodles that I make from it. Ali’s butternut squash rice recipe on Inspiralized showed me this: spiralized butternut squash noodles –> food processor = butternut squash “rice.” I suppose I could have chopped the spiralized noodles by hand, but I didn’t have the patience for that yesterday.
The Verdict: So tasty it was worth making again. I thought it was a great flavorful alternative to regular rice.
Here was my creation:
Butternut Squash Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 1 small butternut squash, peeled
- 1/3 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 medium zucchini, diced
- 2 cups mung bean sprouts
- 1/2 large orange pepper, diced
- 1 large egg
- 2 stalks of green onions, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 TBS low sodium soy sauce
- 1/2 TBS oyster sauce
- 1/2 to 1 tsp five spice powder
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- dash of ground white pepper, optional
Instructions
- Take the butternut squash (stem and bottom removed) and make noodles using a spiralizer. I didn’t bother to seed the squash, so I was careful to remove the seeds when I got to the bottom of the squash on the spiralizer.
- Take the butternut squash noodles and chop them in a food processor until it turns into small bits.
- Over medium high heat, place the olive oil into a large saute pan.
- Once the pan is hot, place the onions in the pan.
- Add garlic and butternut squash once the onions start to become translucent. Stir frequently for about 4 to 5 minutes
- Add the zucchini and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add in the pepper, mung bean sprouts, and green onions and let cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the egg and stir to make sure that the egg is evenly distributed.
- Once the egg is cooked, add soy sauce, oyster sauce, five spice powder, sesame oil, and white pepper in the rice. Stir to mix the spices and turn off the heat. Add more soy sauce to the rice if you need to.
Notes
Add some sesame seeds for more pizzazz.
I didn’t bother to whisk the egg before adding it to the dish. I never do when I am making fried rice.
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