Deconstructed, Fried "Rice" Bell Peppers
It seems like the trend of “deconstructing” food is all the rage. So I decided to give it a go with one of my favorite meals on my (vegetarian) meal plan - deconstructed, fried “rice” bell peppers!
To start, instead of rice, I used cauliflower. And because I thought that I bought large bell peppers, but of course I didn’t, I used the mini bell peppers - because that’s what I actually bought at the store. Thankfully for this recipe, everything will essentially be sliced, diced and sautéed anyway. So we’re set!
Also, I added some high protein tofu, and I’ll show you how I cooked that as well. So now, let’s get right to it!
Here’s what you’ll need for the bell peppers and “rice”:
6-8 mini, tricolor bell peppers.
Frozen (or fresh) diced cauliflower - although if you’d like to use brown or jasmine rice, go for it!
1/2 cup diced onion
2-3 tbsp Braggs Liquid Aminos (low sodium substitute for soy sauce)
1 tbsp Chinese 5 spice
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup pistachios
Instructions:
Bring your skillet to medium or slightly high heat and add your olive oil. Combine the sliced bell peppers, diced cauliflower, onions and pistachios in the skillet and sauté for 7 minutes. A good gauge for sautéing your mix is doing so until the onions are almost transparent.
Add Chinese 5 spice and liquid aminos, and sauté for 7 minutes more.
Lower your skillet’s heat to a simmer.
Ingredients:
1 block Trader Joe’s High Protein, Organic tofu.
1 cup Island Soyaki sauce
Tabasco (optional and to taste)
1 tsp olive oil
The first step to prepare your tofu is “pressing” it - or simply making sure that most of the moisture has been removed. Typically, I only press tofu for about 25 minutes.
Once the tofu is finished pressing, marinate it in Trader Joe’s Island Soyaki and Tabasco sauce (if you’d like) for 2 hours . . . So make sure you plan that part out with time, and you’re not cooking this when you’re hungry. Ive been there before, and it’s a sad place to be.
Once the tofu is fully marinated, bring a smaller skillet to medium heat, add in your olive oil and cook your tofu until it reaches a golden or caramel color on all sides. I generally like to cook my tofu to a certain firmness, too - the texture just seems better for consumption that way (it took me a while to warm up to tofu, tbh).
If you have any leftover marinade, drizzle a bit over your tofu while cooking - it only increases the flavor 🙌🏾.
Now that your tofu is cooked, add it into your other skillet - that hopefully is on low heat, simmering still, or else you’d be experiencing the scent of burning cauliflower - of your fried “rice” mix.
If you still have a touch of marinade left, stir it into your final mix and let the flavors mingle like they’re assumably successful at a speed dating soirée!
Serve your deconstructed, fried “rice”, stuffed bell peppers in your favorite bowl - this is my forever favorite bowl by local artist, Sarah Brubaker - and enjoy! Have seconds, thirds, fourths even if you cooked enough! (This only yields two servings, so in my Ari Lennox intro voice, RELAX!)
Let me know what you think! 🍲
