Name: Vegan Egg Fried Rice
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
Ingredients: 3 cups cooked white rice (see below for rice cooking tips); 1 cup gram flour (also known as chickpea/garbanzo flour); ½ tsp kala namak (also known as black salt); ½ tsp salt; 1 cup water; 2 tbsp olive oil; 1 tbsp sunflower oil; 1 cup frozen peas; 5 spring onions (finely sliced); 1 tsp sesame oil; 2 tbsp soy sauce (use tamari for gluten free); ½ tsp garlic powder (optional)

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Egg fried rice is one of everybody’s favourite foods at a Chinese takeaway – so we had to create this recipe for us vegans to enjoy it too! If you’re looking for super tasty comfort food, a great side dish or quick and easy meal, try our vegan ‘egg’ fried rice.

A blue bowl filled with vegan egg fried rice.

Since becoming vegan, I never thought I’d eat this classic Chinese takeaway dish again. We had some rice leftover, so I thought I’d try making a vegan version and was blown away with how delicious and authentic it tasted!

Ingredient tips

Here’s the key ingredients to our vegan fried rice and some helpful tips:

Gram flour is the magic ingredient that replaces the egg in our vegan egg fried rice. It’s made from ground chickpeas and is an awesome vegan pantry staple to have on hand. It’s also known as garbanzo flour, chickpea flour or besan. It’s a traditional ingredient in Indian cooking, so you can easily buy it at Asian food stores or order it online.
Kala namak is a volcanic rock salt with a sulphurous smell and has a very eggy taste. It’s also known as Indian black salt, although it’s actually more pinkish in colour. You only need a small amount, but it really adds a savoury, umami flavour, and creates that distinctive eggy flavour.
Long grain rice such as jasmine rice works really well. Leftover rice that has been cooked the day before is ideal for frying. If you cook fresh, be sure to spread the rice out and let it steam off the moisture before using, otherwise it will be too sticky.
Sesame oil brings a delicious nutty flavour.
Soy sauce adds a yummy umami touch and moreish taste.
And spring onions/scallions and frozen peas are really quick and easy veggies to add to the dish.

A bowl of cooked rice, a bunch of spring onions, a cup of frozen peas, a bowl of gram flour mixed with water, and two small bowls containing sesame oil and soy sauce.

Step by step

It’s a really simple dish to make, we can do it in under 15 minutes when using leftover rice. Here’s a quick overview of the steps:

Scrambled up gram flour mixture in a frying pan.

Step 1 - In a large frying pan, heat up the sunflower oil on high heat, then add the 'egg' mixture, let it cook for around 30 seconds and then start to scramble it up with a spatula and continue until cooked through.

A wooden spatula stirs the peas into the rice.

Step 2 - Add the cooked rice to the pan and fry for a few minutes, while mixing it in with the scramble. Then clear some space in the pan, add the frozen peas, spring onions and sesame oil. Cook for 30 seconds before stirring in with the rice.

Pouring the soy sauce onto the fried rice.

Step 3 - Mix the garlic powder (if using) with soy sauce, and pour it all over the rice.

Step 4 - Stir everything up one last time to make sure the flavour is evenly distributed.

Substitutions and variations

If you want to add more vegetables at the same time as the peas then choose other veggies that cook quickly, like frozen sweetcorn, pak choi or other leafy greens. You can also just stir fry veggies like diced carrots, peppers or mushrooms separately before cooking the rice and add them in later.

As an alternative to gram flour, you can use silken or soft tofu to make the scramble. Simply leave out the water in the ‘egg’ mixture and use crumbled tofu.

To make this vegan egg fried rice gluten free, you can use gf tamari sauce, or coconut aminos as a soy free alternative.