Mushroom Fried Rice

Ingredients

• 200g Swiss brown mushrooms, grated
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 red capsicum, finely diced
• 1 spring onion, finely sliced
• 2 Tbsp sweet chilli sauce
• 2 cups cooked rice — staple
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 2 eggs

Method

1. Heat the sesame oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the diced carrot and capsicum and stir-fry 3 minutes, then add the grated mushrooms and stir-fry a few minutes more until they release their liquid and it cooks off.
2. Add the cooked rice and stir to combine with the mushrooms. Fry a few minutes more, then tip in the peas.
3. Pour over the sweet chilli and soy sauce and stir until everything is coated. Scatter over most of the spring onion.
4. Keep tossing until piping hot, then divide between two bowls.
5. In a separate pan, fry the eggs in a little oil or butter to your liking.
6. Top each bowl with a fried egg and the remaining spring onion.

Notes

- Vegetarian as written (16g protein/serve — the eggs and rice do all of it). - To make it a protein main under the house rule (40-50g protein per serve): add 300g diced chicken thigh, browned in step 1 before the mushrooms. That lands ~44g protein and ~730 cal per serve. Chicken breast is denser — 200g does the same job at ~650 cal. Bump the soy to 3 Tbsp and the sesame oil to 1 1/2 Tbsp if you add meat. - Day-old cold rice fries far better than fresh; fresh rice steams and goes gluggy. - Grating the mushrooms is the trick here — they melt into the rice and read as mince rather than as mushroom chunks. - Source nutrition (640 cal / 40g protein) looks overstated for the ingredient list; the figures above are recalculated from the actual quantities. - Veg/staples sweep: the bag of frozen mixed vegetables was replaced with fresh carrot + capsicum and single-ingredient frozen peas (no pre-packed mixes), lifting it to ~230g veg/serve for about +40 cal / +2g protein. Soy sauce, sesame oil and eggs lost their "staple" markers and gained search hints.