Kimchi Fried Rice

I cannot get enough of this:

It’s the best kimchi I’ve ever eaten.  I LOVE kimchi, but it’s hard to find a vegan version since it’s usually/traditionally made with fish paste.  Since I live near Korea Town, my neighbourhood is pretty much an all you can eat kimchi buffet.  The problem- I don’t speak or read Korean at all, so I can never bring myself to indulge since I can’t be confident that I’m buying a fish-free jar.  That is, until I recently discovered the wonderous jar above.  And it’s local!  Gabi, whoever and wherever you are- thank you for realizing that vegans need spicy fermented cabbage too!

God I love this city.

With a jar of Gabi’s in my fridge, I was recently inspired to do something other than plunge my chopsticks in every time I opened the door.  We had two other ingredients that were calling my name- some fresh organic shitake mushrooms from our Food Box and purple rice.  Purple, brown and red- a colour combo dying to be united. So I threw it all together and made some fried rice.  And it was good. Very good. As fried food usually is. Here’s how it went down:

Kimchi Fried Rice (This makes a huge amount)

Ingredients

• 2 C cooked purple rice
• 2-3 C mixed chopped veggies of choice (carrot, peppers, snowpeas, zucchini etc…)
• 1 C green onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 pint fresh shitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
• 3/4 C kimchi
• 2 C spinach
• 2 T tamari
• 1 T sake (or rice wine)
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger root, minced
• 1 T oil (I used coconut oil)

First, chop all your veggies.  Keep the green onion, ginger and garlic separate from the others.  If you don’t already have left-over rice lying around, make sure you fire up the rice cooker at this point.

Um- yes I know that bowl was a little on the snug side.  Don’t judge my bowls.

Look at how cute and adorable the mushrooms were:

Now when everything is chopped, you’ll be tired.  But resist the urge to smother it all in dressing and call it a salad- the end result will be worth all this effort.

Saute the green onion, ginger and garlic in oil until softened.  I kept it steady at a medium heat. Add the remainder of the veggies and tamari, but save the kimchi, rice and sake until later.

Once the veggies have softened, add the kimchi and let the flavours meld for 2 mins or so.  Add the sake at this point to maintain colour and to bring out the flavours.

Finally, add the rice and crank the heat up a few notches.  You want to fry the rice over a higher heat to give this dish a more authentic feel and taste.  Add more tamari if it gets too sticky.  Just before you sense completeness, add the spinach.

When everything looks too good to resist any longer, toss it in a bowl and call it done.

Fried rice is no longer a restaurant-only event. Yum, yum.