Even the most eager of home cooks come to a point in their week when they get a bit lazy, and because I’m a night eater (ooh that should be my Super Villain name!) my laziness always comes in the form of not entirely having fresh ingredients at the end of the week, and not wanting to rush to the shops to buy last minute ingredients in the final 5 minutes before they close.
Enter this Easy Tom Yum Fried Rice, made entirely out of ingredients that I keep stocked at home! You’ll notice that my frozen prawns and veg is cooked straight from the freezer – no thawing time! And it works, too, because the prawns are small and the veg is bite-sized. If you have larger pieces of meat that are frozen, they may require a little bit of thawing, unless they were cut before freezing, in which case, substitute away!
But the whole point of this recipe is that it’s more of a guideline: feel free to mix and match ingredients that you might keep on hand, and create effortless deliciousness!
- 1 cup of basmati rice
- 1 tsp tumeric* (optional)
- 1 tbsp oil (optional)
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 cup dried green lentils
- 150g dried spaghetti/macaroni
- 1 tbsp oil
- 400g (1 can) chickpeas, drained
- 1 medium onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 800g (2 cans) diced tomato
- 3 tsp baharat*
- 1 cup white vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp cumin
- Hot sauce of your choice
- Fried shallots
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil with salt.
- Rinse the basmati rice briefly, then place carefully into the boiling water.
- If not cooking using the Persian method, then boil till the rice is fully cooked, and strain.
- If cooking using the Persian method, boil till the rice grains are half cooked, with a streak of opaque white still visible in the grain.
- Strain the rice, and in the large pot, heat the oil with a teaspoon of turmeric.
- Add the rice back into the pot, with 2 tablespoons of water.
- Cover with a lid, and cook over low heat for about 30min, or until the rice has finished cooking in the steam.
- Cover the dried lentils in water, and soak for 30 minutes.
- Strain the lentils, and bring a large pot of salted boiling water to the boil.
- Boil the lentils for about 10 minutes, or till they are tender but retain a slight bite to it
- Bring a pot of salted boiling water to the boil.
- If using spaghetti, break it up by placing it in the centre of a clean tea towel.
- Roll the tea towel up long ways, and grasp the two overhanging sides.
- Run the towel wrapped spaghetti on the corner of a kitchen bench till the it breaks into bite sized pieces.
- Boil the pasta for about 10 mins, or until al dente.
- Finely dice the onion and garlic.
- Saute in a wide pan over medium heat with a pinch of salt and baharat spice till softened.
- Add the diced tomatoes and cook till reduced by half.
- If a smoother sauce is preferred, you can blend the tomato sauce in a blender after it's been cooked.
- Roughly chop garlic
- Lightly crush the cumin using a mortar and pestle or the bottom of a clean sauce pan
- Place into a small pot with vinegar and chopped garlic, and bring mixture to a boil.
- Turn the heat off and let cool to room temperature to infuse.
- Layer a large bowl or deep plate with rice, pasta, lentils, chickpeas, tomato sauce, and fried shallots.
- Serve with hot sauce and garlic vinegar.
- *To add more flavour, I cook the rice the Persian way. Traditionally, this recipe just has rice boiled in salted water, but if you'd like, you can take the extra steps for the extra flavour!
- **Baharat is a Middle Eastern mix of spices. This can vary slightly depending on the supplier of the mix, so I just get whatever I like the smell of.