Scrambled Egg Fried Rice
Most fried rice recipes use soy sauce for flavor. This one stacks two fermented soy sources on brown rice, and the reason has less to do with taste than you’d think.
A 1990 study found that fermented soy sauce tripled iron absorption from a rice meal, a 3.3-fold increase. This recipe pairs soy sauce with teriyaki sauce, both fermented from soybeans, over brown rice that carries more iron than white. Add the scrambled egg, nearly a full cup of frozen peas, turmeric sautéed in olive oil, and you have 773 kcal and 18g of fiber in 15 minutes.
Ingredients
- brown rice 3 ounces
- vegetable bouillon 0.5 cube
- garlic 1 clove
- ginger 1 slice
- carrot 1
- scallion 1
- egg 1
- olive oil 1.5 tablespoon
- garden peas (frozen) 0.75 cup
- ground cumin 0.5 teaspoon
- turmeric 0.5 teaspoon
- soy sauce 1 tablespoon
- teriyaki sauce 1 tablespoon
Method
-
Cook the rice along with half a bouillon cube until it's tender according to the instructions on the packaging.
-
Finely chop the garlic clove and grate the slice of ginger. Cut the carrot into small cubes and the scallion into rings.
-
Whisk the egg in a small bowl with a fork.
-
Heat half of the oil in a frying pan. Add the egg to the pan and stir every five seconds with a spatula to make scrambled egg. Turn off the heat as soon as the egg starts to set. Let it sit for a moment.
-
Heat the remaining half of the oil in a wok. Sauté the garlic and ginger in it for about a minute. Add the carrot and garden peas and sauté them for 4 minutes. Add the cumin, turmeric, soy sauce and teriyaki sauce to the wok. Heat this for a minute.
-
Stir the cooked rice and scallion into the wok and sauté for about 2 minutes. Mix in the scrambled egg. Season the entire dish with salt and pepper to taste. Serve the fried rice on a plate.
When you add the turmeric to the wok in Step 5, it hits oil that’s already been coating the vegetables. A 2019 study found that 2.5 grams of fat boosted curcumin absorption 44 times over (Nasef et al.). The olive oil already in the wok dissolves the curcumin on contact.
The fermented soy and rice in this recipe is the exact pairing researchers tested in 1990. Baynes and colleagues found that fermentation creates compounds that grab onto iron and keep it in a form your body can absorb. Brown rice contains more of this plant-based iron than white, and this recipe pairs it with not one but two fermented soy sources.
Baynes et al. 1990 — Am J Clin Nutr · DOIWhy This Works
Behind this recipe
Why does this recipe use both soy sauce and teriyaki sauce?
Both are fermented from soybeans, which is more than a flavor overlap. A 1990 study found that fermented soy sauce tripled iron absorption from rice (Baynes et al.). Teriyaki sauce adds a second fermented soy source to the same meal. The flavor gets richer and the iron from the brown rice becomes 3.3 times more available.
Can I use white rice instead of brown?
You can, and the recipe will still work. But brown rice carries more non-heme iron than white, which makes the fermented soy pairing more relevant nutritionally. Brown rice also brings most of the 18g of fiber to this meal, which disappears with white.
Read the full evidence reviewDoes half a teaspoon of turmeric actually do anything?
It is a small amount, but it lands in a good spot. A 2019 study found that turmeric paired with fat increased curcumin absorption 44 times over compared to turmeric without fat (Nasef et al.). In this recipe, the turmeric goes into a wok with olive oil already in it. The amount is modest, but close to none of it gets wasted.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I skip the egg?
You can, but the egg does more than add protein. A 2015 study found that egg yolk lipids increased carotenoid absorption from vegetables by 3 to 8.4 times (Kim et al.). The carrots and peas in this recipe are both carotenoid sources. Mixing the scrambled egg in at the end helps your body capture more of what those vegetables offer.
