Fried Rice with Seitan and Eggs

When we run out of ideas for dinner, and we don't feel like going back to the same old recipes, we start going through the cookbooks to look for cool ideas. Yesterday we went through the Asian cookbooks and found some great recipes in this one. 
 
The rice in this recipe comes out savory and sweet and with a hint of a "kick" from the chili. While it was delicious and satisfying on its own, I think next time I'll make it even better by also adding stir fried veggies.  Obviously this is a great recipe to make with leftover rice.

The original recipe used chicken and shrimp, so in the vegetarian version I decided to also use two proteins (seitan and egg). However, if you want to make it vegan, you can just leave the egg out. And if you want to make it gluten free, just replace the seitan with tofu or skip the seitan entirely and just use egg.

Fried Rice with Seitan and Eggs

Ingredients (for 4 portions): 

- 4.5 cups of cooked rice, cold (or if you just cooked it, at least let it cool down a bit) 

- 1-2 tbsp canola oil 

- 1 package (about 200 grams) seitan, cut into small cubes or thin strips (you can replace it with tofu or any protein of your choice) 

- 2 eggs, lightly beaten 

- 1 medium onion 

- 1 chili pepper

- 3 cloves of garlic 

- 1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari 

- sweet soy sauce, made by combining 1 tbsp of soy sauce with 1 tbsp of brown sugar and mixing well until the sugar melts into the sauce. 

Preparation: 

1. In a food processor or mortar and pestle grind the onion, chili and garlic together into a paste. 

2. In a wok or large pan heat the oil, then add the onion-chili-garlic paste. Fry for about a minute, then add the seitan and fry for another 2 minutes. Push the ingredients to the side of the wok, add a little bit more oil if needed (if you are using a non-stick pan you probably won't need more oil), and add the eggs into the space you created in the wok. Scramble the eggs while they are cooking, and when they are scrambled and cooked, stir them back into the seitan and veggie mixture. 

3. Add the cooked rice, the regular soy sauce and the sweetened soy sauce to the wok and stir until the sauce coats the dish and the rice is warmed through (Note - the dish will not be "saucy", the sauce will get absorbed into the rice and flavor it). Serve immediately.