How to make Rainbow Fried Rice easily in a rice cooker!
If you have a rice cooker, you need to make this fun Rainbow Fried Rice right now! This is one of my most favourite lazy-day recipes. For lots of reasons:
- I can use up all of the vegetables before they go bad.
- It’s a one-pot rice cooker recipe. The only extra step I need to take is to make the sauce.
- You have a full meal in 10 minutes – or however long it takes for your rice to cook in the rice cooker.
- It uses the same rice cooking technique.
- There is almost zero active cooking time. You let the rice cooker do all the work.
- It’s incredibly versatile! See below for other sauce options you can try!
I call it fried rice due to the seasoning sauce, but the texture is definitely more moist than your pan or wok-fried fried rice. Additionally, you’re adding a lot of extra moisture from the vegetables as well as the seasoning sauce.
I think it’s still delicious though! Think of this as bimbimbap but with fried rice sauce.
What rice cooker to use for Rainbow Fried Rice?
Any rice cooker you have on hand! You do not need a fancy rice cooker with this, since you are using the standard, regular rice setting.
If there’s anything to take note of, it’s that every rice cooker may have different measurements for rice to water ratio. Follow the instructions for your rice cooker. The general ratio for rice:water is 1:1.
What sort of vegetables to use?
Vegetables that can withstand long periods of heat will work the best for this. This would be the ‘harder’ cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and carrots. Leafy vegetables will wilt too much.
I tend to use whatever vegetables I need to use up in the fridge, but I like using carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and sweet corn! In this recipe I also added cherry tomatoes, but I would prefer to use red capsicums.
Try not to use juicy vegetables as well, that will also tend to make this soggier than it needs to.
The Seasoning Sauce
The seasoning sauce here is one of my go-tos for regular fried rice. I ALWAYS change up my seasoning sauces, according to what I feel like!
Other flavours of seasoning sauce combos you can try include:
Bimbimbap: gochujang + light soy + honey + sesame oil + water
Tonkatsu style: tonkatsu sauce + kewpie mayo + sriracha (optional)
Sweet Savoury: light soy sauce + honey + garlic + black pepper
Hainanese Chicken Rice: minced ginger + minced garlic + sesame oil + light soy sauce
How to Level up your Rainbow Fried Rice?
I kept this recipe fully vegetarian, but you can definitely add proteins to it! My easy proteins of choice to add would be:
- Minced Beef
- Canned Tuna
- Chicken breast slices seasoned with light soy sauce and pepper
- Bacon
- Ham
- Sausages
You get it.
Another thing you can try is to add the egg AFTER the rice is cooked. While it’s still hot and freshly cooked, add the rice and stir it in. The eggs will only semi-cooked, but you get a rich, creamy rice!
More Recipes Like This
If you like this rice cooker recipe, you might love these too:
10 minute Rainbow Fried Rice (easy one-pot rice cooker recipe)
Course: Recipes4
servings10
minutes10
minutesIngredients
2 cups of Rice (I’m using brown rice)
2 cups water (or as indicated on the rice cooker)
1 tbsp onions or shallots, minced
2 tbsps Carrots
2 tbsps Broccoli
2 tbsps Cherry Tomatoes
2 tbsps Sweet Corn
2 tbsps Cauliflower
2 tbsps Protein of Choice (optional)
2 Eggs
- Seasoning Sauce
2 tbsps Light Soy Sauce
2 tbsps Oyster Sauce
2 tbsps Dark Soy Sauce
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Garlic, minced
2 tbsps Sambal Oelek or Sriracha (optional)
Directions
- Wash rice thoroughly until water runs clear. Add to rice cooker pot, and fill with enough water to cook, or as indicated on rice cooker pot. General ratio of rice:water is 1:1.
- Add onions next, and stir through rice.
- Top rice in the rice cooker pot with your rainbow vegetable of choice: carrots, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, corn, cauliflower. Top this with eggs.
- Close lid and turn on rice cooker on regular rice settings!
- Meanwhile, make the seasoning sauce. Simply combine all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
- Once rice cooker beeps, rainbow rice is done! Immediately open the lid, add the sauce, and stir through with the rice paddle to combine everything together while still hot. Done!
Mildred says
Hello!
What is the brand of your rice cooker? I’m thinking about investing in a rice cooker.
Thank you!
admin says
Hi Mildred, I highly recommend getting the Zojirushi or Panasonic brands of rice cookers!
Patty says
Do you precook the meat if adding a protein?
admin says
Hi Patty, it depends on the meat – with beef and seafood, you do not need to precook them as it cooks quick. I would recommend precooking chicken and pork, to be safe. Or quickly stir-frying while the rice cooks, so you can immediately add it to the rice after!
Veronica says
Hi Sha, is it ok to cook the rice together with the seasoning sauce? I reckon the sauce may be more uniformly mixed into the rice and veg that way?
admin says
Hi Veronica! I would not recommend it – to add the seasoning sauce with the rice, you would need to stir the sauce in with rice water until properly combined. However, this would mean your toppings (veggies and eggs) won’t really get much of the sauce unless you want to combine everything in at this stage… which will only get you soggy rice! If you don’t mind that soggy texture (sometimes I like it too!) then go ahead, and let me know how it works out 🙂