Ground Pork Fried Rice with Veggies

Pork & Veggie Stir-Fried Rice is one of those clean out the fridge recipes. The type of recipe that can be filled with substitutions based on what is in your fridge or freezer. However, if you make my recipe for Ground Pork Fried Rice with Veggies and you substitute out the majority of the ingredients and don’t like the outcome, don’t blame me! All I am saying is, be creative, use your cooking intuition and have fun with it! If you DO NOT want to be creative and would prefer to follow a recipe… then you’re in the right place. Keep reading for all of the details on how to make a delicious stir-fry!

When I make a stir-fried rice recipe, I like to go heavy on the veggies, moderate on the meat and light on the rice. I feel this gives me a well portioned meal with adequate amounts of protein and fiber. The ground pork adds extra fat that helps to increase satiety.

What is stir-frying?

Stir-frying is an Asian cooking method that generally uses a wok. A wok is a large, round bottomed cooking pot made of out carbon steel, stainless steel or cast iron. If you do not have a wok, a large frying pan that can withstand high cooking temperatures will work. I use my Lodge Cast Iron Frying Pan.

Stir-fried food is usually bite-sized food cooked in high heat, using a small amount of oil, and constantly turned over (stirred- hence the name) in the pan. It is recommended that you have all of your ingredients chopped, measured and ready to go at time of cooking. Once food is added to the hot pan, everything cooks quickly and requires constant attention.

Stir-frying tips:

• Cook your meat and vegetables separately. They require different cooking times so they should not be cooked together at the same time.
• Cook your rice ahead of time and allow it to completely chill in the refrigerator. It is best to do this the day/night before you plan on using it. If you forget to cook your rice a day in advance then you can give it a quick chill in the freezer. After it is cooked, spread it out on a sheet pan and put it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. You want to use chilled rice because it will crisp up when it hits the hot frying pan. Warm, freshly cooked rice will not not crisp up. Instead, it will get soggy and clump together.
• Do not cook your aromatics in high heat. Aromatics are your fresh ginger, garlic and green onions. They will burn and lose all of their delicious flavor. You can either cook them at the very beginning using low heat and then remove them from the pan or add them at the very end making sure you don’t expose them to a long period of direct, high heat.
• Use high-heat cooking oil like peanut, canola, grape seed or avocado oil.
• Do not cook your stir-fry in sesame oil! Sesame oil is a low heat cooking oil and should only be used as a finishing oil at the end of cooking.
• Use a large high heat cooking pan like a wok or a cast iron pan.
• Don’t start cooking until all of your ingredients are chopped and measured out! Stir-fries are cooked quickly using high heat so you do not have time to stop cooking (stirring) and measure or chop your ingredients after you start.

Recipe ingredients:

• Ground pork
• White rice
• Onion
• Frozen peas
• Carrots
• Snow peas
• Green onions
• Fresh ginger
• Fresh garlic
• Soy sauce
• Sriracha hot sauce
• Garlic powder
• Sesame oil
• Cashews
• High heat cooking oil like canola, grape seed, avocado or peanut oil

Equipment needed:

• Large frying pan or a wok – I need to emphasize the fact that you have to have a large cooking vessel for this recipe! I use my large Lodge Cast Iron frying pan and I have JUST enough room.

How to make Ground Pork Fried Rice & Veggies:

Step 1:

Cook your white rice in advance. Ideally, you should cook the white rice the night before and let it chill in the fridge until you are ready to add it to the ground pork fried rice recipe. Cooked ahead, chilled rice will crisp up when it hits the hot frying pan. Warm, freshly cooked rice will not not crisp up. Instead, it will get soggy and clump together. Chop all of your vegetables so that they are ready to add to the frying pan.

Step 2:

Cook your ground pork. The ground pork could be cooked in advance just like the white rice is. Start by heating a high heat oil in your large frying pan or wok. A good high heat oil choice would be canola, grape seed, peanut or avocado oil. Once the ground pork has just about cooked through, season the pork with soy sauce, hot sauce and garlic powder. Continue cooking the meat until it is fully cooked. Remove the ground pork from the pan and set aside.

Step 3:

Cook the veggies in the same pan that you cooked the ground pork in. Add more oil to the pan. After the oil has heated up, add the chopped onions, carrots, frozen peas and snow peas. Stir-fry on medium-high heat until the vegetables are tender, crisp and bright. Add in the fresh ginger, fresh garlic and green onions. Stir fry all veggies for a few more minutes, turning the vegetables constantly so that they do not burn. Season the vegetables with soy sauce and hot sauce.

Step 4:

Now it’s time to stir-fry the rice. If your pan is large enough, push the vegetables to the side and add in your rice. If the pan is not large enough, then remove the vegetables from the pan before adding the rice. Stir fry the rice until brown and crisp – about 5 minutes. Add the vegetables and ground pork back into the pan and toss all ingredients together to combine.

Step 5:

In a small frying pan, lightly toast your chopped, raw cashews in sesame oil using low heat. Sprinkle with salt. The cashews will toast quickly so keep an eye on the pan! Remove the cashews from the pan and sprinkle them on top of your stir-fried rice, veggies and ground pork.

Step 6:

Transfer your stir-fry to bowls, top with toasted cashews and garnish with any extra sliced green onion. Add more soy sauce if you would like. Enjoy!

Make sure to check out some of my other quick and easy dinner recipes!

• Pesto Turkey Meatballs with Ricotta
• Healthy Turkey Burgers with Spinach
• Pretzel Crusted Chicken Breast with Warm Blue Cheese

Print