Wellness Wednesday with Food What?!: Rainbow Fried Rice
- by bonappetit
We’re inviting some of our trusted nonprofit and Star Chef partners to take over the Bon Appétit blog and share their best tips, recipes, and fun links. This week’s guest curators are from Food What?!, a youth empowerment and food justice organization based in Santa Cruz, CA. (Read more below.)
Farm and Culinary Manager David Antonio Robles with FoodWhat?!-grown vegetables
Eating the rainbow is easy with this simple, seasonally focused recipe for rainbow fried rice for a crowd. Food What?! Farm and Culinary Manager David Antonio Robles will walk you through it on Instagram or YouTube.
Food What?! Rainbow Fried Rice
Serves 10-12
3 cups uncooked rice, preferably brown
10 tablespoons neutral cooking oil of your choice
Vegetable stock or bouillon
4 tablespoons sesame oil
6 eggs
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 medium-sized yellow onion
1 large red beet, diced
1 celery stalk
1/2 bunch kale
1/2 bunch rainbow chard
1 bunch rainbow carrots
1 bunch spring onions or leek
3 cloves garlic
In a large pan, heat 3 tablespoons of the oil until oil moves fluidly along the pan. It should be warm but not at its smoking point. Add rice to your warm, oiled pan and saute, constantly stirring, until all rice is golden brown.
For every cup of rice, add 2 cups of stock (or 2 cups water and 1 tablespoon of bouillon). Bring water, rice, and stock/bouillon mixture to a boil, and then cover and lower heat to a simmer. Keep an eye on the rice, checking periodically to see if all water has evaporated from the pan. Once all water has evaporated from the pan and rice is fully cooked (taste it to be sure), remove from heat.
Preheat oven to 375°. Dice 1 red beet, toss with a little oil, and roast in a dish in the oven until your fork can easily push through the beet. Cover the roasting dish with foil while roasting to preserve the moisture!
Dice up all other veggies, get out a new large pan, and prepare to saute! Begin by sauteing garlic and onions until onions become translucent. Then add carrots, chard, kale, and any other veggies on hand to the pan. Add 1/4 cup of water to veggie mix and cover for 4 minutes if you’d like your carrots to be soft instead of crunchy!
In a large, lightly oiled pan, scramble 6 eggs. Add the rice and eggs to your veggie pan. Then add sesame oil and soy sauce in small increments and season to taste. Customize it to the flavor that you want. Once seasoned and mixed, add the beets that were roasted separately and eat your rainbow!
More About FoodWhat?!
At FoodWhat, youth engage in relationships with land, food and each other in ways that are grounded in love and rooted in justice. We provide meaningful space where youth define and cultivate their empowerment, liberation and well-being.
FoodWhat youth use organic farming, nourishing food and loving community as vehicles to grow on their own terms and in lasting ways. As a FoodWhat Crew, we grow, cook, eat and distribute fresh, healthy food while also addressing local food justice issues.
FoodWhat is a safe space where youth are centered as agents of their own future. Youth use their strength to access opportunities that lead to radical diet change, critical job training, personal growth and more. Many youth share that through FoodWhat, they find healing, inspiration and family.
The struggling, yet resilient youth that power FoodWhat are considered some of the most vulnerable groups in relation to COVID-19. The FoodWhat Youth Resilience Fund is a community effort to direct timely collective resources to FoodWhat youth and their families who have been identified as experiencing an acute need for financial support. Their goal is to distribute $80,000 directly to the 80 families FoodWhat is closely working with this year. Each will receive $1,000 to help stabilize them through the Summer. 100% of these funds will go directly to youth and their families with no admin costs subtracted.
Support FoodWhat’s Youth Resilience Fund >