This is me, jumping enthusiastically on the bandwagon, arms flailing like a rabid octopus* as I ride towards victory. I’ve been doing fried rice at home for a few years now, and I have a recent (and passionate) love affair with kimchi, thanks to my equally recent and passionate love affair with Wagamama — so, like anyone with an Instagram account and even a lick of stir-frying knowledge, I have been forced to make kimchi fried rice.

It’s so good.

The inherent comfort-food nature of fried rice; the sweet spice of kimchi; the salty goodness of soy sauce. What’s not to like? It’s vegetarian! Isla makes happy noises when I plate it up! Plus it takes about 10 minutes to make, so as far as “fakeaway” goes, it’s really not bad.

I served mine with garlic & chilli king prawns, and garlic-roasted cauliflower & broccoli (and yes that’s my new favourite way to eat vegetables). The rice itself would go great with any number of East Asian dishes, but this was a light yet filling way to finish the day.

Isla, predictably, had a fish cake instead of the prawns. Heathen.

Kimchi Fried Rice (Vegetarian, Gluten-free)

Serves 2 as a side
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 5-10 minutes

Equipment

Wok (or a frying pan if you really can’t spring for the specialist stuff); spatula or wooden spoon; I have nothing funny to add but it feels weird to only be listing two pieces of equipment?

Ingredients

• 150g cooked brown rice (I use pre-cooked packet stuff but if cooking from scratch that’s roughly 75g uncooked weight)
• 2 eggs
• 100g kimchi (I use Yutaka, which you can get at Sainsbury’s)
• 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil (or any oil you have)

As always, be careful to ensure your ingredients are gluten-free if you’re feeding someone with an allergy or intolerance; get your soy sauce from the Free From aisle.

Method

Get the wok/pan on a fairly high heat and add the sesame oil. Leave to heat up for a few minutes, and once it’s nice and hot, add your eggs, stirring frequently and thoroughly to ensure they don’t stick to the bottom (this is where a rubber spatula comes in handy). Once this is almost cooked through, add the rice and cook for a couple of minutes before adding the kimchi and both lots of soy sauce and stirring thoroughly to coat. After another 1-2 minutes this will be done – take it off the heat and serve immediately.

Honestly I did eat a fair amount of kimchi from the jar but it’s just too good. I also had some with my lunch today, along with an Actimel this morning, so I’m pretty sure my microbiome is chuffed today.

I’m sorry for all the wine I pour into you, buddy. I’d say I’m going to stop but you saw me by a box of wine this morning so I can’t fool you.

Hattie

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*Can octopuses get rabies?**

**I Googled it and I don’t think they can.