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Home > Vegan Recipes

Vegan Tofu Fried Rice Recipe

7/2/21 by Nicole | Leave a Comment

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5 from 2 votes. Leave a review!

This vegan tofu fried rice recipe is loaded with vegetables and far better than take-out! It’s truly one of my family’s favorite recipes and I love how easy it is to make for them.

Tofu fried rice is a great vegan alternative to egg fried rice and is perfect to make at the end of the week to use up whatever veggies you have around!

Close up of the top view of a white plate filled with tofu fried rice with carrot, corn, mushrooms, edamame, green onion and black sesame seeds. Light wood chopsticks sit on the right edge of plate.

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Is Fried Rice Vegan?

Many fried rice recipes (or take-out options) are not vegan as they often contain a combination of meat, seafood and/ or eggs. Vegetable fried rice dishes may be vegan, depending on how they’re cooked and if they contain eggs.

Fortunately, it’s quick, easy and delicious to make fried rice at home. This way you can create a customized recipe based on your taste preferences. I love making tofu fried rice because crumbled tofu can be a great replacement for eggs, and it adds plant-based protein.

This is the perfect recipe to use up leftover rice and/ or veggies. I often make it at the end of the week to use leftover ingredients; almost any combination of vegetables will create a delicious and nutritionally balanced meal.

Straight on view of two white plates of vegan fried rice filled with carrot, corn, mushrooms, edamame and tofu with green onion and black sesame seed garnish. Two small wood bowls sit blurred in the back right of image (on with green onion and the other black sesame seeds).

Vegan Tofu Fried Rice Ingredients

The ingredients for this recipe are generally easy to find and extremely versatile based on what you have around and your preferences. They include:

  • Tofu: I use extra-firm tofu that crumbles perfectly and easily replaces the texture (and protein content) of eggs. Pressed firm tofu could also work but avoid soft tofu options because they will not hold up well when you cook it.
  • Sesame oil: This is by far my favorite oil to use; it’s packed with flavor and truly makes a spectacular tasting fried rice.
  • Soy sauce: For delicious flavor and saltiness, this recipe uses a fair amount of one of my favorite ingredients – soy sauce! I use a low sodium option whenever possible. You could also use tamari to keep this recipe gluten free.
  • Mirin: This is not necessarily a common ingredient in fried rice but one I love using for its added flavor. It’s a rice wine that is sweet and delicious, often used in Japanese cooking. If you can’t find mirin, or don’t want to use it, choose a sweet cooking wine (or sherry). For an alcohol-free option, use 2 teaspoon of rice vinegar with 1 teaspoon sugar for each tablespoon of mirin.
  • Rice: Leftover rice that’s completely cooled is best for this recipe. I typically make fried rice when I have leftover rice (or purposely make extra one night earlier in the week). You can also use leftover quinoa (or other cooked grains) in place of rice.
  • Vegetable oil: Fats bring flavor to any recipe and prevent food from sticking to your pan. If you’ve ever cooked at home and wondered why it’s not as good as a restaurant, it’s likely because you haven’t used as much fat, salt and/ or sugar. Don’t skip the oil unless you want a drier, less tasty rice.
  • Garlic powder: While fresh garlic is delicious, I highly recommend garlic powder for fried rice. I find it makes this recipe taste much more like what I get at restaurants that serve Chinese food.  
  • Onion: Fresh onion is a must for me and a vegetable I always have on hand!
  • Carrot, mushrooms, edamame, corn: One of the best parts of this recipe is how versatile it is; you can use any vegetables you have around or whatever you like. This could include broccoli, cauliflower, bell pepper, green peas, green beans, snow peas, cabbage, spinach, kale, bok choy or anything else!
  • Sesame seeds and/ or green onion: These ingredients are optional for a delicious and eye-catching garnish. Black sesame seeds provide a great color contrast!
Top view of an arrangement of ingredients in glass bowls or jars on white-grey marble. From top left, working right then down: Cooked brown rice, raw chopped carrot, sesame oil, frozen shelled edamame, chopped raw mushroom, frozen corn, crumbled tofu, chopped raw white onion, soy sauce, garlic powder, mirin, chopped raw green onion.

How to Make Eggless Fried Rice

This recipe is simple to make and can be quick to toss together, especially if you cook the tofu at the same time as your veggies and rice (in separate pans). Read through the detailed directions below to help you prepare tofu fried rice.

Step 1: Prep Ingredients

Fried rice cooks quickly so it’s best to prepare everything ahead of time.

You’ll need cooked rice, ideally leftover rice that’s chilled. If your rice is freshly cooked, it may become slightly mushy when fried.

Get all your vegetables prepped by washing and chopping into small pieces. Using frozen veggies that are ready-to-go is a great way to save time when prepping fried rice. I’ve used corn and pre-shelled edamame here. Frozen green peas are also a great choice.

As the cooking process goes quickly, it’s also best to get the sauces you’ll need along with garlic powder.

Step 2: Cook Tofu

You can either cook the tofu on its own (before the vegetables and rice), using the same pan for everything, or cook the tofu at the same time as your vegetables in a separate smaller pan.

To cook the tofu, warm some sesame oil over medium heat and toss in crumbled tofu. If desired, you can break the tofu into smaller pieces as you cook.

Hand holding a small jar of sesame oil over a pan filled with raw, crumbled tofu.

Cook for a few minutes, until the tofu starts to brown.

At this point, add soy sauce and mirin. Toss to coat the tofu evenly with these sauces and continue to cook for another few minutes, until the tofu is lightly browned.

Top view of a hand holding a large red spoon and tossing lightly browned crumbled tofu around in a pan. The spoon and nearby tofu pieces are blurred in motion.

Remove your tofu from the pan and set aside.

Step 3: Cook Veggies and Fry Rice

In a large pan, warm some vegetable oil over medium-high heat.

I like to start by cooking the onion for a minute before adding in the carrots and cooking for another minute. These two vegetables take longer to cook, so it’s best to give them a head start (don’t worry, your carrots will still be crisp and not overcooked at the end).

Once the carrot and onion have had some time to soften, add the rest of your veggies and cook for another minute or two, depending on how soft you like them.

Add the rice and sauces (soy sauce, mirin, sesame oil and garlic powder). Toss to coat everything evenly.

Four images showing the steps of preparing vegetable fried rice. Top left: onions being cooked in pan. Top right: Hand holding red spoon and stirring carrots and onions around pan. Bottom left: red spoon sitting on top of cooked vegetables (edamame, onion, carrot, corn, and mushrooms). Bottom right: hand holding small jar of soy sauce over pan with a layer of veggies at the bottom and topped with a large pile of cooked rice.

Add your cooked tofu into the pan and cook everything together for about 2-3 minutes. Keep everything moving around so all the ingredients cook evenly.

Top view of a large pan filled with tofu fried rice (crumbled tofu, rice, corn, carrots, edamame, mushrooms) with a large red spoon tossing the food around in the top-center of image. A bit of a hand is visible holding the spoon which is blurred in motion.

Step 4: Serve

Serve this tofu fried rice hot, topped with sesame seeds and/ or green onion for garnish. Both these garnishes add a delicious flavor to the meal!

Cooked tofu fried rice on a plate, topped with green onion and black sesame seeds with small wood dishes of green onion and black sesame seeds to the back right and a large black pan filled with fried rice partially cropped out to the left of the image.

How to Create a Balanced Vegan Meal

To create a balanced meal, look for a good source of plant-based protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats and lots of veggies.

This vegan tofu fried rice recipe checks off all those boxes. You can easily load up on a variety of colored vegetables. The tofu brings plant-based protein as does the edamame. You’ll get plenty of complex carbohydrates from the brown rice and healthy fats from the vegetable oils, tofu and edamame.

This recipe can be served as a meal on its own or alongside other items.

Top view of two large white plates and one small black bowl all filled with tofu fried rice. Both plates and the bowl are partially cropped from image. Plates both have a set of wood chopsticks on them. White-grey marble background with two small wood bowls, one with green onion and the other black sesame seeds, as decoration in the center-right part of image.

How to Store Leftover Tofu Fried Rice

Leftover vegan tofu fried rice should be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Reheat using a microwave or in a pan over medium heat until the rice and veggies are warmed through.

Straight on view of two white plates of vegan fried rice filled with carrot, corn, mushrooms, edamame and tofu with green onion and black sesame seed garnish. Two small wood bowls sit blurred in the back right of image (on with green onion and the other black sesame seeds).

If you make this recipe, please rate and comment below to help others benefit from your experience!

Square cropped image of a close up of the top view of a white plate filled with tofu fried rice with carrot, corn, mushrooms, edamame, green onion and black sesame seeds. Light wood chopsticks sit on the right edge of plate.

Vegan Tofu Fried Rice (with Vegetables)

This vegan tofu fried rice recipe is packed with veggies and creates a delicious and nutritious dinner that’s a tasty eggless alternative for egg fried rice.
5 from 2 votes. Leave a review!
Prevent screen going dark
Prep Time 20 mins
Cook Time 20 mins
Total Time 40 mins
Servings 4 servings
Calories 613 kcal
Cuisine Chinese-inspired, Vegan

Equipment

  • Cutting board
  • Knife
  • Large frying pan

Ingredients
  

Tofu

  • 350 grams extra firm tofu , crumbled
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce (low sodium)
  • 1 tablespoon mirin

Rice

  • 4 cups cooked rice
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 4 tablespoons soy sauce (low sodium)
  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil
  • 3 tablespoons mirin
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 1 cup onion
  • 1 cup carrot
  • 1 cup mushroom
  • 1 cup edamame (or peas)
  • 1 cup corn
  • green onion (to serve/ garnish)
  • sesame seeds (to serve/ garnish)
Prevent screen going dark

Instructions

Step 1: Prep Ingredients

  • Crumble the tofu in a medium-sized bowl. It doesn’t need to be too finely crumbled; you can break the pieces up further while cooking.
    350 grams extra firm tofu
  • Chop onion, carrot and mushrooms or whichever veggies you use.
    1 cup onion, 1 cup carrot, 1 cup mushroom
  • The corn and edamame I use is frozen and ready-to-go!
    1 cup corn, 1 cup edamame
  • Make sure you have the other ingredients ready because cooking happens quickly (I keep them on the counter with measuring spoons available).

Step 2: Cook Tofu

  • In a large pan, warm sesame oil over medium heat and add your crumbled tofu.
    1 tablespoon sesame oil, 350 grams extra firm tofu
  • Cook for about 5 minutes, until the tofu starts to brown. Then, add soy sauce and mirin.
    1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon mirin
  • Toss to coat the tofu with soy sauce and mirin and continue cooking for up to another 5 minutes.
  • Remove the browned tofu from your pan and set aside.

Step 3: Cook Veggies and Fry Rice

  • Warm vegetable oil in a large pan or wok over medium-high heat.
    2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • Add onion and cook for about 1 minute, until it begins to soften.
    1 cup onion
  • Then, add carrot and cook for another 1-2 minutes (depending on how soft you like your vegetables and how large or small you’ve chopped them; larger pieces take longer to cook).
    1 cup carrot
  • Add mushrooms, edamame and corn and cook for about 1 minute.
    1 cup mushroom, 1 cup edamame, 1 cup corn
  • Add cooked rice to your pan along with the remaining ingredients: soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin and garlic powder.
    4 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons sesame oil, 3 tablespoons mirin, 2 teaspoons garlic powder, 4 cups cooked rice
  • Toss to evenly coat the veggies and rice in sauces.
  • Next, add the tofu you cooked earlier.
    350 grams extra firm tofu
  • Stir fry for another 2 minutes to give the flavors time to work together. Keep everything moving around the pan during this time so it can cook evenly.

Step 4: Serve

  • Remove the pan from heat and serve hot.
  • Optional to garnish with sesame seeds (white or black) and/ or chopped green onion.
    green onion, sesame seeds

Video

Notes

Accuracy of nutrition information cannot be guaranteed (certain ingredients may not have all nutrients listed in the database); amounts may vary (and will vary depending on brands of ingredients used); all nutrition fact values rounded to the nearest whole number.

Nutrition

Serving: 1 Serving (¼ of recipe)Calories: 613 kcalCarbohydrates: 78 gProtein: 23 gFat: 24 gSaturated Fat: 4 gPolyunsaturated Fat: 11 gMonounsaturated Fat: 9 gSodium: 778 mgPotassium: 736 mgFiber: 7 gSugar: 14 gVitamin A: 7217 IUVitamin C: 12 mgCalcium: 388 mgIron: 6 mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

More Vegan Main Meal Recipes

Like this recipe? You should also try:

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    Vegan Orange Chicken Recipe
  • Close up of a large pot of tofu green curry with zucchini, snow peas and potato with cilantro garnish.
    Green Curry with Tofu

About Nicole Stevens

Nicole is a vegan Registered Dietitian (RD) and founder of Lettuce Veg Out.

She helps people thrive on a vegan diet with balanced recipes and easy-to-understand nutrition science.


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Hi, I'm Nicole! As a vegan Registered Dietitian, I empower vegans to live a balanced life and gain confidence in the kitchen.

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