A good reason to always cook more rice in one go: fried rice.

Healthier habits stick when your environment is somehow prepared. Planning ahead is a useful tool that saves the precious brain space that can be consumed by chaos, including meal planning.

Fried rice can provide a special nutritional benefit.

When rice is cooked and then cooled for at least 10 hours (even if reheated later), it forms a good amount of something called ‘resistant starch’.

Resistant starch is not primarily a source of energy for us like freshly cooked rice. Instead, it feeds beneficial gut bacteria, which in turn produce nutrients that support our health.

So, in a way, fried rice (made from pre-cooled rice) can offer more stable energy and support better gut health compared to freshly cooked rice.

Next time you cook rice, make twice as much and try this recipe.

Ingredients:

Leftover cooked rice (120-150g)
Vegetables of choice, finely chopped (I used carrot, bell pepper, spring onion, chilli and garlic); shiitake mushrooms and green peas work very well here too
Two raw eggs
Additional protein of choice, e.g. small pieces of chicken breast, mince, prawns, bacon, tofu or tempeh)- I used bacon pieces as a fast option
A few splashes of tamari soy sauce
1 flat tea spoon of curry powder (optional but I think it works well)
Oil for cooking: coconut oil or refined olive oil

Instructions:

Heat the pan. When hot, add the oil, all vegetables and protein of choice. Cook for 3 minutes while stirring from time to time.
Add rice and mix well.
Move the rice and veg mix to one side of the pan. Crack the eggs to the second half of the pan and scramble.
When the scramble is firm, add a few splashes of soy sauce and the curry powder, and mix well.

Enjoy as it is or garnish with fresh coriander and chopped peanuts.