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This colorful beet fried rice is made by stir-frying diced beets with coconut oil, curry paste, and spices, and then crisping them in the pan with cooked rice. Stir-fried vegetables and/or protein can be added to make it a meal!

I thought you’d like a little break from Thanksgiving-y comfort food. But this beet fried rice is still very autumn appropriate! And I definitely won’t stop you from serving it at Thanksgiving if you’re going the non-traditional route :).

Kind of like how I don’t always feel like soaking and blending raw cashews, sometimes I am just not in the mood to spend an hour roasting whole beets. I figured I would see what happened if I cut the beets into tiny cubes and stir-fried them in coconut oil, and it turns out that I LOVE cooking them this way. They get juicy and sweet but still maintain some bite. Combining them with crisped fried rice and a curry and citrus sauce, I think I’m pretty close to beetroot heaven.

I love the vibrant pink color that the beet infuses into this whole fried rice dish. Even better is the flavor! I’m always looking for ways to add a little natural sweetness to my curries and stir-fries so that I can avoid added sugar, and beets absolutely delivered on that here. Beets and oranges are a classic pairing and so I also sweetened the stir-fry sauce with a little bit of freshly-squeezed orange juice.

Also, this rice dish features that turmeric + black pepper combo that I know many of you like to incorporate into your cooking.

This dish works well with both brown or white rice, and you could also try other grains or pseudograins like quinoa or millet for a twist. Cauliflower rice works really well in my Thai vegetable fried rice, but I might not recommend it in my beet fried rice because the cauliflower + beet might be Too Much Earthy. But some people like that I suppose!

I enjoyed my beet fried rice with some vegetables that I stir-fried in a separate wok, as you can see pictured above. Normally when I make this, I cook everything in the same pan. The vegetables were cooked separately this time purely to keep them free of beet blood for the photographs.

I had much difficulty making up my mind whether to title this Beet Fried Rice or Beetroot Fried Rice. Ultimately I went with the American version. But between you and me, I think ‘beetroot’ sounds nicer. Just as I think ‘aubergine’ is a better word than ‘eggplant’. 🙂 Either way, if you try this beet fried rice, let me know in the comments here or by tagging your photos with #yupitsvegan and @yupitsvegan!