If the bright green color of this scallion rice wasn’t enough to catch your interest, can I just say—this is our new go-to side dish for just about ANYTHING. Chinese, non-Chinese you name it, it’s just plain delicious. Serve it with grilled fish, chicken, beef, alongside stir fries… It just GOES.
Not to mention that the beautiful green color from the scallions makes it feel a little extra special for a weeknight or for entertaining.
Making Scallions Special Again
Around here, scallions are de rigueur. We always have a few bunches in the refrigerator. Dare I say, sometimes we can forget their awe-inspiring power to uplift a dish.
From the white parts to the green parts—julienning to mincing to dicing to chopping—the way that you prep a scallion can radically change the results you get, and open up the potential of this humble ingredient in truly stellar ways.
In this scallion rice recipe, you set aside the white parts (we’ll come back to those), and puree the bright green parts in a food processor until you have a paste. It gets stirred into cooked rice so that it can absorb that perfect verdant color and hold onto it even after a trip through the wok!
The white parts are minced in the same said food processor, sauteed in oil to infuse it with flavor, and then everything gets stir fried together.
Adding Protein to Make This More of a Fried Rice
We love the elegance of just the scallion rice alone, and it makes it more versatile as a side dish.
That said, you’ll notice that the technique we use here is a lot like making fried rice! If you’re looking to make this more substantial, you can certainly stir-fry some scrambled eggs into this to make more like a fried rice. (Add the eggs along with the garlic.)
You can also integrate this scallion rice technique into some of our other fried rice recipes, such as our chicken fried rice, shrimp fried rice, beef fried rice, or vegetable fried rice.
Less is More—with the Right Ingredients
There is one special ingredient that you need for this dish. Actually—make that two, but the second is really just for the overachievers out there.
The first is green Sichuan peppercorn infused oil, which has a stronger, more fragrant and citrus-y flavor than red Sichuan peppercorn oil (though you can substitute the red peppercorn version if you have it already). Something also feels right about using green Sichuan peppercorn in this verdant dish. The flavor profile from red to green Sichuan peppercorns is different. Subtle but different.
We had a bottle from 50Hertz, which is great. You can also check out Mala Market for one as well made with teng jiao, which is a green variety of Sichuan pepper with the highest oil content.
If you want to make your own infusion, you can toss a teaspoon or two (or three if you like it strong) of green sichuan peppercorns into the oil in the first cooking step of the recipe. Gently fry until fragrant, then remove them when you’re ready to add the ginger.
That said, we preferred the convenience and flavor of the infused oil straight from the bottle in this case!
Adjust This Recipe to Taste!
Sichuan peppercorns can be strong, so please season to taste. We’ve put a suggested range in the ingredients list, so I don’t want to read any comments about people needing to “dump a whole pan of food into the garbage,” yahear? You’re in control, people!
The second key ingredient is cài zǐ yóu (菜籽油), a low-erucic-acid roasted rapeseed (canola) oil. We usually reserve our cai zi you for chili oil making, as it lends Sichuan chili oil its subtle yet distinctive fragrance and aroma.
For this fried rice, however, I decided to indulge in our reserves and it turned out absolutely delicious. With its golden hue and pungent aroma, it lends an incredible richness to this simple dish! You can find it at Mala Market. It is pricey here in the U.S., as it’s an imported ingredient, so you can always use whatever neutral oil you have on hand.
We also have MSG as an optional ingredient here. While we don’t use it in our daily cooking, we use it when we think that it will elevate a dish, and this is one of the simple recipes where it does really add something! Check out our thoughts on MSG here.
Recipe Instructions
Leftover rice is ideal for this recipe, but if you need to cook the rice, do that first. Let it cool on the counter until it’s warm, not hot. If using cold leftover rice, break it up with a wooden spoon or chopsticks. You want the rice to be easy to stir-fry.
Cut the green parts of the scallions into 2-inch lengths, leaving behind the light green and white parts (i.e., the bottom 3-4 inches of the scallion). In a food processor, puree the green parts of the scallions until you have a chunky paste.
Add the scallion paste to the cooked rice, and stir with a rubber spatula until evenly distributed.
Then, in the food processor, process the white parts of the scallions until finely chopped.
Set your wok over medium-high heat, and add the oil along with the ginger. Cook for 30 seconds. Add the white parts of the scallions and fry for about 1-2 minutes, just until the raw edge is gone. You don’t want any browning.
Add the rice, and stir-fry, spreading the rice out in a single layer so that it’s evenly fried.
Add the garlic, and stir-fry the rice again, spreading it out into another layer. Add the green Sichuan peppercorn oil, salt, and MSG (if using).
Stir to combine, cooking for a total of about 5 minutes. Once again, you don’t want the rice or scallions to caramelize or brown. The final dish should be a lovely bright green color.
Serve as a side with just about anything! It’s delicious with seared or grilled salmon, chicken, tofu, etc. We sense that this scallion rice will be on our table many times this summer!
Scallion Rice
Ingredients
- 5 cups cooked jasmine rice (from 1⅔ cups/300g uncooked)
- 12 large scallions (rinsed clean and wiped dry)
- 3 tablespoons neutral oil (ideally, Chinese cai zi you)
- 1 slice ginger (1/8-inch thick, 1-2 inches/3-5 cm long)
- 3 cloves garlic (roughly chopped)
- 1-3 teaspoons green Sichuan peppercorn infused oil (to taste)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt (to taste, be conservative at first if you'd also like to add MSG, below)
- 1/4 teaspoon MSG (optional)
Instructions
- Leftover rice is ideal for this recipe, but if you need to cook the rice, do that first. Let it cool on the counter until it’s warm, not hot. If using cold leftover rice, break it up with a wooden spoon or chopsticks. You want the rice to be easy to stir-fry.
- Cut the green parts of the scallions into 2-inch lengths, leaving behind the light green and white parts (i.e., the bottom 3-4 inches of the scallion). In a food processor, puree the green parts of the scallions until you have a chunky paste.
- Add the scallion paste to the cooked rice, and stir with a rubber spatula until evenly distributed. Then, in the food processor, process the white parts of the scallions until finely chopped.
- Set your wok over medium-high heat, and add the oil along with the ginger. Cook for 30 seconds. Add the white parts of the scallions and fry for about 1-2 minutes, just until the raw edge is gone. You don’t want any browning. Add the rice, and stir-fry, spreading the rice out in a single layer so that it’s evenly fried.
- Add the garlic, and stir-fry the rice again, spreading it out into another layer. Add the green Sichuan peppercorn oil, salt, and MSG (if using).
- Stir to combine, cooking for a total of about 5 minutes. Once again, you don’t want the rice or scallions to caramelize or brown. The final dish should be a lovely bright green color.
