Quick and easy pineapple fried rice with shrimp, vegetables and cashews is an amazing flavor-blasted healthier take on the classic takeout dish. Make it in less than 30 minutes at home!
You know how fried rice is supposed to be a side dish when you’re doing takeout? Yeah…it’s a main entree in my household.
One of our favorite Thai restaurants in Reno has a pineapple fried rice on the menu, so naturally every single time we go, we order it, no doubts, questions or concerns.
Recently, I’ve been making a point of recreating my favorite restaurant comfort foods at home. For a few reasons. 1.) Lockdown. 2.) Reverse-engineering (and ideally improving upon!) recipes is a hobby of mine and 3.) I like knowing exactly what is going into my food.
You say, “control freak,” I say “awareness.” 😉
IRREGARDLESS ( <- don’t kill me with fire ) pineapple fried rice is such a treat! And when made in the comfort of your own home, you can make it as healthy or as trashy as you’d like.
For instance – you can turn this into cauliflower rice and cut the carbs down to a minimum. You can add veggies, proteins, dried fruit, you name it…this your party. In addition, you have control of the type of oils and add ins (such as coconut aminos or liquid aminos, organic ingredients, etc).
The best part of this recipe (aside from the fact that it’s blow-your-brains delicious) is the fact that you can make it in under 30 minutes. In fact, the last time we made it was during a hanger emergency, and boy did we extinguish that fire quickly.
So let’s make this super quick, easy, amazing tasting side dish (err..meal)!
How to Make Pineapple Fried Rice:
Begin by cooking the white rice according to package instructions. While the rice is cooking, prepare the rest of the recipe.
Add the oil to a large skillet or wok and heat to medium.
Add the onion, garlic, carrots, peas, green onion and Thai chilies (if adding) and saute, stirring occasionally until vegetables begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the shrimp, fish sauce, red curry paste, and coconut aminos and continue cooking until shrimp is pink and cooked through, about 3 minutes.
Add the cooked rice and pineapple to the skillet and stir well. Taste for flavor and add red pepper flakes and sea salt to taste. You can also add more coconut aminos, curry paste, and/or fish sauce.
Stir in roasted cashews and serve!
Recipe Adaptations:
- Omit the onion and garlic for low-FODMAP.
- You can halve the recipe if a smaller portion size is desired.
- Use fresh or frozen shrimp. Just be sure the shrimp are cooked (pink and opaque) before serving.
- Replace white rice with brown rice. If doing so, follow cook time on package instructions.
- Make this rice ultra spicy by including Thai chilies, habenero, serranos, or jalapenos. Skip the chilies to keep it mild!
- Replace the red curry paste with green or yellow curry paste, or omit it and use more liquid aminos.
- Use soy sauce or liquid aminos instead of coconut aminos.
- Omit the roasted cashews or replace with roasted hazelnuts, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, or almonds.
- Use chicken instead of shrimp.
- Add any of your favorite vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, bell pepper, and/or zucchini.
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If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
Ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked white rice
- 2 Tbsp avocado oil, or coconut oil
- 1/2 small yellow onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
- 1 cup peas
- 3 stalks green onion, chopped
- 1 to 5 Thai chilies, finely chopped, optional
- 1 lb frozen shrimp, or fresh raw shrimp, de-veined
- 2 Tbsp fish sauce
- 3 Tbsp red curry paste, or green curry paste
- 2 Tbsp coconut aminos, or liquid aminos
- 2 cups fresh pineapple, chopped
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, optional
- 1/2 tsp sea salt, to taste
- 2/3 cup roasted cashews
Instructions
- Begin by cooking the white rice according to package instructions. While the rice is cooking, prepare the rest of the recipe.
- Add the oil to a large skillet or wok and heat to medium.
- Add the onion, garlic, carrots, peas, green onion and Thai chilies (if adding) and saute, stirring occasionally until vegetables begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the shrimp, fish sauce, red curry paste, and coconut aminos and continue cooking until shrimp is pink and cooked through, about 3 minutes.
- Add the cooked rice and pineapple to the skillet and stir well. Taste for flavor and add red pepper flakes and sea salt to taste. You can also add more coconut aminos, curry paste, and/or fish sauce.
- Stir in roasted cashews and serve!
Stephanie
Tuesday 18th of August 2020
Question, you do not have green onion listed in the ingredients, but in the instructions (number 3) you say to add green onion? IS this missing from the ingredients?
Julia
Wednesday 19th of August 2020
Hi Stephanie! Oops, my mistake! I usually add 3 green onions. I have added it to the ingredients list. Thank you for catching that! xoxo
Shirley
Friday 8th of May 2020
Now that is a great idea, to recreate recipes from your favorite restaurant! I can imagine that this dish is a treat. I am going to make my favorite restaurant item, a Roasted Beet salad. Thank you for sharing the recipe and the idea!