Pork Quinoa Fried Rice

Fried rice is just one of those dishes that makes you happy. It’s so comforting. And warm. And wonderful. And sadly, like a lot of comfort food, all of those things do not exactly make for health food. But — stop the presses! — we have a better-for-you twist on fried rice from Registered Dietitian Carissa Bealert that is delicious. The secret is that it uses quinoa instead of rice, has way more veggies (carrots! peas! asparagus!) and boosts the amount of protein with lean ground pork (we’re talking 35 grams of protein per serving!).
Carissa created this Pork Quinoa Fried Recipe for the National Pork Board and says it’s a quick and healthy meal that makes for great leftovers the next day.
“It’s based off traditional comfort food and is filled with subtle, savory Asian flavor, but it’s made lighter using the lean ground pork and by increasing the vegetables,” she says. “I chose ground pork because it cooks so fast, is a good source of protein and it’s an excellent source of several vitamins including thiamin, selenium, niacin and vitamin B6.”
The veggies cook super quickly, too — she uses the convenience of frozen peas and carrots, plus quick-cooking asparagus. But you can customize it however you’d like.
“Do you love broccoli and red peppers? Then add those,” Bealert tells us. “Any vegetable works great in this recipe so customize to your liking.”
Quinoa is the base of the recipe — she recommends making a big batch ahead of time and using it in this recipe and then all week long. For extra flavor, she uses a rice cooker and vegetable broth to cook hers, using a 2:1 ratio of liquid to quinoa. So smart!