Basil and Tomato Fried Rice Recipe (2024)

This was a great way to use this week’s struggle harvest after a long, extremely hot, dry summer. I used a mixture of cherry and large, cut-up tomatoes, and added a diced Japanese eggplant that would’ve gone to waste as a singleton. I let my frozen leftover rice thaw on the counter and then made the recipe as written. It was delicious!

The seeds of a chile are not the hot part. It's the pithy veins that have the heat. They are rather difficult to cut out of a dried chile, but very visible in a green one. Come on down to Santa Fe NM to experience it.

Made this with brown basmati rice (all I had). Adaptations: more tomatoes (I was making a single serving; no point saving half a tomato). No Thai bird chiles or onion so I used 4 shish*to peppers, dried red pepper, and scallion. Added corn (needed to use it up), I blistered the corn and shish*to peppers, added scallion & garlic, then everything else in the order written. Drizzled a little sesame oil (because my Chinese ex & his family always finished that way). Delish!

Trickle the egg into the hot mixture towards the end the way you do with Asian stir fry. Easier and yummy. Use dried hot pepper flakes instead of a fresh pepper.I used olive oil as usual. Obviously you can cook up the rice fresh. This is good and VERY filling.

The newsletter referred to frozen rice. How do you cook with frozen rice? Thaw first? Or?

So good! Loved the tomato juice soaked rice. Be warned, though: your wok or skillet might not be big enough to handle all the ingredients. I thought I had a fairly large wok, but I ended up having to stir-fry the rice separately (I put the tomatoes & onions, leaving the tomato juice in the wok, into a separate bowl), then combining everything. This recipe makes quite a lot, arguably more like 6 servings, so halving the recipe might be a good call, especially with a smaller wok.

I also added Japanese eggplant and upped the soy sauce. Delicious! Great use of our garden harvest. Summertime comfort food

If you have freshly-cooked rice, spread it out on a baking tray or a large plate to let it dry out a bit.

Thaw the rice for best results.

Came out soggy in non-stick pan.

Made this as written, minus the hot peppers as I didn't have any. Delicious and a great way to use up all the tomatoes and basil from our garden.

I recommend using half the salt listed. Add more at the end if you prefer.

Long-time cook, first-time poster. This was pretty tasty! But the amount of rice it calls for is deranged to me and my normal-sized wok, lol. I only fit about a cup and a half in there, but I also steamed some broccoli at the start, which took up quite a bit of space (while adding some nice texture). And because I don't live on a basil farm (a CUP AND A HALF fresh leaves?? I can't take out a loan for this recipe, I'm sorry), I substituted with two large tablespoons of dried. Very good overall!

The flavors were good, but quite uniform and unexciting. The texture was boring. Best served as a side dish to something more substantive, definitely not as a main course.

Cooked this with what I had as per usual. I used canned diced tomatoes instead of cherry and I cooked the onions and egg together first and then set aside because I misread the instructions. I didn’t have the peppers, but everything turned out pretty good. Easy, cheap, and adaptable meal.

I would suggest using either less tomatoes or more rice as it was very soupy and I had to spend a lot of time cooking it down in order for it not to basically be a stew. It ended up being almost like a risotto, which I wasn’t mad about. Just wasn’t what I thought I’d be making.Also I don’t know who is capable of making this in 15 minutes!

It's more like a Spanish rice, hard to keep the rice so it doesn't become mushy/clumpy. I wouldn't make it again

Made this to use up the last of the tomato harvest before the freeze sets in. Also used the last of the basil from my garden, though that harvest wasn’t as plentiful, so I added in some baby spinach to make the result a bit more green. Delicious and easy recipe — a nice mashup of Asian and Italian — though mine came out a bit mushy because my rice was mushy. But tasty nonetheless.

This was a great way to use this week’s struggle harvest after a long, extremely hot, dry summer. I used a mixture of cherry and large, cut-up tomatoes, and added a diced Japanese eggplant that would’ve gone to waste as a singleton. I let my frozen leftover rice thaw on the counter and then made the recipe as written. It was delicious!

You can also use chili flakes in place of birds eye chile as a substitute. Gives the dish a nice bit of heat!

A few suggestions: 1) use a much larger cooking vessel. A 12 inch cast iron skillet was far too small. Had to switch to a cast iron Dutch oven after adding the rice. 2) Reduce the amount of basil and be sure you’re pulling sweet leaves. The amount in the recipe calls for a sizable plant. The more mature leaves could be bitter in such a big plant. I had to yank most of mine out after cooking to save the dish. 3) I used normally cooked fresh rice, which was a bad idea. Rice ended up too sticky.

Just didn’t dig this mix. The tomatoes, basil and rice mixture is a great idea but the soy sauce and egg is an odd addition. I’d probably make it again without either of those items.

Very nice.

LOVED THIS. I used about a pound of cherry tomatoes with 4c rice. My basil got too cold in the fridge and had blackened, hence I used cilantro instead, 1/2c. Instead of soy sauce I used Milk Street Thai fried rice sauce: 1T fish sauce, 1t soy sauce, 1t sugar, 1t water. Decades ago I had fried rice with cherry tomatoes from a roadside kitchen in rural Thailand. This dish took me back there. I will make it with basil the next time.

Fantastic! I instituted Meatless Mondays a couple years ago & my carnivorous partner has accepted them, a bit grudgingly. Last night he told me, “Do not lose that recipe!” I used red onion, bell pepper, & seasoned with chili powder with some Ancho chili powder. I won’t lose the recipe.

Delicious! Tasted and upped the seasonings

I made this for the 3rd or 4th time, adapting the recipe to what I have on hand. This time: red Bhutanese ride, pressed seasoned tofu, a green pepper, some blanched string beans, along with cherry tomatoes and basil (plus onion, garlic, soy, etc.). In addition to some fresh Serrano chile, I added some chile crisp. Delish.

Good but not worth doing again

Wow. This was amazing. I used garden Roma tomatoes and omitted the chiles. I use basil in cooking all the time, but somehow the basil flavor really popped in this dish much to my delight. This recipe is a keeper.

Any thoughts on what to add instead of eggs? I need to make this vegan. Thanks.