Cringey Kitchen

Gluten free, dairy free things in the shape of food

Pumpkin Fried Rice

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Pumpkin Fried Rice is definitely not the traditional fried rice I grew up with. I thought this combination would be weird, but my brother told me I had to try the pumpkin fried rice at a local Seattle restaurant called Ginza.

Let me tell you, their fried rice is amazing. It’s so good, I have to get it every time I go there. Not only that, but we had to make our own version!

For the pumpkin, we pressure cooked it in the InstantPot to save time, but if you don’t have an InstantPot you can steam the pumpkin in a normal pot for about 35 minutes. The pumpkin is pretty hard to cut in half, so I actually put the whole pumpkin in the InstantPot for 5 minutes to save us from the hassle of cutting it.

Make sure to use day old rice for this recipe. If you use fresh cooked rice, the rice just turns into mush if you try to add it into hot oil right away. Day old rice will soak up the flavor from the bacon fat. It also gives a better consistency for the fried rice.

Keep your rice in your pumpkin, not the floor,
Your favorite alternative chefs, K & T

5 from 1 vote
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Pumpkin Fried Rice

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

  • 1 cup rice cooked
  • 1 ½ kabocha pumpkins
  • 5 slices bacon chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 sweet onion diced
  • 2 tbsp tamari
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 sprigs green onion chopped
  • 2 tsp sesame oil
  • Black pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Cook the 1 cup of rice at least 1 day in advance and store in the fridge.
  2. In an InstantPot (see notes for non-InstantPot instructions), place the steaming rack at the bottom with 1 cup of water. Place your ½ piece of pumpkin on the rack. Select manual, High Pressure for 3 minutes.
  3. Once the pumpkin is done, quick release your InstantPot. Cut away the skin of the pumpkin and dice into cubes.
  4. Next, do the same thing for the whole pumpkin, but pressure cook for 5 minutes. Once done, cut off the top and scoop out the inside to create a pumpkin bowl.
  5. While the pumpkin is steaming, place a wok over medium high heat. Add in bacon first and stir fry until just cooked.
  6. Then, add onion into the wok with the bacon and cook until transparent. Add the minced garlic and saute for a minute or two.
  7. Add the rice to the wok along with tamari. Mix everything together until well combined.
  8. Make a well in the center of your rice. Crack the eggs into the center of the well and scramble a little before mixing it with the rice.
  9. Lastly, add the green onion and cubed pumpkin. Mix everything until evenly combined. Remove from heat.
  10. Season with pepper to taste and add the sesame oil. Give everything one last toss!
  11. To plate, scoop the fried rice into the pumpkin “bowl”.

Recipe Notes

  1. If you don’t have an InstantPot you can steam the pumpkin in a normal pot for about 35 minutes.
  2. You only really need 1/2 a pumpkin for this recipe, the whole pumpkin is mostly for aesthetic purposes. We discarded the outer skin and ate the excess pumpkin on the side with this meal, but you can use it in another dish too.