Pineapple Fried Rice Recipe
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Here’s an easy and yummy lunch idea: pineapple fried rice. It is a great way to put some sparkle in your leftover rice. I’m a big fan of fried rice. Cooking over higher heat seals in all the natural flavors of the pineapple and leaves your rice with a subtle crispness.
This stir-fry is a great meatless choice and everyone in my family loved it! Once your food hits the stove, it’s done in under 10 minutes. Quick and easy!
Ingredients for Pineapple Fried Rice:
1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple, cut into 1/2″ pieces
1/2 sweet red bell pepper, diced
1/2 small onion, finely diced
1 Tbsp ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, pressed or finely diced
1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp soy sauce, or to taste
2 cups cooked white rice, cold (=1 cup uncooked white rice with 1 Tbsp butter & 1/4 tsp salt)
1 tsp sesame oil, optional (but highly recommended)
Garnish:
2 Tbsp green onions, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp sesame seeds, optional
How to Make Fried Rice:
1. Rinse rice thoroughly and cook according to package instructions. We used a ricemaker and added 1 Tbsp butter and 1/4 tsp salt then let it cool completely. This works best with cooled, leftover rice. Don’t use warm or hot rice or it will get sticky.
2. Prep your vegetables before you fire up the stove. You won’t have time to chop in between cooking steps.
3. Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet or wok over medium heat, then swirl in 2 Tbsp oil. Add diced onion and cook about 1 minute or until softened. Next toss in pressed garlic and grated ginger and saute another minute, stirring constantly.
4. Increase heat to med/high and add diced bell pepper with pineapple and continue to saute everything for 3-5 minutes or until golden, stirring frequently.
5. Add 2 cups cooked rice and 1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp of soy sauce, or to taste. Continue to stir over the heat another minute or until soy sauce is well blended in. Turn off the heat stir in 1 tsp sesame oil, or to taste. I love how sesame oil. It gives Asian-inspired meals authentic flavor.
Plate the rice and sprinkle each bowl with some chopped green onions and sesame seeds if desired and serve warm.
Pineapple Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple
- 1/2 sweet red bell pepper
- 1/2 onion
- 1 Tbsp ginger
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce, or to taste
- 2 cups cooked white rice, cold (=1 cup uncooked white rice with 1 Tbsp butter & 1/4 tsp salt)
- 1 tsp sesame oil, optional (but highly recommended)
Garnish:
- 2 Tbsp green onions
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
- Rinse rice thoroughly and cook according to package instructions. We used a rice maker and added 1 Tbsp butter and 1/4 tsp salt then let it cool completely. This works best with cooled, leftover rice. Don't use warm or hot rice or it will get sticky.
- Prep your vegetables before firing up the stove. You won't have time to chop between steps.
- Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet or wok over medium heat, then swirl in 2 Tbsp oil. Add diced onion and cook about 1 minute or until softened. Next toss in pressed garlic and grated ginger and saute another minute, stirring constantly.
- Increase heat to med/high and add diced bell pepper with pineapple and continue to saute everything for 3-5 minutes or until golden, stirring frequently.
- Add 2 cups cooked rice and 2 Tbsp of soy sauce, or to taste. Continue to stir over the heat another minute or until soy sauce is well blended in. Turn off the heat stir in 1 tsp sesame oil, or to taste. I love how sesame oil. It gives Asian-inspired meals authentic flavor. Plate the rice and sprinkle each bowl with some chopped green onions and sesame seeds if desired and serve warm.
More Asian-Inspired Recipes that make my heart go pitter-pat:
I bet this fried rice would be nice with a brown rice too. Have any of you tried it that way?
P.S. Have a great weekend! Have any fun plans?
Love -Natasha 🙂
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
My family loves this pineapple fried rice. I substituted the soy sauce with coconut aminos because my son prefers them but otherwise followed the recipe. Delicious!
That’s great, Susan!
Hi Natasha.
This looks delicious. I will be making this recipe soon. But I need clarification, please:)
Sesame oil. Your link to sesame oil is to Toasted sesame oil. Normally, I wouldn’t use it for frying, since it tastes burned to me. Can I use regular sesame oil?
Hi Susanna, it worked really well in this recipe. If you try regular sesame oil, I’d love to know how you like it.
This has been a family favorite of ours for years. It even turns out great with canned pineapple tidbits from the pantry :-p
If you have leftovers, they are amazing tossed in with some scrambled eggs as lazy man’s omelet/frittata. My 1-year old always tries to eat at least half of mine, even if she’s already had breakfast!
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Jcs!
This rice is incredibly yummy! I can never go back to fried rice without the pineapple. I think the fresh pineapple really made a difference! We kept exclaiming over the rice during dinner. Had this with Huli Huli chicken and asparagus.
Isn’t it the best! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Janine!
Such a good recipe. Made some adjustments to adhere to my taste. Came out perfect. Used Natasha’s recipe to cook perfect Jasmine rice. Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed that Natalya!
What is the best way to reheat the
Pineapple rice dish, I have to take it to a pot luck dinner.
I like reheating fried rice on a very hot pan or wok so the rice gets a teensy bit crispy. I think that’s the best way to make the dish come alive again 🙂
What a wonderful recipe! I’m always looking for simple recipes as I’m not able to spend much time on my feet due to a back injury. I purchased a fresh pineapple this week and was so excited to come across this recipe. Absolutely perfect combination of ingredients and the serving size was just right for two. Definitely a keeper! Thank you, I look forward to making, and eating, this one again. As does my husband!
Aloha!
Thank you so much for the great review! 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Sorry to hear about your back injury :(. Was it recent?
Aloha Natasha! You’re very welcome. I made this again tonight and added peas & carrots, we didn’t think it could get any better but the added vegetables made it even better! No, my back injury was in December 2011. I’ll be having surgery in June then rehabilitation. I look forward to getting back to cooking and life in general. Thank you again for sharing this great recipe. Aloha
I always love fried rice. Use red chili instead of red bell peppers in your recipe and it turns out well. (I stay in Asia and love hot and spicy food). Thanks for the recipe.
That’s brilliant! My husband and I love spicy foods and the red chili sounds delicious!
Made this tonight with a few modifications (added chickpeas tossed in 1 tsp curry powder, green pepper instead of sweet pepper, basmati brown rice instead of jasmine). Great recipe made vegan! Thanks for the post!
Thanks so much for sharing your modifications! 🙂
This was excellent! Very easy to prepare and tasted awesome. I used canned pineapple (tidbits) and also added a handful +/- of unsalted cashews for some crunch. It was very yummy! I will be making this again and again.
Oh my goodness that sounds so so good especially with the cashews. Wow! YUM!!
I made this with quick cooking brown rice and it was fantastic! The pineapple added such great flavour! I will definitely be making this again.
Thanks so much for sharing! It’s great to now that brown rice works. I’m so happy you enjoyed it! 🙂
I can’t wait to try this! I’m going to add shrimp.
Ooh you should try the shrimp fried rice that I posted. It’s so good too!!
I stumbled across this recipe while browsing pinterest. I’d seen tons of fried rice recipes but this one really caught my eye because it contained sweet juicy chunks of pineapple in it. I was sold. I finally got around to making it tonight and let me just say, I was not let down. I unfortunately didn’t have ginger on hand and the small grocery in my town didn’t gave any either (every flavor of ice cream and every cut of frozen French fries, but no ginger -_-). I’ll have to try it with the ginger next time as I’m sure it’ll make it that much more delicious. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe. I’ll be saving this one.
Thank you so much for a great review and yes, you should definitely try it with ginger. 🙂 welcome to the blog!
We cooked this with brown rice, preserved baby ginger (instead of fresh), baby corn and 1/4 cup pineapple juice. It was amazing!
I love your variations! I’ll have to try it. Thanks so much for sharing!! 🙂
Would it make a difference if i added chicken?
I think chicken would taste good in this dish.
Yummy!!! I also added some grilled chicken and bacon, the best. Thanks
Oh those sound like some mighty tasty additions! Thanks for the tip! 🙂
Hey great recipe! What can you use as a substitute for the red bell pepper?
Green Peas would be a good substitute 🙂 Fresh or frozen.
You are too cute! Who else says “put some sparkle in your leftover rice”? Seriously adorable!
This fried rice dish looks delectable! Can’t wait to try this out!
Ha ha thanks Lindsey 🙂 You’re so sweet. It does bring leftover rice back to life though. I hope you love it! 😉
I never made fried rice with pineapple but I always use brown rice and it tastes pretty good. Thank you for the recipe!
Now I’m definitely going to try the brown rice. Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
So got to try this!
Hi Julie! I hope you love it! 🙂 It’s so simple and quick and the pineapple is a treat!
Natasha, will caned pineapple work? I so wanna try this tomorrow but don’t have any fresh pineapple.
I think it would work with canned if it’s drained really well. My only concern with canned pineapple is that it’s kind of wet and might make the rice a little mushier. Also, the pieces of pineapple probably won’t be as pronounced as fresh.
Sounds like it’d be great with some diced ham 🙂 (And I’m not a ham person at all …..)
That makes me think of Hawaiian pizza! Yum!
Me too, I guess pineapple in savory dishes makese thibk of the ham