This Sizzling Mushroom Pepper Rice is my vegan take of the iconic Beef Pepper Rice from the renowned Japanese fast food chain and franchise Pepper Lunch that has multiple branches across the world.
It’s known for its fast-food concept of serving rice and meat on a sizzling plate with specialty sauces.
This Sizzling Mushroom Pepper Rice is packed with shiitake mushrooms, rice, corn, scallions, lots of pepper, and finished off with a homemade sweet brown sauce to bring it all together.
Serve this in a sizzling hot cast iron pan and then mix it all together for a really quick yet satisfying meal—just like from the Pepper Lunch chain itself that you’d often find in food courts in the Philippines and in other countries.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
CAST IRON PAN OR SKILLET
MUSHROOMS
I used fresh shiitake mushrooms since I love the umami kick of shiitake mushrooms. But feel free to use other types of mushrooms like button, baby bella, oyster, etc.
I also just sliced these into thing pieces, around 1/2" thick.
COOKING THE MUSHROOM PEPPER RICE
Heat your cast iron pan over high heat.
Cook down the mushrooms until tender and lightly browned.
A STEP-BY-STEP ON HOW TO ASSEMBLE THIS MUSHROOM PEPPER RICE
Here are screen shots for a step-by-step on how to prepare your mushroom pepper rice. You can also watch the full recipe video here or below.
When the mushrooms have cooked down, move them to the side.
Add in the rice and then add lots of pepper!
Top with vegan mayo or some vegan butter:
Now add in the corn.
Add more pepper!
Then top with some chopped scallions or spring onions.
Now pour in that homemade brown sauce! Enjoy that sizzle too! :)
ENJOY YOUR RICE IMMEDIATELY WHILE IT'S HOT
Mix well and feel free to add more sauce if you'd like! :)
I also really love adding more corn and scallions along with some more fresh ground pepper.
This meal is really so hearty and satisfying. I hope you enjoy it!
Find the full recipe for this below!
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Sizzling Mushroom Pepper Rice (Pepper-Lunch Style)
Equipment
- Cast iron pan or skillet
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb fresh shiitake mushrooms or other mushrooms of choice - thinly sliced or broken apart
- 1/2 tbsp vegan butter for cooking
- 1 1/2 cups cooked and cooled short grain or sushi rice - leftover is the best!
- 1 tbsp vegan mayonnaise or vegan butter (see notes)
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper , add more or less depending on how peppery you want it
- 2 tbsp cooked corn kernels
- 1 tbsp chopped scallions or green onions
Sauce, to finish (recipe below)
- 2-3 tbsp homemade sweet brown sauce , adjust to taste (recipe below), see notes for sub
Sweet Brown Sauce
- 2 tbsp maple syrup or other liquid sweetener or choice
- 2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari, if gluten-free
- 1-2 tbsp water , adjust depending on desired consitency
- 1 tsp garlic powder or 1 clove garlic, minced
Corn starch Slurry for Sauce
- 2 tbsp room temperature water
- 1 tbsp corn starch
Instructions
- To make the brown sauce, see below.
PEPPER RICE
- Heat your cast iron pan over high heat. Once it’s smoking, lower to medium. Add in some vegan butter or oil. Add in the mushrooms
- Cook down the shiitake mushrooms until lightly browned over medium to medium high heat. I like to leave the mushrooms untouched for 2-3 minutes at a time to lightly brown each side.
- Once the mushrooms are cooked to your liking, move them to the sides of the pan.
- Add a bit more oil or butter on the centre of the pan.
- Rice: place the rice in the centre of the pan. I packed my rice in a bowl and then flipped the bowl over to create a dome shape.
- Add the vegan mayo/butter over the rice, pepper, corn kernels, and scallions over the rice. Drizzle generous amount of your sauce of choice (sweet brown sauce or teriyaki sauce) over the rice and mushrooms.
- Mix together until everything is well coated in the sauce and butter/mayo. Finish off with more pepper, if you like.
- Enjoy immediately while still hot.
BROWN SAUCE
- Note: Double or triple the brown sauce ingredients if you're making 2-3 servings of the pepper rice.
- Heat a small sauce pan over medium. Ad in 1 tbsp water, garlic powder, sweetener, and soy sauce. Stir and leave to simmer and come to boil over medium heat. Feel free to add more sweetener if you want it sweeter.
- Meanwhile, mix together the corn starch and water in a small bowl until you have a slurry.
- When the sauce has come to a boil, lower the heat to medium low and then stir-in the slurry. Give the sauce a good mix. It’ll slowly start to thicken. Turn off the heat. The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools. If you want a runnier sauce, feel free to add a bit more (around 1 tbsp more) water.You can also adjust the sauce depending on your desired taste.
- Storage and making ahead: you can store this in the refrigerator until ready to use. It can thickened form some clumps when refrigeratred so you can simply reheat this quicklythe microwave and give it a good stir to dissolve any clumps from the starch.
WATCH Video
Notes
VEGAN MAYONNAISE OR BUTTER
- I personally prefer vegan mayo. It adds a good and nice creaminess to the rice. Feel free to use butter, if you’d like, or even a mix of butter and mayo
BROWN SAUCE ALTERNATIVES
- You can also use some bottled teriyaki sauce instead of sweet brown sauce for this recipe, especially if you're pressed for time.
- I also have a homemade teriyaki sauce recipe here.
NUTRITIONAL INFO
Sweet Brown Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp maple syrup or other liquid sweetener
- 2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari, if gluten-free
- 1-2 tbsp water adjust depending on desired consitency
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Cornstarch Slurry
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 2 tbsp room temperature water
Instructions
- Heat a small sauce pan over medium. Ad in 1 tbsp water, garlic powder, sweetener, and soy sauce. Stir and leave to simmer and come to boil over medium heat. Feel free to add more sweetener if you want it sweeter.
- Meanwhile, mix together the corn starch and water in a small bowl until you have a slurry.
- When the sauce has come to a boil, lower the heat to medium low and then stir-in the slurry. Give the sauce a good mix. It’ll slowly start to thicken. Turn off the heat. The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools. If you want a runnier sauce, feel free to add a bit more (around 1 tbsp more) water.You can also adjust the sauce depending on your desired taste.
- Storage and making ahead: you can store this in the refrigerator until ready to use. It can thickened form some clumps when refrigeratred so you can simply reheat this quicklythe microwave and give it a good stir to dissolve any clumps from the starch.
NUTRITIONAL INFO
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Absolutely amazing! So tasty and soo good!
Thank you Jackie!!
Which sauce do you recommend more with the dish?!
Personally the brown sauce of course! But when I’m pressed for time and don’t have that prepared, I just reach out for my teriyaki sauce cause I always have a bottle of homemade teriyaki in my fridge ◡̈
This is sooo delicious! Thank you for sharing! I love the sweet and savory with the different textures of the chewy mushrooms and crunchy corn. I definitely will be making this again.
Glad you liked it!! Thanks so much Nicole ◡̈
could I use short grain glutinous rice for this?
You can but of course the rice will be very sticky. But if you don’t mind then it shouldn’t be a problem ◡̈
It’s amazing and really taste like pepper lunch! However I may have added too much cornstarch so I had to add a lot more water. But it’s so good and my whole family loves it!! I will be making it very often 😀
Yay thanks so much fro giving it a try and glad you liked it! ◡̈