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Pouring sweet brown sauce over Sizzling Mushroom Pepper Rice in a cast iron pan

Sizzling Mushroom Pepper Rice (Pepper-Lunch Style)

5 from 6 votes
A vegan mushroom version 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.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Asian, Fusion, Japanese
Servings 1
Calories 300 kcal

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

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.

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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

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 300kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 2121mg | Potassium: 631mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 600IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 65mg | Iron: 2mg
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