Side Dish

A friend of mine was recently asking about recipes that use frozen vegetables. It occurred to me that I have always used fresh produce in my recipes here. Fresh is great but there are some huge advantages to using frozen veggies when you can. Frozen vegetables are actually less expensive than fresh ones. I did a quick price check at my local grocery store and a bag of fresh broccoli florets was priced at 21c per ounce. Meanwhile, the bag of frozen broccoli florets was priced at 11c per ounce. That is nearly HALF the price! If you’re on a budget, frozen veggies are a great way to get healthy foods on the cheap. Speaking of being budget friendly, frozen vegetables won’t go bad in a few days which means you’re not tossing anything out at the end of the week. You’re getting your money’s worth! Finally, frozen vegetables are already chopped. Let’s be honest, chopping vegetables sometimes takes longer than actually cooking a dish. Precut vegetables are a huge time saver! So, have I convinced you to buy frozen vegetables yes?!

Now, let’s get down to this recipe. I started making fried rice a few years ago because I was simply wanting to use up some leftovers from the fridge. I have a habit of cooking more rice than we need when using it as a side dish.  Rather than tossing out the leftovers or even eating plain rice again later in the week, I chose to repurpose it. The thing about fried rice is that it is actually easy to customize with whatever vegetables or spices are your favorites. Here, I’m giving you a super easy base recipe for vegetable fried rice. From here, feel free to get creative with what you add in. I’d love to hear how you adapt this to make it your own!

Tips

• It is critical to use rice that was cooked earlier and then cooled. If you use freshly cooked rice, you will end up with a pan full of mush.
• This is a basic vegetable fried rice recipe but don’t let that limit you. Feel free to add a protein of your choice or a wider variety of vegetables such as snow peas, bell peppers or edamame.

Easy Vegetable Fried Rice

An easy base recipe for vegetable fried rice.

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Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 cups cooked, cold brown rice
• 1/2 cup frozen peas & carrots
• 1/2 cup frozen chopped broccoli
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 Tablespoon tamari sauce or low sodium soy sauce
• 1 large egg, beaten

Instructions

 

• Heat vegetable oil in a large pan over medium heat.
• Add rice and vegetables to the pan and cook until tender. Mix in garlic, sesame oil, onion powder, and tamari sauce.
• Push rice mixture to one side of the pan. Pour the egg into the other side of the pan and stir with a rubber spatula until curds form. Stir egg into the rice mixture. Add additional tamari sauce if desired.

Notes

• 4 servings is based on using this recipe as a side dish. If you prefer to use it as your entrée, double the recipe.
• It is critical to use rice that was cooked earlier and then cooled. If you use freshly cooked rice, you will end up with a pan full of mush.
• This is a basic vegetable fried rice recipe but don’t let that limit you. Feel free to add a protein of your choice or a wider variety of vegetables such as snow peas, bell peppers or edamame.