Leftovers Fried Rice

I love Chinese food. If it weren't on the pricier side, I'd order take out everyday.  Without fail, I always order a side of fried rice. Its always so good and flavorful and authentic, I just can't say no.  However, most Chinese food places also give you a side of white rice for free. What would I do with that white rice, when I have this amazing fried? It took me ages to figure it out. It used to just sit in the fridge until it got old, and then I tossed it. But I kept feeling guilty for wasting perfectly good food. I tried eating it plain with butter, I tried vegetarian chicken and rice, but nothing was a real winner. And then it hit me, why not make more fried rice??

I had no idea how to make fried rice. I have never done it before, and from my experience, its pretty difficult to make an ethnic food if you haven't done it before. While the majority of my cooking starts off with a recipe, for this once I decided to wing it. I ran through my kitchen picking out foods and flavors that I thought would work well fried rice. Anything that I have left over from another meal I cooked went into the mix. Once I was all done, this is what I had...

What you need:



1 Package of leftover rice
A bowl of your favorite veggies, I chose brocolli and peas
1 large egg
Soy sauce
Chili paste
Powdered ginger
Powdered garlic
Oil for frying

What to do:
Heat up the oil in a pan, and add in the rice.
As the oil heats up, use a spatula to mix the rice up and evenly fry.



Mix in the bowl of veggies and stir them up.



Add in the ginger, garlic, and chili paste, all to taste, and stir in.
Mix in the soy sauce, until your rice is a nice golden brown color.
Crack the egg right into the veggie-rice mix.
Quickly, break up and stir the egg in, making sure it completely solidifies.



Keep flipping and stirring for another 5 minutes, until everything is evenly fried.







All the ingredients for this meal were made just with things I found around the house, as well as ingredients left over from other meals I have made in the past. This dish is insanely versatile. Want more salt? Add more soy sauce! Like different veggies? Put any ones you want in. More or less heat? Just adjust the amount of chili paste. Want to turn this into a meal? Add some chickpeas or tofu for a protein. You can easily make this 100% vegan by leaving out the egg, and with my quest for better eating, I have been usually leaving the egg out. This meal is completely custom order.  Just a quick tip, I would definitely make sure you had a good amount of ginger, I find that its the ginger that gives this fried rice that authentic Chinese take out flavor.  I love the little bit of heat from the chili paste, and the nice saltiness and garlic flavors. This can be a great way to make your own take out side, or even eat as a whole meal.

What is your favorite way to use left over? Are you going to try this easy fried rice?

Bye from the Veggie Side!