Vegetable Fried Rice

 We used to have quite a few good Chinese food takeout places near us but over the years many of them have closed their doors (or been shut down by the board of health!) and I've had to make do with making up some of my own versions of our favorite dishes. One of our all time favorites is a fried rice dish a local place used to make that stuffed full of veggies.

I don't always use the same veggies and have yet to find any that don't work well. But for today I am sharing our typical recipe with the most used veggies that we like. 

I have a wok but any deep frying pan that will fit all the ingredients with room to stir will work just fine! This is a large enough recipe to feed our family of 5 and have just enough left over for the next day so I'd say 4-6 generous sized portions. 

Ingredients:

1 onion; diced

1 large carrot; peeled and diced

2 cloves garlic; minced

1/4 cup (or so!) of oil- I don't measure but make sure to use enough to keep everything from sticking to the pan

1 cup corn kernels; frozen or canned & drained

1 1/2 cups rice; precooked according to package directions

1-2 cups good quality teriyaki sauce (I like making my own but any jarred sauce will do)

2 eggs, scrambled

2 cups peas pods/snap peas

1 tsp. ginger (I use jarred but fresh would work too; just microplane it and adjust amount according to your family's taste)

To make:

First I cut up and prepare all the veggies/garlic:

Then I heat some oil in my wok; I don't use all 1/4 of a cup right away just a generous amount to sauté the veggies in. Sometimes I find for whatever reason that the rice soaks up more than others. I find it's better to start with less that way I can always add more but if I start out with too much then it's just a greasy mess I can't really fix. 

Once the oil is nice and hot I add in the carrots and rice and cook until tender; stirring frequently. 

Then I add in the garlic and corn.

Then I dump in the rice and add a generous serving of teriyaki sauce; I treat it the same way as the oil. Again I can always add more if needed but I don't want the rice swimming in sauce. 

Once the rice and most of the veggies are heated through I make a well in the middle and add in the scrambled eggs. Letting them cook and break up into the rice. 

Lastly I add in the pea pods and the ginger. Adjusting the oil, teriyaki and even the ginger seasoning as needed. It really is quite tasty and comes together easily. I often try to plan ahead and cook extra rice a night or two before we're going to make fried rice. 

We often serve this as a side dish with some homemade crab rangoons, sauteed shrimp, or even homemade chicken tenderloins. 

 

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