Take-Out Veggie Fried Rice– (Easy to make vegan!)
About 80% of the time if I ask my husband what he wants for dinner he says, “Something with Rice”. This response has made me get creative with rice dishes throughout our 5 years together now. A lot of times there’s leftover rice so then I’m struggling to find a way to use it and not waste it. Then I discovered fried rice it’s best when using leftover rice that’s been in the fridge for 24 hours+. I’ve been making fried rice ever since and my husband has definitely not hated it.
On the same note if my husband wants a “snack” 98% of the time means he wants juice. I just want to ask you if juice is considered a snack? I think of it as a beverage and never a snack and we’ve had this “snack” debate for the entirety of our relationship. My husband could consume 5 gallons of juice a week if I’d buy that much when I went grocery shopping. Not an exaggeration.
But back to the fried rice. This recipe is super delicious and really inexpensive to make. Make sure to read the notes on the recipe because there’s a lot of good suggestions for customizing this to your liking!
Take-Out Veggie Fried Rice– (Easy to make vegan!)
This veggie fried rice is as good as take-out but has so many options to customize to your own liking/dietary needs. Easy to make vegan!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Ingredients
4 Tablespoons of butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup (about 4–5 carrots) diced carrots
5 cups of cooked and refrigerated rice
1.5 cups frozen peas
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 eggs, scrambled
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 green onions, white and light green parts chopped, optional, for garnish
Instructions
In a big frying pan or wok, melt butter. Add onions and diced carrots, cook till onions are tender over medium heat. About 7-10 minutes. Carrots likely won’t be totally cooked. This is okay, they will finish cooking while you fry the rice.
Add the cold rice and turn heat up to medium high. You want to literally fry the rice so don’t be afraid of the higher heat. Don’t stir constantly or the rice will just get warm and not fry. Fry about 15 minutes, to your desired crispy-ness, stirring every few minutes. Add frozen peas and soy sauce. Stir till combined and continue frying, stirring more frequently.
In a small frying pan, scramble the eggs. Add to the rice and stir till combined. Remove from heat and drizzle the sesame oil over the rice and stir again.
Top with chopped green onions and serve with extra soy sauce if desired.
Notes
This recipe makes a lot. Like enough to feed 8 adults at one meal. Feel free to half this recipe if you desire, but the leftovers are wonderful and make easy lunches to take to work or eat at home while chasing toddlers. My husband loves when I send him with these leftovers for lunch.
If you want, adding a bag of frozen peas and carrots instead of cooking fresh carrots with the onions will save you the time of cutting the carrots.
Make sure the rice has been in the fridge at least 12 hours. 24 is even better. If you make this with even slightly warm or room temperature rice it will become mushy.
Don’t fry the rice with sesame oil. Sesame oil is considered a finishing oil so if you fry it, it will burn making your rice taste burnt.
VEGAN OPTION- substitute butter for vegetable oil and leave out the eggs. Still delicious!
CHICKEN OPTION- when cooking the onion and carrots add small pieces of chopped chicken breasts and cook with the veggies.
HAM OPTION- add small pieces ham when you add the cold rice for ham fried rice.
