Leftover Vegetable Fried Rice

Leftover Vegetable Fried Rice is a delicious way to clear out the refrigerator. Tons of veggies, healthier and dare I say Better than takeout!

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Leftover vegetable fried rice

When I was a kid, my mom would call "leftovers night" smörgåsbord. To my knowledge, my mother is not Swedish in the least.

In any case, to me, that word meant that we would be eating a bunch of wildly unrelated leftover food.

This idea never excited me.

But, here I am in my forties, aware that using up every scrap is the right thing to do. 

I've embraced the challenge of using up leftovers in creative ways. Preferably, the "leftovers dish" doesn't resemble the original meal.

Although I call this dish "leftover VEGETABLE fried rice", this is only a suggestion.

Imagine your leftover roast chicken or turkey reincarnated in this fried rice recipe. Deliciousness!

Here is the basic canvas for my go-to "leftovers fried rice" dinner:

The veggies

Are you ever overzealous when you shop for vegetables? I know I am.

I have the best intentions of serving a delicious vegetable side with every dinner (more on that noble cause here), but it sometimes just doesn't happen.

So, I often have half a head of cabbage and other vegetable odds-and-ends in the crisper drawer, perilously close to their "use by" date.

Peppers would be great, as would broccoli, zucchini, green peas, and snow peas. These are just a few ideas.

The most important considerations are (1) to add the ingredients at the right time in your stir-frying so they don't overcook and (2) not to overcrowd your wok or skillet.

The rice

Another frequent inhabitant of our refrigerator is leftover rice.

As it so happens—in my experience, at least—day-old rice (or even 2–3 days) yields the best fried rice. WIN.

I have tried short and long grain rice in my Leftover Vegetable Fried Rice recipe: both seem to work equally well (I have not tried brown rice, though).

Our favorite rices are jasmine and basmati, so we usually have one or the other on hand. Keep it cold!

How to fry the rice

I have been making some form of this fried rice recipe for a very long time.

But I have always done it wrong: my rice would always stick to the pan.

It was still delicious, but cleanup was problematic.

I finally figured out, thanks to The Food Lab (Follow These Rules for the Best Fried Rice) that my pan was not hot enough, and that I needed to fry the rice in batches.

If you don't have day-old rice on hand, The Food Lab suggests rinsing your rice before cooking it.

Then, when it's cooked, spread the rice out on a tray for about 15 minutes. This allows the surface moisture to evaporate so your freshly cooked rice won't stick together.

These days, I make my leftover vegetable fried rice in a huge non-stick skillet. I use less oil that way—and it's virtually foolproof.

The sauce

The sauce I use on leftover vegetable fried rice is similar to a very basic teriyaki sauce, with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, and sesame oil.

The sauce isn't thick at all, since we only want it to lightly flavor the rice.

About the egg...

I also prepare the egg in advance.

Many people scramble the egg right into the fried rice. You're welcome to do the same: just shove all the ingredients to the sides of your wok or skillet, crack in the egg, and scramble it right in the pan.

My preference is to make the egg separately in a non-stick skillet.

I make a thin omelette, cut it into bite-sized chunks, and mix it in right before serving the leftover vegetable fried rice.

Meal-prep for leftover vegetable fried rice

I like to meal-prep the vegetables I plan to use in the leftover vegetable fried rice.

I slice and chop the veggies, then store them in containers according to the order I'll be adding them to the pan.

For example, I add the onions and carrots at the same time, so I store them together. In addition, I often mix up the ingredients for the fried rice sauce and prepare the egg the night before.

Making Leftover Vegetable Fried Rice

Mise en place

Whenever you stir-fry, it's important to cut everything up and set it out so that you can easily get to it and add it to the wok when you need it.

The cheffy term for this is "mise en place" (pronounced "MEEZ ahn plahce", French for "set in place").

This is important because stir-frying progresses very quickly. You don't want to walk away from a screaming-hot wok to root around for ingredients.

Prepping the rice

I break up any clumps of rice with my fingers to avoid crushing the grains.

When the wok is smoking hot, I add about a third of the rice (~1 cup) and stir-fry (stirring and turning) until it's toasted.

I transfer that batch to a bowl, add a little more oil, and repeat with the remaining batches of rice.

Stir-frying the veggies

When the rice is all toasted and waiting in the bowl, I add a bit more oil to the pan and quickly stir-fry the veggies.

I start with the onions and carrots and then finish with the cabbage. If I'm using cooked meat, I add it in now as well.

Finishing the leftover vegetable fried rice

Finally, I mix in the egg and toasted rice, sprinkle in the sauce, toss to combine, and garnish with sliced scallions.

I like to finish my leftover vegetable fried rice with a tiny sprinkling of tamari and sesame oil on each individual serving.

Some toasted sesame seeds would also be delicious sprinkled over the top.

I have fun with serving the leftover vegetable fried rice by setting out chopsticks with each bowl—but I'm the only one who actually eats it that way.

That's it! I hope you love this clear-out-the-crisper recipe as much as we do!

—xoxo Michelle

P.S. Be sure to check out my how-to article, Mastering Easy One-Pot Meal Recipes for even more ideas for delivering easy, quick dinners!

Or, if you need more inspiration for using up your leftovers, pop over and read my article, Using up Leftovers!

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Recipe