Vegetable Fried Rice

Here's another one of those "recipes" that is open to adaptation and thus nice to have on hand when I'm not sure what kinds of veggies our CSA share will include, or when I have a little of this and a little of that in the crisper drawer. It's also easily scaled to make as many servings as you need. I usually make a large batch as leftovers are great for lunch.

I start with cooked chilled jasmine rice, usually 4-5 cups. I also like to include tofu in some form- we don't care for egg, so we skip that typical fried rice ingredient. Below is Sweet Ginger Tofu, probably my favorite way to prepare tofu and great on its own as well as in fried rice. Firm tofu is baked in a marinade of soy, rice vinegar, mirin, sesame oil, honey, garlic and ginger. The result is like tofu candy- I am not kidding. I could eat every piece straight off the baking sheet. I believe the recipe comes from a Peter Berley cookbook, but I got it on the CLBB.



As for the vegetables, almost anything goes. This time, I used a zucchini and a handful of green beans from the garden, and an ear of local sweet corn. I also shredded a few carrots and sliced some scallions. Other vegetables I like to include are broccoli, bell peppers and peas.


The vegetables (except the scallions) are sauteed in oil til crisp-tender. Then I add some minced ginger and garlic, sauteeing for only 30 seconds or so more. Then the rice goes into the pan, and I toss it to distribute the vegetables. When the rice is heated through, I add soy sauce, a splash of sesame oil, the tofu, the sliced scallions, and a generous hit of freshly ground black pepper.


I'm also doing an experiment with some of the leftovers. Trader Joe's makes a bagged frozen fried rice that reheats really nicely in a skillet, and I want to know if I can do the same thing at home. So, I took a portion of the leftovers, spread the rice on a parchment-lined baking sheet, froze it, then transferred to a heavy-duty ziplock bag. In a month or so I'll try reheating the rice on the stove to see what happens.