Vegetable Fried Rice

We have a lot of rice and pasta in our pantry so we're slowly working our way through it. This recipe uses a mix of canned, frozen, and fresh vegetables --the rainbow chard and leek came from the drive-thru farmers market we attended last weekend but you could really use pretty much anything you have in your pantry and freezer. I was skeptical about Dave's purchase of canned carrots because carrots aren't my favorite vegetable in the first place but this was a good use for a canned vegetable that I wasn't excited about.  The flavors of in this fried rice worked really well together and the leftovers were great for lunch. I served mine with a little more soy sauce and sriracha but you could also add sesame seeds or a runny egg on top. This is something that we will likely make more variations of before our shelter-in-place ends.

A Vegetarian and Cooking original. 

Ingredients:
-4 cups cooked brown rice, day old is best
-1 teaspoon ginger
-1 cup carrot, diced
-2 cups rainbow chard, chopped
-1/2 cup leek, thinly sliced
-2 cloves garlic
-1 cup mukimame (shelled edamame)
-2 eggs
-2-4 tablespoons soy sauce
-1 tablespoon sesame oil
-1 tablespoon sriracha

**Quarantine Cooking Comments**

1. We used canned carrots, frozen mukimame, and frozen ginger
2. Any hearty green would work in place of the rainbow chard
3. An onion would work in place of the leek
4. White rice would be fine if you don't have brown rice on hand

Heat a small amount of coconut oil or neutral cooking oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the leek and a dash of salt and cook for four minutes, stirring. Cook the garlic and the ginger with the leek for a minute more, then add the frozen mukimame.

If cooking with raw carrots, feel free to add at this time. The canned carrots we used were cooked through during processing, and we folded them into the dish at the very end just to warm them.

When the mukimame has defrosted and is beginning to turn golden brown, add the rainbow chard and a pinch more salt. Cook for five minutes, until wilted -- if ingredients are starting to stick to the pan, add a tablespoon or two of soy sauce and stir to deglaze.

In a separate small saute pan, cook the eggs with a pinch of salt over medium heat, whisking while cooking to scramble. Combine the eggs with the ingredients in the other pan, with the rice, the rest of the soy sauce, the sesame oil and the sriracha. Stir over medium heat until warmed through, folding in the carrots at the end as mentioned. Serve with additional soy sauce, sriracha and sliced green onion if available.