Gluten-Free Leftover Night: Fried Rice

No matter how well a family likes your cooking, there will sometimes be leftovers. You may have noticed as we have that a lot of the gluten-free flour products leave leftovers with a soggy and/or gritty texture that makes them nearly unpalatable. Rice itself dries out swiftly, but this recipe redeems it with style. In fact, if your family is not in the habit of leaving leftovers, you may need to put back some “planned overs,” just so you can put together this tasty dish.

Much like “refrigerator soup,” this dish relies primarily on whatever you have available, but you will need a few items to start:

Cooked rice (a minimum of 4 cups)

An egg or two

Green onions, chopped (diced white or yellow onions will work in a pinch)

Cooking oil

Tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)

Now for the scavenger hunt. Check your refrigerator for those niggling tiny containers of leftovers. Get out the leftover rice or cook some up. Look for some veggies that need to be used up. I prefer peas and carrots (stay away from the canned ones). Mushrooms are yummy, if you have any to use up. Bits of leftover chicken, pork, fish or steak will be a nice addition for the meat eaters.

Proportion is important. Make sure you have about twice as much rice as you include of all the other ingredients.

Warm a couple tablespoons of cooking oil over medium heat in a skillet. Add onions, followed by rice. When rice is warm and coated with oil, begin adding other ingredients. If you are using any raw vegetables, like mushrooms or celery, add them next. I will often add the last bit of a package of frozen peas at this point. Next add any meat.

I like to chop up a clove of fresh garlic or add a pinch of garlic powder for flavor. Once all other ingredients are warm, crack one or two eggs into the skillet to fry and scramble into the mixture. When the eggs are fully cooked, remove from heat and add tamari to taste. I usually add just a little tamari to the entire skillet before serving and then let individuals add more to their own plate if they wish.