I like to think of this as the Punky Brewster of fried rice dishes. While seafood and pork versions would easily get upstaged by lots of vegetables, vegetarian versions are as colorful as your market's produce section allows. Today I brought home green beans, purple cabbage, and red and yellow bell peppers to go with my blackish shiitake mushrooms. To my knowledge there are no blue vegetables in existence, or I would have gotten them too.

My recipe eschews the scramble egg that is so many other fried rices. It doesn't seem needed, with so many textures already, but you can certainly throw some in for protein. As for the vegetables, the only important factor is that they are chopped small to cook quickly. This is a good way to use up not only leftover rice, but also whatever produce is close to being tossed out. 

As for the rice, I always use cold rice for stir-frying because it has the right stiffness. But if you don't have leftovers and absolutely must make this (I'm touched), try cooking your fresh rice with a little less water. 

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Vegetable Fried Rice

Serves 2

5 or 6 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 to 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 large red bell pepper, chopped small
1/2 large yellow bell pepper, chopped small
1/2 cup purple cabbage, chopped small
1 small handful green beans, chopped small
2 tablespoons light soy sauce or oyster sauce
3 cups leftover white rice
Salt and pepper to taste

Soak shiitake mushrooms in a bowl of water for 20 minutes until softened. Drain, squeeze out water, and chop them small.

Heat up enough oil to coat the bottom half of your wok or bottom of your large skillet. Add ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add bell peppers, cabbage, and green beans and stir-fry for 4 minutes. Pour in half the soy sauce or oyster sauce and mix to coat. Add rice, then other half of the sauce and mix again to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in individual portions or in one big bowl.