This quick mixed vegetable shrimp fried rice will be your new weeknight lifesaver. A couple pinches of fresh garlic and minced ginger kick up the flavors while splashes of soy sauce and sesame oil make it taste complete. This easy fried rice from leftover rice is made with basic ingredients and it’s a great way to use up all that cold cooked rice you’ve got sitting in the fridge!

I really like cooking with soy sauce because once you incorporate it into your dish, you’ll find it quickly introduces rich, delicious long-cooked layers of flavor in a very short period of time. This makes it a very useful flavor enhancer. I also love that when you do use soy sauce, you don’t need any other form of salt. It’s one and done. The results are always delicious.

making Quick Pan-tossed fried rice from leftover rice

The rest is a simple as toss, stir, and devour. You start off by developing some fresh flavors in the beginning with diced onion, minced garlic, and minced ginger. This hits the dish with bits of bold flavor in the beginning that melt in perfectly with the rice and shrimp for the best fried rice made simple, quick, and easy.

Ingredients For Making Quick Fried Rice From Leftover Rice

Once you cook the onion and ginger for a few minutes that’s it! I just love this quick mixed vegetable shrimp fried rice as an easy dinner because the rest is soooo easy. You toss the other ingredients into the same pan, stir, cook through, and done. It’s a great recipe for those one pot dinner nights when we need to get dinner goin’ fast.

Aside from the ingredients in the photo above, you only need 3 other things to make this vegetable shrimp fried rice come to life: Soy sauce, sesame oil, and mirin.

Make The Asian Flavors Pop with Soy Sauce, Mirin, and Sesame Oil

You’ll see me mention in the recipe card below that mirin is optional, but, I highly, highly do recommend it! If you are making another trip to the grocer soon, add this ingredient (and sesame oil, if you don’t already have it) to your shopping list. These are simple, basic, and quick ways to add the best flavor for that perfect fried rice with delicious asian-inspired taste.

Mirin has a long shelf life and can be used in a variety of other recipes and dishes. It’s basically a Japanese rice wine vinegar and it adds a quiet brightness to the fried rice while complementing the seafood and soy sauce happening in the background. It plays really well with soy sauce and sesame oil.

This is an easy recipe to keep handy when you’re looking to make a super fast fried rice from leftover rice. The best part is, if you have onion and ginger, the rest of the ingredients you can just buy in advance / keep frozen.

The shrimp and veggies will keep in the freezer until you’re ready to take that leftover rice and transform it into yet another quick and delicious meal. Even if you don’t have shrimp or aren’t planning to use it, you can still keep this recipe handy for tossing together a simple vegetable fried rice from leftover rice.

What You’ll need for quick mixed vegetable Shrimp fried rice:

• If using the frozen shrimp, remember to use already thawed and drained frozen cooked shrimp. Frozen shrimp doesn’t take very long to thaw. Here at home it takes me about 30 minutes when they are submerged in cold water. If they are smaller, they will thaw sooner.
• You need to have already cooked room temperature rice available.
• You need to have fresh ginger/garlic/onion available.
• You’ll need soy sauce, sesame oil, and mirin (mirin is optional but highly recommended).
• You’ll need frozen mixed vegetables. Even a peas-carrot mixture will work well here.

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What Type of Rice Can I use?

• Long grain white rice is the best as it tends to be less sticky. It won’t clump up as much as short grain rice, especially once the sauces are mixed in. The individual grains tend to stay looser.
• Jasmine rice is also a perfect grain of rice for fried rice.
• Brown rice works really nice too for those of you who enjoy the delicious nutty taste and texture of this natural variation of rice.
• Here at home, we tend to always buy ‘Botan’ rice which is a stickier extra fancy medium grain rice often used in Japanese cooking/sushi dishes.
• Just know: Longer grain will create a looser consistency for the dish and a shorter grain rice will produce a sticker rice consistency. Here, we loooove sticky rice so it works quite well. I think it just depends on what you like best/what you have available.

Can I use fresh shrimp?

Definitely. Just Drizzle some olive oil in a pan and (season if desired) cook the shrimp first for just a few minutes on medium-high heat until just cooked, lightly pink, and tender. Remove your fresh juicy shrimp from the pan and set aside. Follow the rest of the steps and add the shrimp back in at the same time you add the rice and soy sauce mixture. Toss to coat/combine and serve hot.

What size shrimp can i use?

I would say that bigger shrimp make a really nice presentation when you are serving this up on the plate. A medium to large size shrimp works perfectly, but use your best judgement when you’re shopping for this ingredient. Just keep in mind smaller shrimp will take up even less time to cook up, so, they don’t need much time in the pan.

In the frozen section of my local grocery store I always reach for the bag sized 31-40 per pound.

It’s a perfect size for this dish. Not too big, not too small. It still looks beautiful and substantial on the plate when serving in this easy recipe.

Make Fried Rice From LEftover rice

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together soy sauce, sesame oil, and mirin. Set aside. Drizzle olive oil over a large skillet or frying pan on medium-high heat and toss in diced onion along with fresh minced ginger. Stir and cook until softened, translucent, and fragrant. Now add in minced garlic and continue stirring, cooking for another few minutes until garlic is mixed in and fragrant.

add mixed vegetables

Toss in frozen mixed vegetables and continue stirring in the pot until vegetables are mixed in with the garlic, onion, and ginger. Continue cooking until vegetables are softened and tender.

Add Shrimp

Add in thawed shrimp and stir into the vegetables. Cook just long enough to get coated in with the onion and vegetables and warm through in the pot. About 2 or 3 minutes. The shrimp will only need a few minutes in the pan so be careful not to overheat them too much, we want to have nice juicy shrimp (not tough shrimp) to bite into when we serve this up with the colorful veggies and rice mixed through.

add leftover Cooked rice to make quick fried rice

Now add in prepared/cooked or leftover rice and drizzle in the soy sauce mixture we prepared earlier. Stir this in with the rice, shrimp, and vegetables. If desired, toss in prepared scrambled eggs at this point too.

An Easy Shrimp Recipe with Rice and Vegetables in Minutes!

Continue cooking the shrimp with rice and vegetables until the soy sauce mixture has evenly coated everything and the rice is heated through. Garnish with fresh green onion or thin green onions for a delicious dinner done in minutes. Enjoy this easy fried recipe when you crave quick shrimp recipe with rice that satisfies in minutes! Serve as an easy weeknight meal nice and hot.

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