Spicy Asian Zucchini | RecipeTin Eats

23 de August de 2023

2

Right here’s a singular zucchini recipe for you – Spicy Asian Zucchini! Meaty zucchini halves seared then smothered with a light chilli-garlic sauce. Fast. Simple. Massive flavours. Function a aspect or a meat-free predominant with Garlic Rice.

Spicy Asian Zucchini recipe

It is a zucchini recipe for everybody who:

finds themselves scrambling for a fast Asian vegetable sides for meaty/starchy Asian mains. Suppose: Char Siu BBQ pork, dumplings, veg-less stir fries like Mongolian Lamb, Honey Hen, Peking Shredded Beef (there’s truly heaps if you consider it!);
is searching for one thing completely different to make with zucchini. As a result of you’ve gotten an abundance of house grown or couldn’t resist a cut price on the retailers (the latter is me); or
simply usually get pleasure from discovering new, tasty methods to make use of greens which can be fast and straightforward to make. As in – predominant meal worthy.

This Spicy Asian Zucchini ticks all these packing containers. An invention that happened once I was gazing a pile of extra zucchinis than any regular individual ought to have (however no person has referred to as me “regular” shortly) at a time when my spicy edamame was on repeat. Very comparable sauce. Completely different use!

What you want for Spicy Asian Zucchini

Right here’s what you want for this Asian zucchini recipe. First up – the key ingredient…..zucchinis! 😂

Zucchini

Known as courgettes within the UK and a few elements of Europe, the cucumber formed vegetable is at its prime in summer time. However right here in Australia, it’s obtainable yr spherical for pretty good worth.

Dimension – It’s finest to make use of small / medium zucchini round 15 – 18cm lengthy (6 – 7″) so it’s simple to prepare dinner by way of on the range. You’ll be shocked, it solely takes round 3 to 4 minutes. However when you’ve got gigantic ones (typically they are often!) you may wish to minimize them into quarters.

Spicy CHILLI GARLIC Sauce

This sauce is nice! Easy with massive flavours. Truly not that spicy, it’s delicate. I see myself utilizing this in one other recipe within the foreseeable future.

Word: I put garlic within the picture under, I ought to have included it within the sauce picture as a result of we sauté it. 🙂

Sambal Oelak – chilli paste which makes a pleasant sauce for smothering. Made with contemporary chillis, present in giant grocery shops and Asian shops. Fairly spicy eaten plain however mixed with all the things else on this sauce, the spiciness is dialled again quite a bit.

Substitute with sriracha (sauce not fairly as shiny) or a not-too-spicy chilli crisp (style and test) – sauce may have chilli crunch chunks and be oilier (yum!).
Sesame oil – Use toasted sesame oil which is brown and has higher sesame flavour. Un-toasted is yellow and the sesame flavour isn’t as robust. Right here in Australia, toasted sesame oil is normal. Un-toasted is more durable to seek out.
Soy sauce – Don’t use soy sauce labelled “darkish soy sauce”, means too intense and salty, will smash the dish. Any basic “soy sauce”, “all-purpose soy sauce” (just like the Kikkoman pictured above) or “gentle soy sauce” can be utilized.
Mirin is a candy Japanese cooking wine that’s present in giant grocery shops and Asian shops that’s one in every of 3 core sauces in Japanese cooking (ie it’s good things!). It brings a depth of flavour and sweetness into the sauce on this recipe. Substitute with honey for a non alcoholic model – sauce nonetheless nice (albeit sweeter) however not fairly the identical restaurant-y complexity of flavour. 🙂

Toppings (& garlic)

As talked about above, the garlic ought to actually be within the Sauce part. 🙂

Crispy Fried Shallots – an Asian pantry important! Salty, oily, crunchy, terrific garnish for all issues Asian, from soups to salads. I exploit it liberally – it’s a frequent participant in my recipes so I’ve obtained some primary details about it right here, in case you might be new to it.

Discover it within the Asian part of grocery store however cheaper at Asian shops.

Substitute with something crunchy yow will discover in your cabinet – croutons, packet crispy noodles), handful of crispy fried rice (I make hundreds and maintain it in jars once I make this salad). I’d even use roughly chopped peanuts.
Inexperienced onion – For freshness. Substitute with finely sliced purple onion or eschallots (US: shallots aka French onions, these small purple-ish onions). I’d toss them by way of the sauce briefly to make them floppy.

make Spicy Asian Zucchini

Have you ever ever cooked zucchini halves on the range earlier than? It’s a lot quicker than the oven – 6 minutes vs half-hour. Plus pretty browning on the zucchini that you simply’ll by no means get within the oven irrespective of how excessive you crank it! The zucchini simply goes mushy and watery. 🙂

Oil & salt – Minimize the zucchini in half lengthwise, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt then briefly toss.
Cook dinner – Utilizing a big non-stick pan heated to medium excessive, put the zucchini in minimize aspect down and prepare dinner for 3 to 4 minutes till it will get good color on it. Then flip and prepare dinner the opposite aspect for 3 minutes. Give the zucchini a poke – you need it to really feel tender however not mushy/mushy/completely floppy, and nonetheless somewhat agency within the center. The residual warmth will end cooking it by way of.

Doneness – I prefer to prepare dinner the zucchini till it’s barely cooked – very crisp tender – so then the residual warmth finishes cooking it by way of as you’re making the sauce and plating up. “Simply cooked” is my desire as a result of the extra you prepare dinner zucchini, the extra watery/mushy it will get which dilutes flavour.

Nevertheless, in case you favor your zucchini absolutely mushy right through, that’s solely as much as you! By which case I’d suggest utilizing the oven – it’s somewhat laborious to prepare dinner zucchini halves till mushy on the range. Instructions within the recipe notes.

Garlic – In the identical pan, sauté the garlic till gentle golden.
Sauce – Then add the remaining sauce substances and simmer for 30 seconds on low warmth till syrupy. Don’t take it too far – I maintain making that mistake once I’ve had a number of issues on the go. If it reduces an excessive amount of it will get too salty (although if this occurs, simply add a splash of water to the sauce to skinny it).

Pour the sauce over the pile of zucchinis. I do it this manner for simplicity – the sauce goes “all over the place” – and I feel it appears to be like good. The opposite means of doing it’s to place the zucchini within the pan and toss to coat evenly.
Garnish – Sprinkle with the crispy shallots (I’m not shy concerning the quantity I exploit) and the inexperienced onion. Then, serve!

serve Spicy Asian Zucchini

The apparent approach to serve that is as a vegetable aspect. A wonderful substantial (fascinating!) one that may go alongside something Asian, from stir fries to noodles to Char Sui Pork to gyoza or Chinese language pan fried dumplings (potstickers).

Some recommended mains to serve with this Spicy Asian Zucchini

Having mentioned that, I’ve been having fun with this as meal with a aspect of some type of flavoured rice, akin to:

Like to know what you consider at this time’s recipe! Actually somewhat completely different from the same old zucchini recipes. 🙂 – Nagi x

Watch find out how to make it

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Spicy Asian Zucchini | RecipeTin Eats

Spicy Asian Zucchini recipe