A quick zucchini stir fry with spices to serve as a side dish with your Asian main course meals.
This is a low-carb Chinese, Thai, and Korean-inspired dish. This dish doesn't belong to a particular cuisine.
Global Food Recipes
with Spices and Herbs
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Ingredient Notes
- Oil — can be sunflower oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, coconut oil.
- Zucchini — aka courgette in some countries.
- Green Onion — fresh, aka spring onion. Bulbs and greens separated.
- Ginger — fresh or past form
- Garlic — fresh or paste form (ginger garlic paste can be used too)
- Soy Sauce — basic Kikkoman style soy sauce
- Sugar — regular or brown sugar
- Vinegar — rice vinegar is great or any other mild vinegar such as distilled vinegar will do too
- Sesame Seeds — black and/or white
- Chili Flakes — optional bust adds taste and makes it look nice
- Cold Pressed Sesame Oil — as a topping
Process Overview
Step 1
Prepare fresh ingredients. Chop ginger, garlic, and cut onion bulb. Keep stalks cut and aside.
Cut the zucchini into chunks. Prepare stir-fry sauce.
Step 2
Stir cook onion bulb, ginger, and garlic. Add zucchini and stir cook over high heat.
Pour stir-fry sauce over cooking zucchini and keep on stir cooking.
Step 3
When cooked, take from heat and sprinkle topping ingredients over zucchini.
Serve up.
📖 Recipe
Zesty Zucchini Stir Fry Recipe
Ingredients
Main ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Oil *see Notes
- 2 Small Zucchini
- 1-2 Stalks Green Onions aka spring onion
- 1 Inch Ginger Fresh
- 1-2 Cloves Garlic Cloves fresh, *see Notes
Topping
- Sesame Seeds white, black
- Red Chili Pepper Flakes
- 1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
Instructions
Prep Ingredients
- Rinse Zucchini and pat dry. Keep aside.
- Prepare all the other fresh ingredients. Peel and chop ginger and garlic. Keep aside.
- Separate the onion bulbs from the stalks. Cut the onion bulbs small. Cut the stalks into 1-2 inch long pieces. Keep both separately aside. The stalks will be used as a topping.
- Cut zucchini end off. Cut zucchini in half or quarter and cut into chunks. Keep aside.
- Prepare stir fry sauce by combining sugar, vinegar and soy sauce. Keep aside.
Cook
- Heat up oil in a wok or deep round shallow pan. Wait for it to get hot.
- Stir in onion and stir cook for aminute over high heat.
- Then add ginger and garlic and stir cook over high heat for another minute.
- Add zucchini pieces and keep on sitr cooking over high heat for about 1 minutes or so.
- Pour quickly stir fry sauce over zucchini, and keep on stir cooking over high heat for about 2 minutes or until you are satisfied. The zucchini should be al dente and not mushy.
Topping
- Take from the heat and top zucchini with sesame oil, sesame seeds, red chili pepper flakes and green onion stalks.
Notes
- For the oil use sunflower oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, or coconut oil
- 2 small Zucchini = 1 pound = 450 grams
- Use about 1-2 garlic cloves. It depends on the size. If they are large use only one.
- Instead of fresh ginger and garlic, you can use ginger garlic paste too. For 1 inch ginger and 2 cloves, garlic use about 1 heaped Tablespoon ginger garlic paste.
Equipment
- 8" Chef Knife
Nutrition
Serving Ideas
I love this healthy Asian side dish with other East Asian main course meals.
Serve up your spicy stir-fried zucchini with stir-fried or sautéed shrimp, beef, tofu, or chicken.
Also, fried rice makes a great serve along.
I recommend these zesty stir cooked zucchini with panda express orange chicken with fried rice.
If you are vegan, I recommend serving up these fried spiced zucchini with Asian flavored, broccoli, eggplant, bell pepper, or mushroom.
Storing
Store leftovers in an airtight container in your fridge for up to 2-3 days.
Reheat in a wok or skillet but not for all too long, just so that the veggies get warm again.
You can reheat it in the microwave too. Please refer to your microwave instructions. Reheat them like other vegetables or squash.
FAQs
I found that the best way to stir-fry zucchini is when cut into larger chunks. I don't recommend slicing zucchini for stir-fry because they will get soggy and will lose some of the crispness that we want in this dish, and because you will save a lot of time by just cutting them into same-sized chunks. See the how-to pictures for how I creatively cut mine.
More Side Dish Ideas
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