Flavorful & Healthy Kung Pao Zucchini served over rice noodles or whole grain rice. Vegan and gluten-free adaptable!
Hellooooo 20-minute dinner! This simple delicious recipe for Kung Pao Zucchini is so easy to make, yet so FULL of flavor!! Cook this up in a wok or a skillet and serve it over a bowl of rice, cauliflower “rice”, or noodles! Either way you’ll have happy mouths, I promise!
While in Shanghai a couple of years back, we learned some tasty, fast ways to cook up veggies and I’ve been hooked ever since! The recipe calls for fish sauce, but feel free to substitute the Vegan Fish Sauce I posted a while back. As always, gluten-free soy sauce can be used in place of regular. Make this tonight. Your zucchini will love you for it.
This is the time of year that many people start to tire of zucchini and summer squash, but keep in mind, it will only be here for a little while longer.
My neighbor’s garden is brimming with it and I’ve just been gobbling it up lately.
How to make Kung Pao Zucchini
Saute the zucchini in a wok or skillet until golden.
Make a “well” and add the garlic and ginger.
Then add the kung pao sauce.
Toss the noodles in the skillet and toss with the Kung Pao Zucchini.
Divide among two bowls.
More zucchini recipes!
- 30+ Mouthwatering Zucchini Recipes!
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- Zucchini Hummus
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- Zucchini Basil Soup
- Zucchini Corn and Basil Stir Fry
- Greek Zucchini Fritters
Kung Pao Zucchini
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 1x
- Category: main-vegan
- Method: Stir- Fry
- Cuisine: Chinese
Description
A simple delicious recipe for Kung Pao Zucchini that can be made in 20 minutes and served over either rice or noodles.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive, coconut or peanut oil
- 2 med-large zucchini or summer squash, cut into 1/2 inch thick half moons, or quarter rounds
- 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
- 2 tablespoon chopped garlic
Kung Pao Sauce
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons fish sauce ( or try vegan fish sauce)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce ( optional)
- 1 tablespoon vinegar (black vinegar if you have it, or use rice wine vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon sugar, honey or agave
- 1–3 teaspoons garlic chili paste (Sambal chili paste) or sub chili flakes to taste at the end
Garnish: sesame seeds, roasted peanuts, green onion (sliced at a diagonal)
2 servings cooked noodles or rice (soba noodles, rice noodles or cooked brown or white rice)
Instructions
Set noodles or rice to boil on the stove according to directions on package. (For 2 servings cook, 4-5 ounces dry noodles.)
In a small bowl, stir Kung Pao Sauce ingredients together and have it ready by the stove.
In a wok or large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add zucchini. Stir often and saute until golden and just tender, about 7-8 minutes, turning heat down if it starts to get too dark.
When zucchini is fork tender ( yet still al dente) make a well in the center of the wok or skillet and add the garlic and ginger, a little drizzle of oil, and stir it in the center of the pan for 1-2 minutes. Incorporate it into the zucchini, then pour in the Kung Pot Sauce. Simmer for just another minute.
If suing noodles, you could add the noddles to the skillet and toss with the zucchini and flavorful juices.
If using rice, divide among bowls and top with the Zucchini and a little of the flavorful pan juices.
Serve with toasted sesame seeds, peanuts, chili flakes or sriracha sauce.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: (includes 2 ounces dry rice noodles)
- Calories: 363
- Sugar: 11.5 g
- Sodium: 932.3 mg
- Fat: 11.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 0.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 60.1 g
- Fiber: 2.2 g
- Protein: 11.3 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Exceeded expectations. I doubled the recipe and the two of us almost finished it all! Definitely pulling this one into the rotation. 10/10, don’t change anything!
Awesome Ryan!
This recipe was easy and delish! I doubled the recipe and added a minimal amount of chicken sausage, my family said they would have preferred I kept in vegetarian. Used 4 T of the spicy stuff and it was a little too spicy for the littles. I will make again with less spicy. Thanks!
Love that you are playing around with it Austin!
Hi, I’d really like to try your recipe, as it sounds amazing, but wanted to know if it would freeze well du you think ?
Thanks 🙂
Hi An- I actually don’t know how well this would freeze! The flavors would be good but I worry about the texture?
This one was just ok for me. I followed as written, using the rice vinegar since I didn’t have black, and using riced cauliflower. I added fresh sliced jalapeños as a garnish, since I had them on hand. I loved the crunch the peanuts added. But the flavor felt lacking for me; maybe I measured wrong or maybe I needed to add more than the max amount of chili paste. Or maybe the lack of the brand name sambal olek impacts flavor more than I thought! Can’t wait for that and the sriracha to be back on the shelves! 🙂
Hi Marie, sorry this lacked. The Sambal Olek does add a ton of flavor, that could be it?
Delicious and a different was to use summer squash.
Glad you enjoyed this!
All dishes is lovely but am not seeing the recipes
Scroll all the way to the bottom!
Where is the nutrition information, please ? I am diabetic and need to know the carb count. Thank you !
Sorry about that, it is in there now. It includes the rice noodles.
I was not expecting this to be as nice as it was! I haven’t tried a dish that has been purely courgettes before but I was not disappointed. I loved the kung pao flavour and served this over jasmine rice. The sauce drizzled over the rice was amazingly delicious too! This made a lot more for me than I had hoped so I will halve this for next time (looked like enough for 4 instead of 2).
thanks Debbie!
So simple to make – easy to follow recipe! I had zucchini to use and found this recipe. I had everything I needed in the pantry and it was SO delicious!
Great to hear Steven!
Amazing recipe. Just made it and tasted it. Love the simplicity of noodles and zucchini. Flavors are awesome. Thanks
Great to hear Myriam!
I had a box of tiny portabella mushrooms so I added them whole along with the zucchini. I used spinach soba noodles. This was OUTSTANDING. Another winner. My favorite website by a long shot. Thank you!
The round globe zucchini plant in my balcony raised bed keeps me searching for new ways to prepare them, so I‘ve already tried several of your recipes. Love this Kung Pao zucchini, with tofu and noodles it was really quick! Next is the zucchini cornbread!
Awesome! Great to hear!
Delicious! I added shrimp and served over rice to make it a meal. Next time I’ll add asparagus and serve over noodles 😉
Perfect!
So flavorful! Took care of my craving for Asian cuisine and more healthy and satisfying than my usual take-out choice too. I added Wok fried shiitake and Cremini mushrooms because I needed to use them up and it was so yummy!
Thanks so much and great to hear! 🙌
I’ve tried many of these 30-minute meals recipes (from various food influencers/bloggers) but very rarely does it actually only take 30 minutes to make. From start to my plate it was 27 minutes flat. Hooray! I was very impressed with how quick and tasty this meal was! Definitely keeping this in my backpocket during squash season!
Yay! Glad it passed the test!
This was delicious. I did add ground turkey. Served it with rice. Very good!
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