Zucchini Love II: Stir fry with Zucchini Noodles

So, my love for zucchini continues to blossom. Yesterday I was pondering what to make for dinner, I had just bought a zucchini, an onion and a red bell pepper from the vegetable market and some chicken from the butcher. I thought about stir fry, but couldn't figure out if I could incorporate the zucchini.

See, to me, stir fry is all about packing in veggies, it keeps me form getting scurvy. Anyway, I suddenly remembered how to make noodles out of zucchini. While the results are far from expert (a real chef would use a mandoline) they are delicious and colorful.

So we start with the veggies, the meat, and some spices. Oh yeah, you can't forget soy sauce. I like that my butcher wrote chicken on the chicken paper. Sometimes I believe that they think I'm stupid.

So, the first step is to quickly marinate the chicken. Cut the chicken in slices and make a marinade out of a little soy sauce, olive oil, salt, pepper and a pinch or two of red pepper flakes. Some ground or grated ginger would also be great here, I just didn't have any.

We'll let the chicken marinate until we're ready to cook it. Now it's the hard part, and the coolest. We need to turn our zucchini into noodles. Get out your potato peeler (or mandoline if you're fancy... I'm not).

Cut off the top (I forgot here) and bottom of your zucchini and just peel off one strip from the top.

Then continue doing this, applying even pressure with your peeler (which I'm bad at) to make long and thin zucchini strips.

Just like that, but I'm sure yours look better. Then stack them and cut them into fettuccine sized strips.

If this picture weren't blurry, it would be really beautiful. The little dark green edge fading to the light green and white of the center, but folded like a piece of pasta. Wonderful food imagery.

Anyway, at this point you'll want to cut your onion and bell pepper in to thin-ish strips. Add some olive oil to a hot pan and toss all your veggies in.

So many bright colors, it already looks wonderful. After about four minutes, add in some garlic and cook just the veggies for another two or three minutes.
Then it's chicken time.

Put in your chicken, including the marinade and stir frequently to mix everything up. It will take the chicken between 5 and 7 minutes to cook. You can leave it on one side for two minutes, then stir everything to flip all the chicken over and leave for another few. The most important thing is that you will accumulate some bits on the bottom of the pan. When you have about two minutes left, add in about two teaspoons of soy sauce to deglaze. You'll thank me later.

Now just serve the results over rice, and enjoy. The dish just looks warm and inviting, but maybe it's just me.

Stir Fry with Zucchini Noodles

1 chicken breast
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1/2 medium zucchini
1/2 red bell pepper, cut in strips
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
3 tsp soy sauce
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 - 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1. Slice the chicken breasts into a about 1/2 inch thick strips. Combine 1 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and the red pepper flakes in a bowl and add chicken to marinate.

2. Cut the top and bottom off of the zucchini, and with a potato peeler peel off thin strips of zucchini, discarding the first one.

3. Pile strips and cut into strips about the width of fettuccine.

4. Preheat a pan over medium high heat and add remaining olive oil. Saute all vegetables in the olive oil, adding remaining salt, pepper and garlic after a few minutes.

5. After about 7 minutes, add in chicken and all marinade. Stir fry for about 5 - 7 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. With about two minutes remaining, deglaze the pan with the remaining soy sauce.

6. Serve over rice (fried rice is  also good here... recipe another time) and enjoy.

Zucchini Coins with Garlic

Before reading this, you need to know one thing... I really like zucchini. Most people find it tasteless and gross, but I think it's a really great summer vegetable that you can add endless layers of flavor to.

The magic starts here.

Next we need to make the coins. So cut the top and bottom off your zucchini and make slices that are about a centimeter thick. Just do the best you can, nobody's perfect.

That's a nice little stack there. You'll need about half of a zucchini per person. This serving is just for me, so only half of the veggie got used here (expect more zucchini soon, maybe).

Now we're going to do the same with the garlic. Make nice thin slices. Again, half a clove per person is really sufficient.

Then make a layer of coins on the bottom of a baking sheet, then put a layer of garlic over it. You can make it pretty, but you'll just ruin it in a minute.

Drizzle oil over the top, some salt and some pepper. Toss it up while your at it, and put it in a 400 degree toaster oven for about 15 minutes. The zucchini will be falling apart at that point and the garlic will be toasted. YES!

Now, zucchini was made to be covered with parmesean. So after the fifteen minutes take the zucchini out and grate a whole bunch of cheese over it. Pop it back in for about two minutes and then it's all done. You just need to serve it.

A perfect compliment for chicken, or any protein.

So, I know this recipe is simple, but I'm on a simplicity kick lately. Something about having everything you're using represented in what you eat. It seems honest enough, and it always tastes good (unless it's gross)

So, enjoy this nice refreshing side dish!

I'll post a recipe later.

Before I finish, I want to make a toaster oven shout out to my friend Becky.

She made a great meal (in ramekins!), and part of this was a really great french onion soup, which got finished in the toaster. I'm so proud.