Sharing Plate – Your Cooking Coach |

This is a very versatile side dish. I am always looking for new ways to cook vegetables. My daughter in not a big fan of zucchini. She doesn’t like the texture- well, it really depends how I cook it for her. It it is broiled or stir fried and cooked just a tad- essentially, she doesn’t like it when it goes all limp and I don’t blame her. I think she would love fried zucchini- but since I will not be doing that- I have to come up with other ways of feeding this green vegetable to her.

I usually cook it in a stir fry- with chicken, pork or beef. One of our favorite Chinese restaurant- Hunan Spring serves a chicken zucchini dish. It is one of my favorite dishes there- it is fairly healthy with lots of zucchini and white meat chicken. I ask them to make it extra spicy and it is fabulous. I try to replicate that at home and it comes out quite nice as well.

I already had some lentils made in the fridge and I was planning on making fresh rotis but I needed a veggie. I had a pack of zucchini from Trader Joes. I decided to cook it like a stir fry but with Indian spices. My daughter approved since the texture was not mushy. I finished the dish with a squirt of lemon juice which awoke all the flavors and made it yummy.

Sauteed zucchini will be ideal with roast chicken, pork tenderloin or even fish or shrimp.

• 3 medium zucchini, cut into ½ inch slices
• 2 teaspoons mustard seeds
• 10-12 curry leaves
• 2 tablespoons extra light olive oil
• Salt
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/3 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Juice of half a lemon

In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. Saute for 30 seconds on medium high heat or till the seeds begin to sizzle. Add the zucchini slices and sauté on high heat 5-6 minutes, till the slices begin to brown. Add the salt, coriander powder and cayenne pepper. Mix well and turn the heat off. Add the lemon juice and check for seasonings before serving.