This is the second suggestion for hot summer 2015 in a RED Hearts series of seasonal recipes – things you can cook or bake, usually healthy things, always easy things – for the people you heart! Served up by Erika Kwee, 24, “the baker, photographer and typo-maker” behind vegetarian food blog The Pancake Princess.
On a recent trip home, I spent an afternoon with my family making a huge batch of potstickers. It’s a tradition we bust out on occasion. Typically we eat these filled with shrimp, pork or turkey, alongside a steaming pot of rice and a few ramekins of soy sauce.
But this time I’d traveled with my brand-new spiralizer. Armed with the magical tool for transforming vegetables into noodles of sorts, I couldn’t help but eye the zucchinis lying out on the counter as I whipped up the simple house favorite dipping sauce.
The match was meant to be. I ended up with a really fresh and satisfying take on our normal dumpling feast: salty, tangy zucchini noodles that provide both flavor and a nutritional boost. (It’s up to you whether or not you choose to refer to them as zoodles.)
Though the original dipping sauce recipe calls for soy sauce, liquid aminos give the same satisfying salty flavor with a fraction of the sodium. You can substitute them for a tablespoon or more of soy sauce to taste, thinning the rest of the sauce with water as needed.
And if you don’t have a spiralizer, don’t worry. You can also make zucchini—or any kind of vegetable—noodles with a box grater.
Asian Dipping Sauce Zucchini Noodles
Sauce:
3 tablespoons liquid aminos
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
½ tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 small scallion, minced (optional)
red pepper flakes (optional)
Noodles:
2-3 medium zucchinis, spiralized
Whisk all sauce ingredients together, then toss with zucchini noodles. Serve alongside potstickers!