Grilled Zucchini With Sweet Savory Sauce

Similar to cucumber. At least that's what I used to think about zucchini. Not as a local vegetable in my country, Zucchini has always intrigued me.

Ah, vegetables really make me curious. My taste buds are always looking for flavors and textures from new vegetables. It is a special happiness for me.

Zucchini looks like a cucumber but has a smooth skin and is generally larger in size. God's creation is diverse. That diversity makes us appreciate differences and yearn for many flavors at once.

Zucchini's inside texture is more like squash but not dense. While the outer part is crunchy like a cucumber.

So far, the recipe about Zucchini that I like the most is Zucchini Noodles. Zucchini is shaved into noodles. Then it is cooked by stir-frying for a while and maintains a crunchy texture.

Back to this day, I'm looking for another recipe to serve Zucchini. Which can be eaten as a snack or a side dish to complement the main meal. So, I thought about Grilled Zucchini.

Grilled Zucchini

Actually, Grilled Zucchini is really easy to make. We just need to slice them but not too thin.

We don't need to peel the zucchini first. Here I just removed the hard looking zucchini on both sides.

Then, I cut the zucchini in half. From those two parts, I cut each into two more parts. So, the total is 4 pieces of Zucchini from one large Zucchini.

Then, make incisions in the zucchini pieces. This is to make it easier for the sauce to absorb into the zucchini later.

First, make an incision in a downward direction. Then followed by a diagonal incision.

Heat the oil on the cooking utensil. Then grill the Zucchini until browned. Don't forget to turn the other side of the zucchini pieces so they cook evenly.

Here, to be honest, I don't have a special tool for grilling food, such as for serving BBQ. I just use the normal pan.

The thing that must be considered here, indeed the cooking tool greatly affects the final taste of the Zucchini. The real grill tools are the best. This type of tool will allow the water from the zucchini to evaporate completely so that the zucchini will not contain much water later.

Also, if using a Grill Pan that is specifically for BBQ, I recommend you slice the Zucchini thinner than mine on this blog. This will make the zucchini taste even more perfect.

But because I don't have a special grill tool, I just use a pan for cooking in general. It doesn't matter though I miss the smokey sensation here in my recipe. But wait, actually it's not a disappointment.

I can recreate my satisfaction. The trick is to use the sauce. That's why I made sweet Savory sauce to cover up the weakness.

Sweet Savory Sauce

Just as salt was invented to evoke the delicious flavors of food, so are sauces. For me, the sauce really helps add the taste of food to be more acceptable to my tongue. Whether it's with spicy sauce, savory and sweet sauce. So, this time I'm going to make a sweet and savory sauce to complement Grilled Zucchini.

In this blog, I apologize for not having specific photos for the sauce ingredients. At that time I was only focused on making videos. But then the video gets deleted because my iPhone's memory is so easy to get full nowadays.

For the ingredients, I use a mixture of chopped red onion and garlic. Then I added sweet soy sauce. Why sweet soy sauce? The sweet soy sauce will blend perfectly with the savory onion and salt. Also, with sesame later when served.

In Indonesia, we rarely use salty soy sauce. Generally we use sweet soy sauce for cooking. It will create an Umami flavor that is deliciously authentic and hard to describe in words. ❤️

After the Zucchini is cooked, grill it, then add the sauce. Cook for a while until the sauce seems to seep into the Zucchini. Then, serve with sesame seeds.

Fun Facts

Eating Grilled Zucchini without the addition of other ingredients is exactly like eating a salad, only with soy sauce dressing. 😀 That's because the texture of the zucchini still feels fresh, a little watery.

Another fact, if eaten with warm rice, also a sprinkling of fried onions, it tastes more perfect for my taste buds.

So, just get to know your taste buds and add some ingredients for the toppings and you will succeed! See you on my food blog, FOODIES!

Thank you for reading my blog and reblog if you want my blog this time worthy of reading by others.

Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari