Easy, full of flavor zucchini pancake served ith a lovely dipping sauce.
Haha, pancakes! I have introduced lots of yummy Chinese pancakes like beef or other meat flavored pancakes. But this one, is much easier than those ones. Traditional and easy zucchini and green onion pancake is one of the best choice for a quick breakfast.
So several days ago, when I visit a Beijing style restaurant where excellent Zhajiang Noodles were sold, I encountered with this old fashioned zucchini pancakes. They were served along with garlic and vinegar sauce. But I figure out a hot dipping sauce is even better.
This kind of pancake with some shredded vegetables for example zucchini or potatoes and green onions, eggs and flour is named as “Hutazi” in Chinese which literally mean pancakes. Summer is a great time for zucchini, right.
In Chinese language, zucchini is named as western calabash but is has become one of the most popular daily ingredients now. Another representative should be broccoli. I have not seen it around 10 years back or so. But it has swept across the whole country.
Step by Step Instructions
Wash the zucchini and shred with a tool. Make sure that they are similar in size. Then sprinkle some salt and set aside. Then squeeze the water out.
Add all-purpose flour, egg, osyter sauce, salt and pepper in. Mix in one direction until there is no dry flour left any more. Set aside for around 15 minutes.
Add vegetable oil in and spread the batter. Try to make it as round as possbile. I prefer to pan-fry the pancake one time. But you can choose to fry it as smaller ones by 2 or 3 batches.
Once one side of the pancake is well browned, flip over and fry the other side.
Zucchini Pancakes Chinese Style
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil for frying the pancakes
Pancake Batter
- 1/2 pound fresh shredded zucchini
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/3 tsp. salt
- 1/3 tsp. black peppercorn
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
Dipping sauce ingredients
- 1 tbsp. Chinese chili oil or other brand you may have
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
- 1 tbsp. chopped scallion
- 1 tsp. oyster sauce
- 1 tsp. black vinegar
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. water
Instructions
- Wash the zucchini and shred with a tool. Make sure that they are similar in size. Then sprinkle some salt and set aside. Then squeeze the water out.
- Add all-purpose flour, egg, oyster sauce, salt and pepper in. Mix in one direction until there is no dry flour left any more. Set aside for around 15 minutes.
- Add vegetable oil in and spread the batter. Try to make it as round as possbile. I prefer to pan-fry the pancake one time. But you can choose to fry it as smaller ones by 2 or 3 batches.
- Once one side of the pancake is well browned, flip over and fry the other side.
- Mix all the ingredients for dipping sauce together in a small bowl.
- Transfer out and serve directly or with the dipping sauce.
Nutrition
Other Pancake Recipes
If you love Chinese pancakes, check the following to get some new ideas.
- Scallion pancake – which is the most popular Chinese pancake.
- Chinese meat pie– filled with juicy meat, also known as Xian Bing.
Looks delicious! This is a great way to use all those summer zucchinis.
Yes, I cannot agree more. Holly. I am quite satisfied by the taste myself.
Holy moly, you seriously know your food. This looks awesome, so much easier to make than shallot pancakes (making them properly that is!) but I have a feeling this is going to be just as tasty. I can’t WAIT to try this, it is exactly the kind of food I love!!
Thanks Nagi. This version really is much easier than shallot pancake or green onions pancakes , which is perfect for summer days because the kitchen really is so hot!
I love zucchini and green onions together. This looks so yummy- it would make a great breakfast! I’ve never used black rice vinegar before, I’ll have to look for it to try.
Sherri,
Black rice vinegar is a common seasoning in Chinese cooking. But I think apple cider vinegar is also great for this recipe.
Thanjs fof this tip!
Really delicious pancakes. So simple to make and can be eaten at room temperatureare. Another zuchinni recipe for when my garden is producing an abundance. Thank you so much for for sharing
Thank you, Lenny. Happy cooking!
Hi Elaine – can I confirm that it is just 1 zucchini? Not 1 pound? It seems like a lot of flour for 1 zucchini, looking at your pictures. Though perhaps your zucchinis are bigger than the ones we get here!
Hi Nagi,
Yes, I just use 1 zucchini, I do not know the size of zucchini on your side. But here, we usually get large ones around 300g to 400g each one. So you can adjust the amount accordingly. I have realize that this is a serious problem other readers might come across. So I updated the recipe. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
Elaine, I made this last night and it was awesome!! I made miniature versions about the size of gold balls and I added chilli paste to the sauce. I hope you don’t mind that I plan to share it on my blog and give you full credit (not just stuck in the footer, but I want to write about you in the post as well). Please email me directly if you have any concerns. Thanks Elaine, this was SO awesome! PS I used a large zucchini that yielded about 1 1/2 cups when grated (not packed in tight). It seemed to be the perfect amount.
Thanks Nagi for your trust and feedback. I am so excited to see it on your blog. Chinese cooking sometimes is really free style, we usually adjust the ingredients, in most cases, based on past experiences. Thanks again for trying my recipes.
Hey Elaine! The post is up 🙂 I hope I did you recipe justice!! http://www.recipetineats.com/chinese-zucchini-pancake-bites/