Vegetable Teriyaki: Improv Challenge Zucchini and Brown Sugar

This last month has been a whirl of activity; school started, we moved  to a new Florida zip code and completely unpacked (including a magnificently organized garage into which we could park both cars if we so chose), my husband was shot in the chest and spent 4 days in the local ICU, my eldest tried out and made the school play, we have had 3 children take 4 sick days from school, I have started volunteering in the elementary school and we have found out that my husband will be home until the middle of November per his doctor’s request.  It is a minor miracle that I totally had my Improv Challenge dish done two weeks ago.

For any of you who have not heard of the Improv Challenge, it’s a monthly cooking challenge where two ingredients are assigned and the participants see what they can come up with.  It’s like Chopped, only with no pressure and no weird ingredients.  See my Improv page above if you want more details.

Anyhoo,  this month the ingredients are Zucchini and Brown Sugar.  I have a lot of zucchini cookie, muffin and cake recipes already on this blog, so I thought I would go savory.  Immediately, I thought of teriyaki.  It’s something I haven’t had since going gluten free because most commercial sauces contain that fiendish ingredient.  So the challenge became one of making the entire thing homemade and legal for me.

I am not going to say that it is spot on authentic.  I looked up a couple of commercial sauce ingredient lists to see what was in them.  Then, I used what I had in my pantry and fridge in an attempt to come close.  We were very happy with the results.

Print Vegetable Teriyaki Author: Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker  

Ingredients

• ¼ cup gluten free soy sauce (or regular)
• 1 tsp fish sauce (thai kitchen and hokan brands are gluten free)
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp sesame oil, divided
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 2 zucchini, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic

Instructions

1. In a bowl, combine soy sauce, fish sauce, ginger paste, garlic powder, brown sugar and 1 tsp sesame oil.
2. Set aside.
3. In a nonstick skillet, saute the vegetables in remaining 1 tsp sesame oil on medium high heat.
4. When vegetables are almost soft, add the soy sauce mixture.
5. Stir and cook until vegetables are done to your liking.
6. Serve over rice or as a side.

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