Szechuan sauce is a wok sauce that comes from Asian cuisine. Szechuan sauce is originally from China and has a spicy flavor. The sauce is made with tomato paste, some vegetables, different spices like cinnamon and laos. The Szechuan sauce can be bought in stores, but Szechuan sauce is also very easy to make yourself. The sauce is mainly used for recipes with chicken, pork and beef. In this text, we are going to give you some different dishes which the sauce can be used with. Maybe you will see a dish that you like and you will make a recipe with Szechuan sauce. It will be just like being in a Chinese restaurant for a while.

What is Szechuan sauce like?

China is a very, very big country with a lot of people. We all know that. Because China is so big, you can also divide Chinese cuisine into different types of cuisines. For example, you have the Cantonese, Shandong, Huaiyang and Sichuan cuisine. Almost all Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands come from the Cantonese kitchen in China, but the Szechuan sauce comes from the Sichuan kitchen in China. This cuisine is known for all the spicy food they make and therefore is not suitable for everyone. However, you can make the sauce a little less spicy yourself if you really can't stand it. The dishes from this cuisine are completely immersed in sauces that are full of spicy peppers. However, it is not the case that your food is so spicy that you can no longer taste it properly. The flavors of the dishes and the sauces are still prevalent and very tasty.

Recipes for vegetarians

As we just said in the introduction, the sauce is generally widely used for dishes with chicken, pork or beef. But vegetarians can also make delicious dishes with the Szechuan sauce. Tofu is of course a very popular product in Asia and more and more Dutch people are also using it. Especially among vegetarians and vegans tofu is very popular. A very tasty recipe you can make with Szechuan sauce is vegetarian ma po tofu. This tofu is made within twenty minutes and is therefore very easy. The preparation time and the cooking time both only take about ten minutes. Therefore, this is very tasty to make when you are short on time, but fancy something nice and spicy and healthy.

Using Szechuan sauce for chicken

This spicy chicken is very famous in the southwestern province of China: Szechuan or Sichuan. Making the chicken is very easy. You can choose to make the sauce yourself, because many people find homemade Szechuan sauce much tastier than store-bought, but if you don't have much time, a packet from the Asian supermarket will also do. You only need to marinate the chicken in the sauce and then fry it in a pan. With the chicken you can make rice with some vegetables and herbs or you can serve noodles. Both options are very popular with Chinese people.

Marinate eggs in Szechuan sauce

Another delicious dish you can start making with the Szechuan sauce are eggs. Everyone has probably eaten a spicy egg with some noodles or rice and vegetables. You can also make something similar with the Szechuan sauce. You let this sauce soak into the eggs for a while and then you can serve it deliciously with, for example, spicy beans or garlic beans and noodles or some rice. This is also a very simple recipe that is therefore very popular among many people. It does take a little longer to make than the other dishes, because you have to add some other things. Just eating an egg is not enough.

A simple stir-fry 

If you don't have much time to make food or don't feel like standing in the kitchen for a long time, then making a wok might be a good idea. you can of course throw anything in here. There are ready-made vegetables available in stores. These are already pre-cut and you can immediately throw in the pan. But there are also people who prefer to invent and cut the vegetables themselves. With these vegetables you throw some marinated or non-marinated chicken to which you add the Szechuan sauce. Then some rice or noodles and your food is ready.