Best Szechuan recipes

Best szechuan recipes

Home-style cabbage

This fancy cabbage side dish showcases the Sichuan love of dried chillies. It's great served alongside mapo tofu, cold sesame noodles, or dumplings in hot and sour broth.

Smacked cucumbers

By ‘smacking’ the cucumbers in this Sichuan side dish you create more rough surfaces – all the better for soaking up the zingy pickle.

Cold sesame noodles

Peanuts and sesame are big factors in Sichuan cooking, as is a love of cold savoury dishes to cool off on hot days. This is a great recipe to start with, if you want to get involved.

Dumplings in hot and sour broth

This hot and sour broth epitomises Sichuan cooking – spicy, sour and packed full of umami. All the better with delicate little dumplings soaking up the broth.

Spicy peanut and szechuan pepper noodles

Add at hint of szechuan spice to these creamy peanut noodles, packed with crunchy broccoli and fiery ginger.

Dan dan (ish) noodles

This might not be the version you’d get from a restaurant but it’s full of flavour. It has that comforting warmth you crave when you come home and want something delicious yet simple to put together.

Szechuan chicken stir fry

Check out our Szechuan chicken stir-fry recipe. This low calorie dish is super easy to make and packed with fragrant, Szechuan flavour. Here are our favourite stir fry recipes to try.

Dan dan noodles

This recipe gives you takeaway-style noodles, with the heat of a Szechuan peppercorn base, in just 20 minutes. It's so easy to make that you'll never go back. Find our quick and easy noodles recipes here.

Szechuan aubergines

This is a version of yu xiang qie zi, fish flavoured aubergine, so called because the flavours are usually used with fish. Here the Szechuan flavour comes not in its usual peppercorn form but in a Szechuan chilli bean paste. Buy Chinese black vinegar from Waitrose, souschef.co.uk, or Asian supermarkets. Leave the pork out to make this vegetarian. Looking for aubergine recipes? We've got more here.

Cold Szechuan noodles

Check out our recipe for punchy cold Szechuan noodles. This easy vegan dish is super simple to make and it's low in calories.

Chargrilled baby squid and prawns with Szechuan sauce

Try our easy chargrilled baby squid and prawns with crispy bits. In this recipe we've used Szechuan peppercorns which aren’t a traditional Vietnamese ingredient, but they give this dish some citrussy heat. You can make the crispy bits ahead of time.

Szechuan dry-fried green beans

We love the zing of Szechaun peppercorns – this is one of the most popular takeaways among our team, but only takes minutes to recreate.

Mapo tofu

Check out this easy vegan mapo tofu recipe from the new Taiwanese restaurant XU in London's Chinatown. This super simple recipe takes no time at all to make and is packed with flavour with the use of both whole and ground Szechuan peppercorns. Try our tofu recipes here.

Stir-fried pork with spicy black bean sauce

This stir-fried pork with spicy and citrussy Szechuan black bean sauce is low in calories and super easy to make. Ready in just 20 minutes, this dish is a great midweek meal.

Sticky Chinese ribs

These sticky Chinese pork ribs, slathered in a Szechuan peppercorn glaze, are really easy to make and a great dish to treat your family and friends at the weekend. Serve with some rice and tuck in!

Szechuan prawn noodles

Our hot and spicy Chinese-style noodles, seasoned with ground Szechuan peppercorns, only take 15 minutes to whip up so they'd make a great quick and easy mid-week meal if you're stuck for time or craving some healthy, low cal fast food.

Kung pao prawns

This Kung Pao shrimp recipe is a really low calorie stir-fry and is served in a homemade sauce with noodles or rice. The Szechuan peppercorns and chilli flakes add some spice to the prawns while the cashew nuts add a crunchy texture to the dish. Here are our top prawn recipes to try.

Szechuan lamb skewers with carrot salad

A quick lamb recipe for the BBQ. Thread onto skewers, coat with a spicy Szeuchan and chilli rub and pop on the grill. Serve with the carrot and coriander salad.

Stir-fried smacked cucumbers

Regional Chinese cuisines are slowly spreading across the UK, breaking the hold of Hong Kong style Cantonese cuisine. In this recipe the smacked cucumber is stir fried with whole Szechuan peppercorns and chilli. It is traditionally a beer snack, so you can serve it with drinks, or use it as a side dish.

Nasu dengaku (miso grilled aubergine)

This riff on sweet 'n' sour miso grilled aubergine from Kurobuta, a tiny café-like space on Chelsea’s King’s Road, makes the perfect easy starter or side dish that looks impressive, finished with a sprinkle of walnuts, sesame seeds ground Szechuan pepper.

Szechuan beef and red pepper stir fry

Stir-fries make the best quick recipe. This Szechuan-marinated beef dish is ready in just 20 minutes, is a healthy meal for two but could easily be doubled for a family.