Gluten-Free Yuxiang Sauce

“Don’t mess with yuxiang!” my family warned me before I started experimenting with this gluten-free yuxiang zucchini dish. Yuxiang eggplant is one of their absolute favorite dishes, and they saw no need to change that beloved sauce even if it was being used with a different vegetable or a meat. But many of you do have a need to change this Sichuan super sauce to one that is gluten free or lower sodium, and Sichuan itself offers a solution.

Yuxiang eggplant—usually translated as eggplant in garlic sauce on restaurant menus—is traditionally made with Pixian doubanjiang, a mix of fermented fava beans and chilies that is the base of so many Sichuan dishes. But douban’s fermentation is kickstarted with wheat and maintained with salt, which makes it off-limits to a growing number of people. So I wanted to try a different approach with zucchini.

In Sichuan, yuxiang sauce is also frequently made with a pickled pepper paste, paolajiao, that is basically doubanjiang without the beans and wheat. Because douban and paojiao are both made from Sichuan’s erjingtiao chili, they express much the same flavor profile. Paojiao does not have the umami depth that douban has, but it has the same fermented chili taste, which goes a long way toward the douban flavor. In fact, the other famous yuxiang dish, yuxiang pork, uses the pickled pepper paste instead of douban, as do many cold dishes/salads.

The problem with cooking with Sichuan pickled peppers is that it is almost impossible to  find them outside Sichuan. Go here to read more about why this is so and how we came up with a substitute. [Since about 2022, it’s been much easier for us to source them for The Mala Market, so we usually have paolajiao in stock now.] But when we don’t have pickled peppers at hand, we make pickled erjingtiao ourselves from the freshly dried ones we sell at The Mala Market. They make a remarkably similar-tasting pickled chili to one made from fresh erjingtiao, if not quite as plump and “meaty.”

To back up a little bit, yuxiang, which literally means fish-fragrant, is the name for flavorings that were traditionally used in fish cooking—until, presumably, someone realized they are damn good on just about everything else as well. It’s basically the combination of doubanjiang—or pickled pepper paste—and lots of ginger and garlic in a light sweet-and-sour sauce (vinegar and sugar). I found that it is particularly good with zucchini, but you can also yuxiang beef,  chicken, tofu, peas, lotus root, potatoes, cucumber, and more.

Oh, and I did win over my family with this version of gluten-free yuxiang sauce. Fongchong ate most of the result of the recipe testing the minute I was finished photographing it. And after Craig and I ate what was left at dinner (with some roasted salmon), he said he hadn’t really even noticed the difference from the usual yuxiang. So there you go! I will definitely not mess with yuxiang eggplant, but the pickled-chili sauce is a winning alternative for other yuxiang dishes.

For the other yuxiang dishes, check out Yuxiang Pork (Yuxiang Rousi, 鱼香肉丝) and Sichuan Yuxiang Eggplant (Yuxiang Qiezi, 鱼香茄子)! Or for more vegetarian Chinese dishes, go to our vegetarian recipe catalog.