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Spicy Baby Octopus Stir-fry

A fast, easy and nutritious stir-fry that pairs well with rice, lettuce wraps, noodles, beer and everything else!
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time5 minutes
Course: Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine: Asian, Korean
Keyword: Baby octopus, Balanced, Beer snack, Easy, Healthy, lettuce wrap, Octopus, One pan, Quick, Rice slayer, Seafood, Spicy
Servings: 4

Equipment

  • Scissors
  • Wok
  • Spatula
  • Knife
  • Chopping board

Ingredients

  • 500 g baby octopus
  • 1 tbsp salt for cleaning the octopus
  • 1-2 tbsp Gochujan
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce Korean
  • 2 tsp sesame oil Korean
  • 1 tbsp Corn syrup Substitute with Honey
  • 1 Brown onion
  • 1 Carrot
  • 1 Lebanese cucumber or Zucchini
  • 100 g bean sprouts
  • 1 tbsp Oil grapeseed
  • 2 tsp garlic minced

Instructions

  • Prepare the octopus first. Using the scissors, cut the head off above the eyes. Also cut the tentacles from right below the eyes and discard the eyes. Remove the beak from the centre of the tentacles by squeezing it. Flip the head inside out and remove all innards. Repeat with all the octopus and sprinkle with salt. Massage thoroughly to clean for 5 mins and rinse well with water.
  • Cut the octopus into bite size pieces. I like to cut the head into 2-4 pieces depending on the size of the octopus. Cut the tentacles into single tentacles if they are quite large, or into twos. Set aside
  • Slice the onion. Peel the carrot and slice in half length wise. Then cut into thin diagonal slices. Cut the cucumber in a similar fashion.
  • Soak and rinse the beansprouts in water, remove the root ends if you would like.
  • Heat up your wok, when it starts to smoke, drizzle in the grapeseed oil.
  • Add the onions and garlic into the wok and stir fry until fragrant, around 1 min. Add in the carrots and stir fry for 2-3mins.
  • add in the baby octopus and stir fry into the vegetables. Drizzle in the soy sauce and add in 1 tbsp of gochujang and stir fry to mix the sauces in well, for around 30 seconds. You can add more gochujang if you would like it to be more spicy.
  • Add in the corn syrup and stir fry well for 1 min. The baby octopus should start to curl and turn opaque. Add in the cucumber followed by the bean sprouts. If you are using zucchini and not cucumber, add the zucchini first and saute for 2 mins until slightly softened before adding in the bean sprouts.
  • Taste and adjust the seasoning, drizzle in the sesame oil and stir fry well for 30 seconds, before removing from heat. Serve immediately.

Notes

I usually use zucchini in this recipe but opted for cucumber as it was what needed to be used up in my fridge. Using the cucumber made it less Korean style and more of a Chinese twist on the flavours. You can use honey as a substitute instead of the corn syrup if you don't have any. If you prefer a thicker sauce, you can remove everything from the wok except the sauce and turn it down on low and simmer for another 5-10mins to reduce and thicken the sauce.