If you love eggplant recipes as much as we do, try our eggplant curry and roasted eggplant with harissa! Eggplant can be one of those vegetables that you either love or you just aren’t sure what to do with it. Well, this Asian eggplant recipe will help you turn the corner and become an official eggplant fan. It also makes a perfect vegetarian side dish for your meal! Plus, with just five minutes of prep time and fifteen minutes of cooking time, you’re looking at a beautiful dish in no time. Salting or brining the eggplant allows it to be pan-fried without soaking up a ton of oil, but it also takes time. Since we typically don’t have a lot of time to make dinner, we skip this step and the step of frying the eggplant. Instead, we braise the eggplant right in the sauce. We can’t claim that our method is authentic, but we can assure you that this method saves time and makes delicious eggplant!
Asian eggplant: These beautiful purple vegetables are the centerpiece of this dish. You’ll need three eggplants for this recipe, however, if you can’t find Asian eggplant you can use the American, Globe, variety. Cooking oil and toasted sesame oil: eggplants are naturally very absorbent, so they normally soak up oils. However, using the braising technique in this recipe, the oil only coats the eggplants and sucks up the stock instead. The toasted sesame oil will give a delicious nutty flavor to the dish. Onion, ginger, and garlic: this trio will set the savory tone for this dish and have your kitchen smelling incredible! Ginger also gives a little zing that’s familiar in Asian recipes. Sichuan pepper: ground Sichuan pepper will add a hint of lemon (and not add spicy or heat, unlike black pepper or dried red chilies). Stock: This will be used to braise the sliced eggplant and help infuse the eggplant with extra flavor. You can use vegetable or chicken stock. Soy sauce: Adding soy sauce will give a rich, salty profile to the eggplant. You can use tamari or gluten-free if needed. Garlic chili sauce: This will add some heat to the Asian eggplant. Garlic chili sauce is tangy and spicy but if you don’t have any on hand you can use Sriracha, chili paste or chili-garlic paste. You can also choose to omit this ingredient, for a mild version of this recipe. Chinkiang vinegar: this is a rice-based, black vinegar. You can easily substitute rice vinegar or red wine vinegar. Honey: To add some sweetness to the dish, honey balances some of the other intense flavors that come with this recipe. Cornstarch: In a small bowl, you’ll mix together the sauce which includes cornstarch. In this instance, cornstarch is used to thicken the mixture. Optional to garnish: Chopped cilantro, green onion (scallions), toasted sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes.
In this recipe, the Asian eggplant is braised in some stock with ginger, garlic, and Sichuan pepper. Braising is really just a fancy word for cooking in liquid. Typically, braise is a term allocated to meat, but you can braise veggies, too.
Braising the eggplant cuts down on the amount of fat you need. Eggplant sucks up fat like nobody’s business, so braising is a great way to avoid this and still keep all the taste. Win win!
To braise the eggplant, heat the cooking oil and sesame oil in a large frying pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring constantly for 3 minutes. Add the eggplant, ginger, garlic, and Sichuan pepper and stir together. Pour ¾ cup of the stock over the top and cover the pan. Let the eggplant braise for 10 minutes, stirring a couple of times.
In this recipe, we use either Chinese eggplant or Japanese eggplant. Both are long and slender and less bitter than globe eggplants. Chinese eggplants are a light purple color while Japanese eggplants are dark purple. Either variety works well in this recipe. Asian eggplants have fewer seeds than American or globe eggplants and are therefore less bitter. The Asian varieties are also the best option for quick cooking, given their slender shape. The globe eggplant is meatier and has more seeds and so doesn’t lend itself as well to a quick cook. Sichuan pepper is commonly used in the Sichuan province in China – surprise, surprise! Although it is also used in many other places such as Nepal, Bhutan, and India. Despite its name, it is not similar to chilies or black pepper. Sichuan pepper has a slightly lemony taste and (if you eat a lot of it) will give you a funny, tingling, buzzing sort of feeling in your mouth. You can buy Sichuan pepper at Asian markets or here online. While there’s no real substitute for Sichuan peppers, and you could simply leave them out of the recipe, you can also substitute half black pepper with half lemon zest or sumac. It won’t be quite the same, but it will still be very good. This braised eggplant recipe is a wonderful side dish, but let’s build out an entire menu to serve with it! Here are some perfect pairs:
Garlic ginger chicken Slow-baked Asian salmon Asian stir-fry noodles Perfect basmati rice Cauliflower fried rice Matcha ice cream
Whoever you’re serving for dinner will leave the table super satisfied!
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