The Chinese eggplant is cooked until crispy and smoky using minimal oil, and then cooked in a rich savory garlic sauce. This vegan dish is very satisfying, both as a side or a main dish served over rice or noodles. {Gluten-Free Adaptable}
Eggplant is a very tricky vegetable to cook. If you don’t season it properly, it will taste bitter or extremely plain. If using too little oil, the texture will be mushy and create an awful mouthfeel. And if you use too much oil, the eggplant might turn soggy and greasy.
If you don’t like cooking eggplant at home, you probably have some of the worries below:
- Eggplant is quite time consuming to cook, compared to the average vegetable.
- You’ll end up eating more calories without getting an impressive flavor.
That is why I’m posting this Chinese eggplant recipe today, to help you to create a wonderful eggplant dish nearly effortlessly.
This recipe offers the simplest way to cook a great eggplant dish without using too much oil, and avoids soggy and plain eggplant with the minimum needed cooking time.
How to make the perfect eggplant dish
The secret to getting perfect Chinese style eggplant involves two things.
- You have to prepare the eggplant properly before cooking in order to get the right texture.
- You need to make a sauce that is flavorful enough.
To prepare the eggplant, there are two ways to do it.
Before introducing the first method, I want to thank my friend Steve S. He taught me this method quite a long time ago, to prevent the eggplant from absorbing oil.
The method is:
- Spread the sliced eggplant on a towel.
- Sprinkle Kosher salt on both surfaces of the sliced eggplant.
- Allow to rest for 15 minutes.
- Rinse the salt off the eggplant and pat each surface dry.
The second way is:
- Place the eggplant in a large bowl and add water to cover.
- Add 1/4 teaspoon salt, mix well.
- Place a pot lid on top to keep the eggplant under water for 15 minutes.
- Drain and pat dry
I personally prefer the second method. Because when soaking the eggplant in the water, it also preserve the white color of the eggplant and prevent it from oxidizing and turning brown.
Once you’ve finished either of the methods above, there is one more step – after the eggplant is completely dry, sprinkle cornstarch over it and mix by hand, until the eggplant is evenly coated with a thin layer of cornstarch.
Using this method, you can create crispy and nicely charred eggplant on the stovetop in 10 minutes. No need to turn on the oven to get the smoky flavor!
Garlic sauce ingredients
Creating a good sauce is really easy and you only need these ingredients:
- Light soy sauce
- Dark soy sauce: dark soy sauce add a beautiful dark brown color to the dish and a hint of caramel taste.
- Sugar: the sugar balance out the salty ingredients for a more roundup sauce.
- Cornstarch: the cornstarch acts as a thicker to thicken the sauce.
Just mix everything together and pour it over the eggplant at the end of cooking.
Mix en place
It’s important to have all of your ingredients prepped and ready before starting the stir fry. Your table should have:
- Eggplant, sliced, prepared according to either of the two methods listed above, and coated with cornstarch
- Mixed sauce
- Aromatics, chopped (ginger, garlic)
How to cook Chinese eggplant with garlic sauce
1. Pan frying the eggplant until golden on the surface, and the inside has turned tender. Transfer the eggplant to a plate. This step is crucial to keep the eggplant crispy.
2. Saute the aromatics.
3. Add back the eggplant and add the mixed sauce. The sauce will thicken up immediately. And the dish is done!
This recipe only uses enough sauce to coat the eggplant to keep the eggplant pieces crispy.
More delicious eggplant recipes
- Yu Xiang Eggplant (鱼香茄子, Sichuan Eggplant Stir Fry)
- Steamed Eggplant in Nutty Sauce
- Spicy Eggplant Salad (凉拌茄子)
- Di San Xian (Fried Potato, Eggplant and Pepper in Garlic Sauce 地三鲜)
- Grilled Eggplant with Yu Xiang Sauce (鱼香烤茄子)
Happy cooking and hope you enjoy the dish!
Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce (红烧茄子)
Ingredients
- 10 oz (283 g) Chinese eggplant (about 2 small eggplant) , chopped to bite-size pieces (*Footnote 1)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Sauce (*footnote 2)
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce (*see footnote 3)
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
Stir-fry
- 2 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
- 1 teaspoon ginger , minced
- 3 cloves garlic , chopped
Instructions
- (Option 1) Place eggplant in a large bowl and add water to cover. Add 1 teaspoon salt, mix well. Place a pot lid on top to keep the eggplant under water for 15 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
- (Option 2) Spread the sliced eggplant out on a paper towel. Sprinkle Kosher salt on both sides of the eggplant slices. Allow to rest for 15 minutes. Rinse with running tap water to wash off the salt, then pat dry thoroughly.
- Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl, mix well.
- Sprinkle eggplant with 1 tablespoon cornstarch and mix by hand, until eggplant is evenly coated with with a thin layer of cornstarch.
- Add 2 tablespoons oil to a big nonstick skillet and heat over medium high heat until hot. Spread eggplant across the bottom of the skillet without overlapping. Cook the eggplant one side at a time until all the surfaces are charred and the eggplant turns soft, 8 to 10 minutes in total. Transfer the eggplants to a plate. If the skillet gets too hot and starts to smoke, turn to medium heat.
- Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon oil, the ginger and garlic into the same skillet. Stir a few times until fragrant. Add all the eggplant back into the skillet. Mix the sauce again until cornstarch is fully dissolved and pour it over the eggplant. Immediately stir a few times, until the eggplant is evenly coated and the sauce thickens. Transfer everything to a big plate.
- Serve hot as a side or as main over steamed rice or noodles.
Notes
- You can use other type of eggplant and still generate crispy texture if following the method in this recipe. However, Asian long eggplant is the best option.
- This recipe uses very little sauce, just enough to coat the eggplant and make it tastes super flavorful. The rich sauce helps to keep the eggplant staying crispy. Be careful, the sauce will reduce very quickly once you add it to the pan. Stir immediately to coat the eggplant.
- The dark soy sauce will add color to the dish and make it look more appetizing. You can skip it if you don’t have any in your pantry.
This was the first recipe I tried on your website and it was so easy and delicious. My daughter travels to China for her work and the people there took her out for dinner each night. Eggplant with the garlic sauce was one dish she loved and she asked me to try and make it when she got home. I searched and found your recipe. It sounded easy enough and decided to try it. We have a very large and nice Asian market and was able to find the ingredients. The eggplant was different because I have always used the round kind. I am now a devoted cook to the Chinese long eggplant. Anyway, we had it for dinner one night and she told me it was almost as good as what she had over in China. She was referring to me as a cook not your recipe as I am still learning to make these dishes. I have made this often and will continue to because it gets better each time I cook it. I signed up for your 5 day course and am enjoying it and learning new things and new recipes. Thank you for the recipes and your website in general. It has so much information about ingredients, cooking and beautiful dishes.. I must admit I didn’t go looking for anything else to make until I ran across your 5 day course. It has been a real eye opener with all the dishes you have recipes for. I am so excited to start making some of them now. The Egg Drop Soup is a favorite but have never tried it at home but now I will. Again, thank you!
Thanks for the great recipe Maggie! Simple and delicious. I originally wanted to make Yu Xiang eggplant but switched to this one when I realised I didn’t have Dou Ban Jiang. Now I think I will just stick to this one and not have to keep a jar of Dou Ban Jiang in the pantry which I always have trouble getting through.
I think I found my next favorite website! I love chinese food and being able to make a variety of recipes at home is so AWESOME! My neighbors gave us some eggplant and I am trying to find a way for my family to eat it and enjoy it too. I think this is it! 🙂 Will be coming back to try other recipes 🙂
Very flavourful. However I missed the tart vinegar taste that other recipes had. I splashed a tuny bit of balsamic just before serving. The texture of the eggplant was the best of all recipes and is far superior in flavor to the others. Also, a touch of hot sauce to the sauce mixture was good. I topped with a healthy handhul of sliced green onions.
Made it and love it! Much like a Chinese restaurant where we used to live. They would make it for me with pork or fried tofu. Made it with pork So Good! Used a wok and it took way to long and much more oil. than called for. Next time I’m maaking it in my huge electric skillet so more pieces can be made at the same time.
It was good but to my taste a bit bland. I notice your photos have some chopped green onion (which isn’t in the recipe) but which I will add next time. What would you recommend to kick it up a notch? More garlic? Splash of dark vinegar? Oyster sauce?
Love it but have a hack to make it quicker (after salting). spread a layer of grapeseed oil on a sheet pan, dip each side of the eggplant into it and arrange it all on the cookie sheet. Roast @450 until coloured as you want and soft. it took me soooo long to fry the eggplant in a frying pan when I made this the first time.
@Omnivorescookbook
I was a little skeptical, but it was easy and awesome. My eggplant didn’t get ‘crispy’ but it was still good. Not too mushy. I used the water soak method. Next time I’ll try to salted method, just to see if I get different results. My partner liked it, and she hates eggplant. Now to learn a better way to make vermicelli rice noodles that don’t stick. Sigh. Oh, and I didn’t have fresh ginger, but the minced in the jar worked just fine. Will definitely look for more recipes on here.
This was soooooo good! I had eggplant to use and stumbled across your recipe. It is one of the best Chinese veg side dish I’ve ever made! Going to try the sauce with other veggies too- green beans in particular.
Only change I made was coconut Aminos in place of soy sauce and dark soy sauce
I love this recipe very much. I always use Chinese eggplant, and I just read the note, I will try with other types soon
Thank you, this was delicious. I’ve made it twice now. The first time I was a bit shy about turning up the heat and letting the eggplant really char. The second time I made sure the oil was hot before I added the eggplant, and then let it get properly browned like in the photos. The taste was great both times, but it really needed the heat to become truly crispy. For any other heat-shy cooks out there – try not to be!
It was also really helpful to have the two different options for salting – thank you!
I had a lot of eggplant so I made a double batch and I am glad I did because it disappeared! It was so good. I will be making this again.
Not wild about vegan recipes, but with shaved pork (1 lb) and 1/2 c. black bean paste – awesome recipe.
This was delicious–first time making it and the eggplant turned out well (I used the soaking method) and my family loved it. Will definitely make again.
Eggplant is tender and delicious. The sauce was really nice for the amount and time it took to make. Really gives off authentic Asian flavors, and highlights the eggplant well Would definitely make this again.
Super yummy! Thank you for this recipe, I absolutely love eggplant especially cooked this way.
This was not too difficult to prepare and tasted wonderful. Bonus that it’s vegan, so my mom can enjoy it too. I will definitely be adding this to my regular recipe rotation. I really appreciate the nutritional information included with the recipe.
Hi Maggie,
Have you tried this recipe in an air fryer?
I think it’s totally possible to cook this in the air fryer.
I would do the cornstarch coating as usual, then spray with a generous amount of oil. The sauce still need to be finished in a pan, and then tossed with the air fried eggplant together.
PS. I do have an air fryer eggplant: https://omnivorescookbook.com/air-fryer-eggplant/ It’s a different recipe but quite simple and tasty.
My friends loved this recipe immensely. They couldn’t stop eating it!
Oh wow, that sounds amazing! I love eggplant and the garlicky sauce is such a great addition to the
dish. Have you tried adding some sesame oil or chopped scallions to give it an extra boost of
flavor? It’s definitely going on my dinner menu this week!
You definitely can add the sesame oil and / or chopped scallion to boost the flavor! I used peanut oil so it’s alraedy nutty, but a touch of sesame oil at the end should be great. If you like spicy food, a touch of chili oil at the end also works wonder 🙂