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.
We had this and your squid with vegetables for lunch yesterday and they were delicious! Clean plate! Thanks Maggi! Now going through your recipe list for our next lunch menu 😉
Amazing! I substituted the sugar with erythritol for my keto vegan diet.
Fantastic recipie. Best success I’ve had with this style of dish yet. Thanks for all the detailed hints! I made it last night for dinner – I only had a ‘regular’ eggplant on hand so used that; it worked just fine. (Rinse off outside of eggplant briefly; trimmed off ‘top and bottom ends’ then sliced it into ~2cm thick ’rounds’. Used those in the recipie / otherwise it was more or less identical process. Turned out really well. really yummy! Thanks again for sharing this method.
In describing the preparation you said that one way was to slice the eggplant and salt the slices. In the second method you don’t suggest slicing at all. Also in this method you first say use 1/4 tsp salt then later in the recipe you say 1 tsp salt. Please explain.
(I cut up the eggplant anyway in the second method and used 1 tsp salt. It made more sense).
This was so easy and delicious. Highly recommend.
I’ve made this a few times already and it’s SOOO good! Yesterday was the first time I tried the paper towel/wait for 45 minutes method of de-moisturizing the eggplant just because I had the time. Almost prefer that method more than the other one; but usually when I make this I want it right away. Tastes just as good as restaurant versions if not better. Thank you for the recipe and great step-by-step instructions. I’m the only one in my family that will eat eggplant now that my daughter moved out of the house–oh well, more for me.
so yummy! No Chinese eggplant at my grocery store so I used one giant conventional eggplant and it still tastes good. Thanks for the recipe
This was a great side. Added bok choy to it. Very easy to make. Will repeat this dish.
Wonderful, just like in Beijing! I’ve been wanting to recreate for years, and this brought me back in an instant! Thank you!
I tired your method and is delicious yet not too oily as I thought. Good tips!! Thank you so much.
mind blowingly good… crazy… this is now a staple in our house
I tried the salting method and it made the finished dish taste incredibly salty! Agh. Next time I would rinse the salt off or try the soaking method.
What does the second character from the left mean. I know the first one is “red”. What is the second? XIe xie!
Also, you are going to confuse people by calling this dish eggplant with garlic sauce. When you go to a Chinese restaurant in the US and see eggplant with garlic sauce on the menu, the dish it refers to is yu Hsiang chiedz, or fish fragrant eggplant, your other dish.
This is my favorite Chinese dish. We will have it tonight. Can’t wait!
Hi Norina, the second character means “cook” or “braise”.
Yeah I’ve noticed the name problem after I moved to the US. The recipe was published long before I got to know American Chinese food. Too late to change though! I already have the fish fragrant eggplant on this blog and changing things might further confuse people.
PS. What would you call this dish?
That eggplant was beyond awesome! Best I have ever eaten, and I used to live in Hong Kong! I have been waiting my whole life for the secret to making Chinese eggplant! Brava, Maggie!
Maybe a third method to avoid using too much oil on eggplants is to cut them into pieces, then microwave for 5 minutes in a bowl (with a lid to retain some moisture). The salt treatment or heating basically extract the water from the eggplant into the spongy part of the fruit, thus preventing oil from filling the holes.
Hi Alan, thanks for sharing this! Can’t wait to try out your method 🙂
Hi, I did the recipe. Absolutely delicious! I added some pepper flakes for spicy flavor and some leeks and I also did the zucchini I had the same way! Thank you! 😊
Easy recipe & it turned out so delicious! This is one of my favorite dishes to order at the restaurant but now I can make it! Thanks for the recipe!
This was amazing. My new favorite way to make eggplant. I do have to say, because I like the slightly bitter flavor of some eggplant, I skipped the soaking in water and draining with salt. THAT was the only change I made.
This was excellent, highly recommend.
This is so so good!! I used a conventional eggplant since I couldn’t get a Chinese one. I was worried about the skin being too thick since people mentioned it in the comments, but it’s not a problem at all!
My only problem is that I wish I had used a bigger eggplant because I want more!