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Prep Time5 minutes
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Cook Time10 minutes
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Serving4 People
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Have you ever hated to eat something as a kid, but now as a grown up, it turns out you love the stuff? That’s EXACTLY how I feel about eggplants. Growing up, my parents would put all kinds of vegetables on my plate. I mean, to their credit, they were just trying to give me a healthy meal. But the seasoning, or lack thereof, was all wrong. How can you expect a kid to eat some unseasoned vegetables? You got to add the right mixture of spices, and flavor of course.
Luckily, as I entered adulthood, I grew to love eggplants. Even more luckily, I married a woman who knows her way around the kitchen too! So with my wife’s help, we were able to come up with this spicy stir fried eggplant recipe.
Normally, the directions in our recipes are flexible in terms of cook time, and amount of spices you want to add. But I want to emphasize that you should follow the steps in this recipe as close as possible since cooking the eggplant for the right amount of time will result in different levels of texture in the finished product. For a good eggplant side dish, you ideally want the final product to be not too mushy, and not too chewy, but somewhere in between. Trust me, we have played around with this recipe A LOT, and have had all kinds of different eggplant textures.
In other words, this recipe is the result of a lot of experimentation we did in the lab, aka our kitchen 🙂
As far as the ingredients go, eggplants you can obviously get at any grocery store. We prefer to get ours at Whole Foods, since that’s the only place we know that sells organic Eggplants. The only ingredients you may have trouble finding outside of your typical grocery store are the Korean peppers, and the Korean red pepper flakes. Luckily, Korean grocery markets have locations pretty much everywhere. Common ones to look for are H-Mart and Lotte. If there are no Korean grocery stores nearby, another alternative is to look at any available Asian grocery store.
Eggplants are super Nutritious
In terms of nutrition, I have to say eggplants are highly underrated. Not only do these bad boys have protein, they’re also packed with fiber, folate, Vitamin K, Vitamin C. So this is a veggie that will always be a superfood in my book.
Ingredients
Directions
In medium high heat, stir fry the spring onions with avocado oil in a pan for about 3 minutes
Add the eggplants and onion and cook about 4 minutes.
While the eggplant cooks, add the soy sauce, garlic, mirin, sugar, and Korean red pepper flakes, then stir for about 1 minute. Add your Korean red and green peppers (optional).
Turn off the heat, then add the sesame seed oil.
Cover the top of your pan wit a lid, then let the contents rest for about 2 minutes.
Add the sesame seeds (optional) and enjoy!
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