Soya Eggplant Dish Recipe - Korean Infusion
Are you looking for a new vegetarian dish idea?
Love eggplant dishes at Asian restaurants but find them too greasy?
This eggplant dish recipe is perfect for you—light, flavorful, and healthy! 🍆✨
Recently, I noticed that eggplants are always on sale at the vegetable shop near my place. I love their vibrant purple colour and know that purple vegetables are rich in antioxidants. I always want to find a great eggplant dish recipe to enjoy them. However, I have to admit I wasn’t a fan of eggplant when I was younger. I found the centre bland and thought the sauce didn’t absorb well. Plus, many restaurants deep-fry eggplant before adding condiments, making it greasy and less healthy.
One day, I discovered a delicious eggplant side dish at a Korean supermarket specialising in side dishes, which are typically served cold. Inspired by this, I developed this soya eggplant dish recipe to enjoy anytime at home. This dish is soft and flavorful and thoroughly absorbs the sauce. I often eat it warm right after cooking, saving the rest in the fridge as a cold side dish for later. It’s light, not greasy, and the eggplant soaks up the flavours beautifully!
Difficulty: simple
Health features: eggplants provide fibre and are a source of antioxidants
Serves: 3 (Actually, I love this one so much, I could easily eat half of it myself! 😋)
Time: 30 minutes
Perfect as a warm meal or a cold side dish, this soya eggplant dish recipe is a great way to enjoy eggplant without the grease while boosting your meals with antioxidants.
Ingredients:
Eggplant: 550g
Garlic: 20g (7 cloves)
Onion: 115g (small)
Spring Onion: 20g
Chilli: 1 (optional)
Soy sauce: 30ml (2tbp)
Mirin: 15ml (1tbp)
Olive oil: 5ml (1tp)
Sesame oil: 5ml (1tp)
Sichuan pepper oil: 5ml (1tp) (optional)
Tips for choosing ingredients:
Eggplant: Both round and slim long eggplants work well for this soya eggplant dish recipe. Choose whichever is on sale at the shop—hahaha! Make sure to choose eggplants that are slightly firm to the touch, not spongy.
Chilli: I recommend using long red chillies because they are mildly spicy and provide a good chilli aroma. Keep in mind, the smaller the chilli, the spicier it will be. I used a smaller chilli this time because I couldn’t find red long chillies at the supermarket. You can also use long green chillies, but the dish won’t look as vibrant, and the aroma of green chillies is slightly different from red ones.
Mirin: This is a common condiment in Asian and Taiwanese cuisines. However, you can substitute it with white grape wine or cooking wine and a bit of sugar. I actually used white grape wine and sugar when recording the video because I didn’t realise I had run out of mirin. Hahaha!
Soy sauce: Regular soy sauce is ideal for this eggplant dish recipe. While premium soy sauce works too, it can be quite pricey—hahaha! Avoid flavoured soy sauces or those designed for specific purposes, as they have different aromas. Check out my post - Must-Have Condiments for the Asian Cuisine - for more information about the types of soy sauces.
Sesame oil: You can find sesame oil at Woolworths, Coles, or Asian supermarkets. If pure sesame oil isn’t available, blended sesame oil or black sesame oil can be used as alternatives. Check out my post - Must-Have Condiments for the Asian Cuisine - for tips on choosing sesame oil.
Sichuan pepper oil: You can find Sichuan pepper oil at Asian supermarkets. It is often used in Asian cooking, so you won’t have to worry about it sitting unused in your kitchen cabinet. It gives this soya eggplant dish a unique peppery aroma. However, it can make your tongue feel numb, so you can leave it out if you don’t like that feeling.
Quick Snapshot of Soya Eggplant Dish Recipe
Prepare the Ingredients: Cut eggplant into strips, slice onion, chop spring onion (separating white and green parts), mince garlic, and slice red chilli.
Boil Eggplant: Boil eggplant until soft and translucent, then transfer to a bowl/plate.
Heat Olive Oil: Heat 5ml olive oil on high flame in the pan.
Maillard Reaction: Stir-fry onion on medium-low until browned (10-15 mins).
Add Spring Onion & Chilli: Stir-fry white spring onion and chilli until fragrant (30 sec–1 min).
Add Eggplant & Garlic: Add eggplant and garlic to the pan and stir until fragrant.
Caramelise Soy Sauce: Make space in the pan, add soy sauce, and caramelise over medium-low heat until fragrant, then stir with the other ingredients in the pan.
Add Seasonings: Stir in sesame oil, Sichuan pepper oil, mirin, and green spring onion.
Serve: Serve hot with rice or as a cold side dish.
Detailed Step-by-step Guidance
1. Prepare ingredients: eggplants, onion, chilli, garlic, spring onion
Eggplant: Cut the eggplant into strips about 2–3 cm long and 1–2 cm wide. Don’t cut them too small, or they will turn mushy when cooked. On the other hand, avoid making them too large, as the centres might stay undercooked and bland.
Onion: Cut the onion in half, then slice it into pieces about 0.2–0.3 cm thick.
Spring Onion: Chop the spring onion into small pieces. Separate the white part from the green part, as they will be used at different stages.
Garlic: Mince the garlic.
Red chilli: Slice the red chilli into small pieces.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling, add the eggplants. Boil until they become soft and translucent, then use a strainer to transfer them to a bowl or plate.
Instead of deep-frying the eggplants as most restaurants do, I boil them instead. Boiling softens the eggplants and helps them absorb the flavours of the condiments later. It also prevents them from soaking up too much oil, making the dish lighter.
Ensure the eggplants are soft and translucent, as this allows them to fully absorb the flavours when we stir-fry them. There’s no need to dry the eggplants completely, as a bit of moisture will be helpful during stir-frying.
3. Add 5ml of olive oil to the pan and heat on high flame
I use a stainless steel pan. To make it non-stick, heat the pan on high flame until you see the oil starts to form lines. This should take around 3 minutes. Then, turn off the flame for 30 seconds to 1 minute to let the pan cool slightly. After that, switch the flame to medium heat, and the pan is ready to stir-fry the onion! For more details and a video on making a stainless steel pan non-stick, check out my post - Say Goodbye to Sticking Stainless Steel Pans with Easy Tips.
If you're using a non-stick pan, you do not need to worry about this step. Just make sure to heat the oil before adding the onion.
4. Maillard Reaction! Add the onion and stir-fry it patiently over a medium to low flame until it turns brown.
This is a key step in creating the delicious flavour of this soya eggplant dish. It will take 10-15 minutes or more, so we need to be very patient. Stir-fry on medium to low heat to avoid burning the onions.
You will notice the bottom of the pan turning brown. No worries! This is exactly what we want. These browned bits, called ‘fonds,’ are the result of the Maillard reaction and will add depth of flavour to this soya eggplant dish.
5. Add the white parts of the spring onion and chilli, stir-frying on medium to low heat until you smell their aroma. It takes about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
6. Add the boiled eggplant and minced garlic to the pan. Gently stir everything together until you can smell the garlic's fragrant aroma.
When you add the eggplant, the water clinging to it will help dissolve the browned bits (known as fonds) from the Maillard reaction at the bottom of the pan. Look! The brown fonds disappear into the dish. This step is crucial for deepening the eggplant's flavour.
Stir gently to mix all the ingredients, being careful not to break the eggplant. Once the garlic releases its aroma, you’re ready to move to the next step.
7. Caramelise soy sauce! Make some space in the middle of the pan and add the soy sauce. Caramelise it before mixing it with the other ingredients in the pan.
Caramelising the soy sauce is another key step to enhancing the flavour of this soya eggplant dish. Timing is crucial! The difference between perfectly caramelised soy sauce and burnt soy sauce is just a few seconds.
Use a medium to low flame to slowly caramelise the soy sauce. Avoid overheating the pan before adding the soy sauce, as this can cause it to burn, resulting in a bitter taste.
When you see small bubbles and smell the rich aroma of the soy sauce, it’s time to mix it with the other ingredients in the pan. Be careful not to let it bubble for too long to avoid overcooking.
8. Add sesame oil, Sichuan pepper oil, mirin and green parts of spring onion. Stir-fry for about 30 seconds until you can smell the fragrant aroma of the sesame oil
If you don’t have mirin (or have run out like I did), you can replace it with an equal amount of white grape wine or cooking wine mixed with sugar. Adjust the amount of sugar to suit your taste.
If you do not have or do not like the fragrance of Sichuan pepper oil, you can replace it with sesame oil.
We add these oils at this stage to preserve their aroma. Adding them earlier would cause the aroma to diminish.
9. Ready to Serve! Enjoy this Korean-infused soya eggplant dish in two ways.
Hot Vegetable Dish with Rice: Serve it warm as a main vegetable dish alongside rice. I love baking some salmon while cooking this soya eggplant dish. It makes for a healthy, well-balanced meal with carbs, protein, and fibre by the time I’m done, hahaha.
Flavourful Cold Side Dish: Inspired by Korean side dishes, this soya eggplant dish can also be enjoyed cold. Store it in the fridge, and it becomes a convenient side dish packed with fibre and nutrients—perfect for a quick and easy weeknight dinner!
Korean infused soya eggplant dish recipe
I hope you enjoy this Korean-inspired soya eggplant dish recipe! Feel free to leave a comment below about your experience or any questions you have about making it—I will be happy to respond. I would also love to hear which Taiwanese or Chinese recipes you’d like to see on Bubble Foodex! 😊
See you in the next recipe!