What’s in this Chinese Eggplant Recipe?
Today we are making a Chinese Eggplant Recipe! Eggplant is a tricky vegetable to cook with. But with that beautiful, deep purple color, it’s always tempting to pick one up at the grocery store! What do you do with it, other than making babaghanoush, the popular Middle Eastern dip? How do you stir fry it and get it to mesh well with other vegetables, such as a tofu-broccoli stir fry? Well, this dish is the perfect way!
The name of this Chinese Eggplant Recipe is actually Di San Xian. Doing a little digging into its background, Di San Xian is a dish from the Northeast area of China. It translates to three treasures of the earth. This is to represent the three main vegetables used – eggplant, potatoes, bell pepper!
Traditionally, all the vegetables are fried separately, then tossed together at the end in a technique known as “walk the oil.” They aren’t technically deep-fry vegetables, but they’re browned in shallow pan of oil. I didn’t fry the bell pepper separately, but I added it to the pan when I added the already-fried potatoes and tender eggplant. You could also fry it separately before adding it in!
Eggplant is referred to many times in ancient Chinese literature, through poems and other forms. Cultivating eggplants first became a concept through one of these poems. However, the exact origins are still an ongoing debate. Eggplants became more popular during the Song Dynasty thousands of years ago. It became an item that wealthier families were able to eat. Today though, China leads the world as the largest producer of eggplants, accounting for over 63% of global production!
Already Vegan!
This recipe is one that was already vegan! Chinese cooking usually uses garlic and ginger, and the sauce base for this recipe is no exception. I gotta give credit to this recipe right here though. I was trying to figure out how to use leftover eggplant and it just so happened that the Omnivore’s Cookbook, albeit a non-vegan website, had this amazing Di San Xian recipe that will please eggplant lovers or haters alike.
This is a potatoes, peppers and eggplant dish coated in a savoury sauce. A couple of changes were made in order to suit what I had in my kitchen. I didn’t have wine and I replaced it with wine vinegar. I also didn’t use an Asian eggplant, and the recipe still came out amazing. Additionally, I didn’t put as much salt on my eggplant. I also used less oil (specifically – sesame oil) to fry the vegetables in. A couple of tweaks later, dinner is served atop a pile of couscous (or rice noodles, white rice or your choice of grain).
Why You’ll Love This Easy Chinese Eggplant Dish
Savoury Sauce: This sauce has a savoury flavour that comes from soy sauce, white wine vinegar, rice vinegar, coconut sugar and broth.
Filling Vegetables: The main vegetables in this dish are potatoes and eggplant, with potatoes being very filling as well as budget-friendly. This is a good way to make a hearty dish that can also help with meal prep, especially when you have little time and want a quick meal.
Side Dish Idea: This is a great dish to make on the side and serve with a grain such as white rice or couscous, as shown in the photos. Or serve it with a main course and eat this as an appetizer on a bed of greens. Further more, serve this with a spicy garlic sauce on the side or chili garlic sauce drizzled on top, with more sesame seeds, green onions and maybe a drizzle of balsamic vinegar sprinkled on top!
Substitutions
Cornstarch: Use all purpose flour if corn starch is unavailable. It would not be gluten-free though.
Tamari: Regular soy sauce, light soy sauce or dark soy sauce would work. If using dark soy sauce, add a little less than what the recipe calls for because the salt content is higher. For a super low-sodium option, coconut aminos can work. The sodium content in coconut aminos is very low that it takes away from the flavour, so beware!
Coconut Sugar: Brown sugar can work, but the recipe is not refined sugar free then.
Green Bell Pepper: Traditionally, green pepper is in this recipe. You can also replace it with red or yellow bell pepper.
Chinese Eggplant Recipe Notes
- For those with a nut allergy, note that since coconut sugar comes from coconut, technically it is not nut-free. But since coconut sugar itself is not a nut (such as cashews, almonds, peanuts and so on), it is in the nut-free category. Use brown sugar if you can’t eat coconut sugar.
- There are many types of eggplants, such as a Chinese eggplant or Japanese eggplant. For this dish, I used a regular eggplant found at regular grocery stores.
- Don’t skip the part of the cooking process where you submerge the eggplant pieces in salted water, then dry them thoroughly with a paper towel. This removes the bitter taste from it!
More Easy Savoury Recipes
Chana Masala (Indian Chickpea Gravy)
Ginger Infused Coconut Eggplant & Squash
Mediterranean Braised Eggplant & Chickpeas
If you make this delicious Chinese Eggplant recipe, leave a comment and star rating! Don’t forget to tag your photos @peanut_palate on Instagram. Enjoy!
Chinese Eggplant Recipe (Stir Fry with Potatoes)
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Whisk
Ingredients
For the Stir Fry
- 1 medium eggplant diced
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- ¼ cup sesame oil
- 1 medium potato diced
- 1 green bell pepper sliced lengthwise
- 2 green onion chopped
- 2 garlic cloves grated
- 2 tsp ginger grated
For the Sauce
- ¼ cup vegetable broth
- 6½ tsp tamari
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- ½ tsp rice vinegar
- 2½ tsp coconut sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Add eggplant pieces into a large bowl and sprinkle with the 1 teaspoon salt. Cover it with enough water to submerge the eggplant, and soak it for 20 minutes. Then drain the water and dry the eggplant well with a cloth or paper towel. Sprinkle and mix the 2 teaspoons cornstarch to coat the eggplant.
- Whisk the sauce ingredients together in a separate bowl and set aside.
- Heat a pan over medium high heat with 4 tablespoons of oil. When it's hot, spread the eggplant pieces out into the pan, and cook them on both sides until they're golden brown. Lower the heat to medium if it starts to smoke. Remove from the pan once done, but keep the excess oil in there.
- Add the potatoes to the same dish. Cook the potatoes, spread out, until they begin to brown, flipping them on both sides. Once done, move it to the plate with the eggplant.
- If you don't have enough oil left – at least a teaspoon – then add a little bit in first. Otherwise, add in the green onion, ginger and garlic and sautee in the oil for a minutes. Whisk the sauce mixture again that you had made earlier (to avoid clumps) and pour it into the pan.
- Add the eggplant, potatoes, and bell pepper to the pan. Stir to evenly coat the sauce over the vegetables. Cook for a few minutes, covered, so the bell pepper can cook. Once it reaches your desired consistency, remove from the heat and serve hot as a side or a main meal.
Notes
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.
