I have to admit I will be cheating today a little ? Why? Because this recipe is just a copy of my Chinese lemon chicken recipe from last week. I know that many of you are following a vegetarian or vegan diet and I wanted to make something really delicious for you too. Because the lemon sauce turned out to be SO SO good it was clear that I have to use it again. That’s how this Asian-inspired vegan eggplant recipe was born.
You could use any vegetables for this Asian inspired eggplant recipe. Cauliflower would work really well too. I just wanted to make something else rather then another cauliflower recipe, I really have plenty of them. Just look at all the healthy cauliflower recipes I have created in the last three months!!
How to prepare the eggplant for cooking
First of all, choose an eggplant that is shiny and firm. Whether you peel your eggplant or not it is totally up to you. I just wanted to mention that eggplant's skin, like all fruit and vegetables, contains the most amount of nutrients. I never peel the eggplant.
You might have noticed, that eggplant "loves" oil. It literally sucks everything in which makes eggplant dishes sometimes quite oily and not as healthy as you would hope them to be. What you can you do? Sprinkle the cubed eggplant with salt generously and leave it in a colander for 30-40 minutes before cooking. The salt will draw the water out of the eggplant making the cells of the eggplant collapse. It will reduce the amount of oil you will need for the recipe dramatically. You can wash the eggplant after 30 minutes to remove the excess salt or just pat it with a clean kitchen towel to dry it off.
I will keep the post very short today. Here is how I made this easy and delicious Asian inspired vegan eggplant recipe
Easy and delicious Asian inspired vegan eggplant recipe
Ingredients
- 1 large eggplant cut into bite-size cubes
- 100 g of button mushrooms cut into quarters optional
- 2 tablespoon of tapioca flour
- 3 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves pressed
- 3 cm ginger grated
Sauce:
- Juice of 1 medium-sized lemon
- ½ cup of vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoon of gluten-free soy sauce I use tamari
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- 2 teaspoon corn starch
Instructions
- You might want to start this recipe by sprinkling the cut eggplant with salt and leaving it in a colander for 20-30 minutes to release the water. After 30 minutes simply rinse the eggplant to remove the excess salt and pat it dry with a clean kitchen towel. This will reduce the amount of olive oil you will use in this recipe.
- Step 1 Start by mixing all sauce ingredients until everything is well combined.
- Step 2 Add tapioca flour to the eggplant and mushrooms and toss it to make sure the vegetables are coated with tapioca flour.
- Step 3 Heat the olive oil in a wok or a large frying pan. Add the vegetables into the pan and fry on medium-high heat until they become golden.
- Step 4 Push the eggplant and mushrooms to one side of your frying pan or wok so you have a free little area. Add 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and quickly fry garlic and ginger in it, until fragrant. Mix the eggplant and the mushrooms with garlic and ginger.
- Step 5 Add the sauce and lower the heat to low. Cook everything together for a couple of minutes, until the sauce has thickened and everything is well combined.
- Serve with some basmati rice! Enjoy!
Katie
Another great recipe. Made it last night. So yummy!
★★★★★
Elena Elliott
Hi Katie, so happy to hear you enjoyed it.
★★★★★