Hi everyone, welcome to souped up recipes Today we are making extra garlicky bbq eggplant
This is a popular dish in Chinese night market It can be vegan or non-vegan It is so delicious either way and super easyto make so let’s get right into it You will need some eggplants These are Chinese long eggplants I have tried with round eggplants before
It doesn’t work as well so be sure to stick with Chinese long eggplants I am just wiping off the water that is on the surface Simply place that on a baking pan and preheat the oven to 370 degrees Fahrenheit Bake it for 25 minutes While waiting, we can make a sauce
In a sauce pot, add in 25 tbsp of oil If you are a meat eater, you can add some minced meat right here and stir it until cooked through I am keeping this recipe vegan so I am not adding any meat 1/2 cup of finely minced garlic
1/4 cup of diced red onion 1/4 cup of diced red and green chilies I actually using jalapenos here because I can’t find Chinese chilies If you can’t take spicy food you can use bell pepper No a big problem 1/4 cup of cilantro stems I reserved the leaves and some diced chili as garnish
Eggplant is a pretty plain vegetable so the flavor really depends on what aromatic and seasoning you add in You don’t need to do exactly the same as I did, just make sure it fits your taste Stir them until fragrant Then add in the seasoning 2 tbsp of Sichuan doubanjiang
This is what I used, if you don’t like spicy food, you can use non-spicy soybean paste which looks like this You can find both of these sauce in almost any Chinese grocery – 2 tbsp of soy sauce [2汤匙生抽] – 2 tbsp of Chinese cooking wine [2汤匙料酒] Mix them together and add some cornstarch water ( I just mixed 1 tsp of cornstarch with 2 tbsp of water) Pour that in and stir it until the sauce thickens a little bit It takes a minute or 2 then turn off the heat
This is how the sauce should look like Now let’s check out the eggplant The skin turns into a brown color after baking Let it cool down a little bit so your hands can handle it Take a knife and cut it open
Make sure you don’t cut through the skin Open it up I like to do a long cut on each side of the eggplant then turn the knife to make some patterns It helps the eggplant to absorb the flavor Flip it over to check if you break the skin or not
Spoon the sauce all over the eggplants Make sure the sauce covers the eggplant completely If there is a spot that is exposed, it will come out a little dry after the second baking Put this back in the oven for 6-8 minutes and you are done Sprinkle some chilies and cilantro as garnish
It looks good right This is how I will eat it Take a spoon and scoop out some eggplants along with all that amazingly delicious sauce You can put that on top of white rice or just eat it right away The eggplant is so soft and super flavorful
It is also extremely garlicky which is why I love about this dish I hope you
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