This melt-in-your-mouth Szechuan eggplant is pan fried, coated in a garlicky sweet-spicy sauce and served with crispy tofu over a bed of rice.
I think I just realized what my theme is for VeganMofo. I didn’t think I was going to have one, and it’s kinda funny because a few weeks ago my boyfriend was helping me brainstorm and suggested the theme of “harvest.” A nice thought, but what would I even do with that? I mean, this is a vegan food blog where the majority of recipes feature some type of fresh fruit or veggie, which was obviously harvested in some way or another. But then as I was getting this post together and looking at the posts I’ve got planned out for the next few weeks, I realized that most of them feature something that came out of my garden, or a friend’s garden, or the farmers market…you get the drift. I’m guessing lots of you have an overabundance of fresh peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and the like in your kitchens. Yesterday’s post featured tomato and basil, both harvested from my backyard. Today it’s eggplant and scallions, also harvested from my own crops. I can’t say every post will be like this (spoiler alert, tomorrow’s isn’t), but most will.
Moving on to eggplant! If you’re like me, you planted the ever-popular purple globe eggplants. Traditionally, however, this dish would be made with Chinese eggplants, which are a bit more tender than globes and other more common varieties. You can get away with subbing another type of eggplant here, and in the U.S. at least, globes are the ones that’ll be easiest for you to find. Globe eggplants are what I planted in my garden this year, simply because I can work them into all kinds of recipes. Just stick with a pound of whatever variety you go with and you should be set. Be sure to let me know how it turns out if you try some fun eggplant substitution.
Szechuan Eggplant with Tofu
Ingredients
For the Crispy Tofu
- Cooking spray or a bit of oil
- 1 lb. extra firm tofu pressed at least 15 minutes and cubed
For the Szechuan Eggplant
- 1/4 cup vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. brown sugar
- 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
- 2 tsp. Asian chili paste or to taste
- 2 tsp. cornstarch
- 1 1/2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 lb. eggplant sliced into thin strips (no thicker than 1/2 inch)
- 2 scallions chopped
Instructions
Prepare the Tofu
- Coat large skillet with oil or cooking spray and place over medium-high heat.
- Add tofu to skillet in a single layer. Cook until browned on each side - about 3 minutes per side. Remove from skillet, transfer to a plate and set aside.
Prepare the Eggplant
- Whisk broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, chili paste and cornstarch together in small bowl. Set aside.
- Place vegetable and sesame oil in skillet place over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
- Add eggplant strips in a single layer. Cook about 5 minutes, until strips are browned on bottoms. Gently flip and cook another 5 minutes, until browned on opposite side and tender. You can add a dash more oil if the skillet begins to dry out.
- Add soy sauce mixture to skillet and cook about 1 more minute, until thickened and eggplant is well coated.
- Add tofu to skillet and toss to distribute.
- Divide among plates or bowls. Serve with rice and top with scallions.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition information does not include rice.
Lindsay @ KitchenOperas says
September 2, 2014 at 12:54 PMTHIS LOOKS PERFECT!!! I’ve pinned it to my list of recipes to make — thanks!
Alissa Saenz says
September 2, 2014 at 9:18 PMAwesome! Thanks so much for the pin. Enjoy :)
Meredith @ Unexpectedly Magnificent says
September 2, 2014 at 2:25 PMI’ve never been a fan of eggplant, although I *do* like Szechuan sauce! I haven’t had it in forever. I’ll definitely use this recipe the next time I make tofu fried rice. :)
Alissa Saenz says
September 2, 2014 at 9:19 PMThe sauce was really tasty and I was thinking about what other uses I could put it to as well. Tofu fried rice sounds perfect :)
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
September 2, 2014 at 10:42 PMSounds delicious and I bet it tastes amazing with all those flavoursome ingredients. Definitely will be recreating the recipe for my vegetarian household!
Alissa Saenz says
September 3, 2014 at 10:08 AMIt really is pretty flavor-packed. Thanks, and I hope you and and everyone in your veggie household enjoys this :)
Umm Haneefah @ The Halal Gourmet says
September 3, 2014 at 4:21 PMEggplant + rice + szechuan = sold. This looks really tasty and I just happen to have some eggplant on hand….
Alissa Saenz says
September 3, 2014 at 10:00 PMPerfect! Gotta love that combo :) I hope you enjoy it!!
Ginnie says
September 8, 2014 at 9:15 PMThis looks super delicious and just might get my husband to eat eggplant:)
Alissa Saenz says
September 9, 2014 at 9:31 PMHaha nice! I hope it works. ;) Thanks Ginnie!
Martha says
September 10, 2014 at 9:54 AMHi there. I love szechuan eggplant and just received a lot (!) of eggplants from my farmers’ market. Do you think I could make it up (without the tofu), freeze it in recipe-sized portions, and then later prepare the tofu and add the thawed eggplant dish and fresh scallions? Obviously, this is a very quick dish to make in the moment but I have the eggplants now. Thanks, and I look forward to other recipes using garden produce because I have a lot of it coming in. Martha
Alissa Saenz says
September 10, 2014 at 5:53 PMHi Martha! I’ve had a similar problem – in my case it’s an overabundance of eggplant from my garden this year. From what I’ve read, freezing eggplant after cooking generally works just fine. I’ve never tested that and you can never say for sure with any particular recipe, but I think with this one you’d probably be okay to freeze it. If you do, I’d love to hear how it works out :)
Claudia says
September 29, 2014 at 12:39 AMI made this recipe and it was sooooo yummy! I posted my “attempt” on my instagram account. If you have an account , I would be more than happy to tag you :)
Alissa Saenz says
September 30, 2014 at 9:27 PMYay!!! So glad you liked this! I don’t have an instagram account…I’m so bad with social media! Hoping to finally get on instagram by the end of the year. Thank you for offering though, and thanks so much for commenting to let me know how it worked out – that always makes me smile. :)
Taylor @ What Vegetarians Eat says
September 30, 2014 at 2:13 PMYum! I love eggplant! I don’t think an abundance of it would ever be a problem for me lol. I also like to cube it up and toss with cherry tomatoes, scallions, olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 350 for about 15 minutes. Delish! Can’t wait to make this – thanks for sharing!
Alissa Saenz says
September 30, 2014 at 9:31 PMI’ve done pretty well with using up all my eggplant since this post, and I still have a few more to harvest. Your roasted eggplant sounds awesome, and so easy. I hope you enjoy this dish when you get to try it! :)
Tanya says
June 13, 2016 at 7:59 PMI chose this to be my birthday meal and it didn’t let me down!! Excellent!! Thanks for creating and sharing this recipe!!
Alissa Saenz says
June 13, 2016 at 8:44 PMYay! Glad you liked it, and Happy Birthday!!
Ann says
November 30, 2017 at 10:51 PMI made this a couple of days ago, modified to suit my low Fodmap diet (just left out garlic cloves and fried eggplant in a suitable garlic infused oil instead). It was delicious and I will be making it again. Thanks!
Ann says
November 30, 2017 at 10:55 PMOops, I forgot to add that I dusted the eggplant in cornflour, salt & szechuan pepper before frying and then added 2 tsp of the leftover cornflour mix to the sauce, instead of adding the plain cornflour. Hope that makes sense.
Alissa Saenz says
December 3, 2017 at 9:43 PMYay!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Ann!
Vanessa Ramirez says
March 1, 2018 at 11:26 AMTried this recipe last night! It was so good and very easy to make. I happened to have all the ingredients which made it all the better. I used the globe eggplant, since thats what I had on hand and it turned out delicious. I just made sure to slice it in thin slivers. The one addition I may include next time are slices of red onions. Other than that, perfect and simple! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Alissa Saenz says
March 3, 2018 at 10:45 AMI think red onions would be a delicious addition! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Vanessa!
Lucy says
October 26, 2018 at 9:24 PMRich and delicious!
Alissa Saenz says
October 28, 2018 at 3:44 PMI’m glad you think so!
Cap'n Dave says
February 9, 2019 at 9:06 AMI haven’t had eggplant in forever! (And this coming from a former sous-chef at an Italian restaurant in New York??? Um…*hangs head in shame*)
Will definitely need to try this, and SOON! Berkeley Bowl is just about 3 miles from me – an easy bike ride – and their produce section is phenomenal! (And OMG their pepper and mushroom selections…WOW!) But Whole Foods is on the way to work, and guess what? I go to work tomorrow! Might just have to pick some up. (I also don’t have the chili paste…but THEY do, I’m sure!)
Monday’s dinner selection at the Captain’s table here on the Sailing Yacht Fairy Tail? Yep! (I’m thinking some julienned carrots and maybe some sliced radishes for a garnish?)
Alissa Saenz says
February 10, 2019 at 8:42 PMYes! You can add all kinds of veggies to this, and I think carrots and radishes would be awesome. I hope you enjoy it!!
Emma S says
February 26, 2019 at 7:37 PMMade this for the first time tonight and it was delicious! I used thick chilli sauce instead of paste and brown onion instead of scallions but otherwise used all the ingredients as suggested. I mixed all the sauce ingredients before realizing you should hold some back, so I fried the first batch of eggplant using about half ot the total sauce, then used the remaining sauce for the rest of the eggplant and to mix everything together. The result was definitely not as pretty as in the photos but tastes great!
Alissa Saenz says
March 3, 2019 at 4:53 PMYay! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Emma!