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.
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
- ¼ 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 ½ tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 lb. eggplant sliced into thin strips (no thicker than ½ inch)
- 2 scallions chopped
Instructions
Prepare the Tofu
-
Coat large skillet with oil or cooking spray and place over medium-high heat.
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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
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Whisk broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, chili paste and cornstarch together in small bowl. Set aside.
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Place vegetable and sesame oil in skillet place over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
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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.
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Add soy sauce mixture to skillet and cook about 1 more minute, until thickened and eggplant is well coated.
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Add tofu to skillet and toss to distribute.
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Divide among plates or bowls. Serve with rice and top with scallions.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition information does not include rice.
THIS LOOKS PERFECT!!! I've pinned it to my list of recipes to make -- thanks!
Awesome! Thanks so much for the pin. Enjoy :)
I'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. :)
The sauce was really tasty and I was thinking about what other uses I could put it to as well. Tofu fried rice sounds perfect :)
Sounds delicious and I bet it tastes amazing with all those flavoursome ingredients. Definitely will be recreating the recipe for my vegetarian household!
It really is pretty flavor-packed. Thanks, and I hope you and and everyone in your veggie household enjoys this :)
Eggplant + rice + szechuan = sold. This looks really tasty and I just happen to have some eggplant on hand....
Perfect! Gotta love that combo :) I hope you enjoy it!!
Hi Alissa, eggplants are one of my favorite vegetables along with sweet potatoes and mushrooms. And your dish looks fabulous however you may want to edit your instructions as it takes longer than 30 min to prep and cook it all! Please note that you’re suggesting 10 minutes prepping but you are also advising to press the tutu for 15min
As you can see that’s not right. Just a suggetion!
This looks super delicious and just might get my husband to eat eggplant:)
Haha nice! I hope it works. ;) Thanks Ginnie!
Hi 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
Hi 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 :)
I 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 :)
Yay!!! 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. :)
Great recipe. We found this searching for a recipe with tofu and eggplant. We had one pound of “fairytale eggplant” (small with purple and white skin). Recipe was straight forward and results excellent.
Thank you.
Wonderful! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Mike!
This was really, really delicious! Thank you for the awesome recipe!
Very welcome! I'm glad you like it!
Yum! 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!
I'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! :)
I chose this to be my birthday meal and it didn't let me down!! Excellent!! Thanks for creating and sharing this recipe!!
Yay! Glad you liked it, and Happy Birthday!!
I 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!
Oops, 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.
Yay!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Ann!
Tried 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!
I think red onions would be a delicious addition! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Vanessa!
Rich and delicious!
I'm glad you think so!
I 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?)
Yes! You can add all kinds of veggies to this, and I think carrots and radishes would be awesome. I hope you enjoy it!!
Made 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!
Yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Emma!
I loved the sauce, and I added broccoli to the eggplant stir fry. We found the tofu tasted rather bland, however, so next time I plan to make a bit more sauce in which to marinate the tofu for at least 30 minutes prior to sauteeing it.
I wish I had time to read all the comments before I cooked this and modify slightly. I struggled with the eggplant which too wet for browning in pan but was somewhat easier because of your recommendation to slice it thinly. I changed up the tofu prep by baking it (tossing it in "nooch" and tamari first)so it was crispy. I put the eggplant in the oven but not as long as the tofu, so then I cooked it quite a while in wok, allowing it to dry out a bit. One suggestion to toss it in cornstarch might help. I added some thinly sliced red bell pepper as well. The sauce was delicious and when all was combined it was great with brown rice. Will definitely make again. I always enjoy ordering this in Chinese restaurants. Thank you for this and many of your delicious recipes. I'm a new (9 mos) vegan and it is such a help!
All the dish needed to look like it came from a restaurant was the takeout container--tasted professional. too.
I scored some Dominican eggplants from the grocery store recently and wanted to try a new recipe. This recipe is fab! 10 out of 10 will make again. My boyfriend loved it too :)
BEYOND FABULOUS! I tweaked a few things … added a bag of mixed veg from the produce section as well as some ginger and a pinch of 5 spice powder.... also increased the sauce since I added the veg. SO EXCEPTIONAL I shared with my friend who is Vegan. Will make again. Was skeptical about slicing the eggplant in long strips.... just DO IT … love the texture with everything else, esp if you add the extra vegetable. ENJOY.
Made this tonight, and while it didn’t turn out looking anything like the one in your photos, it tasted amazing. It was every bit as good or better than take out. I used purple & white globe eggplant and soaked the strips in a saltwater bath first to help with the texture. The only thing I would change is the number of servings this makes. Maybe we are just big eaters, but this was just enough for 2 large main dish servings for us. Luckily I was only serving just the 2 of us tonight, so it worked out. :)
This Szechuan recipe is simple to prepare and the flavors are wonderful! I will definitely make again.
Thank you
Would reduce the sugar and increase the chili paste, but otherwise was good.
Great recipe, we made it twice already this week. We added some Szechuan Peppercorns to the sauce for a nice zing.
Found this recipe via Google Search and decided to try ot specifically because I had all the ingredients needed for the sauce. Oh sweet tastebuds, this was so good! I followed the recipe for the crispy tofu and used half an eggplant so I could add zucchini and bell peppers. This sauce complemented everything beautifully. It is definitely my new stir-fry go-to sauce.
Love this recipe, I add some ground Szechuan pepper to the sauce