This is my new favorite side dish that I discovered a few months ago on Allrecipes. You can make this as spicy as you like by increasing the amount of red pepper flakes. I opt for mildly spicy so I can enjoy the yummy sauce that finishes this dish. Just remember you can always add more, so use a little at a time.
In case you didn’t know eggplant is a super healthy, yet low-calorie vegetable….(except if you bread it and fry it which is my husband’s favorite way to enjoy it). Eggplants are rich in fiber and antioxidants as well as copper, manganese, B-6, thiamine, potassium, vitamin C and B-6. So next time you’re at the grocery store, grab a couple of eggplants and make this super easy and quick side dish.
This recipe calls for oyster sauce which is in fact made from oysters. However, it does not taste fishy or funky. According to an article by Basically “Oyster sauce is a mixture of caramelized oyster juices (a byproduct of cooking oysters in water for a prolonged period of time), salt, sugar, and sometimes soy sauce that is thickened with cornstarch. What you end up with inside the bottle is a dark, syrupy sauce that resembles whatever the love child of soy sauce and barbecue sauce would look like.”
If you don’t have oyster sauce, you can substitute soy sauce and hoisin sauce at a 1:1 ratio.
Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons canola oil
2 medium-sized eggplants (about 1 ¼ pounds), halved and cut into 1 inch half-moons
1 cup water
½ Tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes (more or less to your liking)
3 cloves of garlic chopped
4 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 Tablespoons light soy sauce
2 Tablespoons oyster sauce
Directions:
Heat the oil in a large saute pan over high heat.
Cook the eggplant and garlic until soft, about 4 minutes.
Stir in the water, red pepper flakes, and garlic powder. Cover, and simmer until all the water is absorbed about 10-15 minutes.
While the eggplant cooks, combine the sugar, cornstarch, soy sauce, and oyster sauce in a bowl until the sugar and cornstarch dissolve.
Stir the sauce into the eggplant and cook until the sauce thickens, about 1-2 minutes over medium-low heat.
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