I love taking advantage of all the fresh produce in summer and all the color and texture it brings to my plate! This week I played around with eggplant, which has a unique almost meaty texture. I gave it a quick soy glaze treatment that I’ve previously used for chicken thighs (see Sticky Ginger Soy Glazed Chicken) and it worked perfectly. This Soy Glazed Eggplant makes for a super fast and easy vegetarian weeknight dinner, which also meal preps well for the week. As with most stir fries, this recipe is quite versatile, so I’ll list some options for you below!
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Make it Spicy or Mild
This recipe for Soy Glazed Eggplant as written is below NOT spicy (without optional sriracha mayo topping), but you could easily make it a spicy stir fry, if you prefer. Simply add a tablespoon or two of sriracha or chili garlic sauce to the soy glaze mixture and you’re good to go. Or, add a few crushed red pepper flakes to the finished dish.
Make it Vegan
The Soy Glazed Eggplant by itself is vegan, but I topped mine with sriracha mayo. If you want to avoid the mayo to make the whole bowl vegan, I suggest adding a few slices of avocado to your bowl or using vegan mayo if you have it. The addition of a creamy topping does a wonderful job of balancing the sweet and salty flavors of the Soy Glazed Eggplant, and really takes the bowls to the next level.
Should I Use Fresh or Dried Ginger?
I almost always use fresh ginger in my recipes because it tastes completely different than dried ground ginger. If you keep a knob of ginger in your freezer you’ll always have fresh on hand and it’s super easy to grate on a cheese grater when frozen. If you must use dried ground ginger, I suggest using 1/2 to 1 tsp, adjusting it to your tastebuds.
How to Serve Soy Glazed Eggplant
I served mine on top of brown rice and topped with chopped peanuts, sliced green onions, and a drizzle of sriracha mayo. You could also serve this with noodles (add cooked noodles to the skillet and toss with the soy glazed eggplant), and add something green on the side, like broccoli or snow peas.
Soy Glazed Eggplant
Servings 4Ingredients
Soy Glazed Eggplant
- 1 eggplant (5-6 cups cubed) ($1.29)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.24)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.48)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar ($0.16)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger ($0.30)
Optional for Serving
- 1/4 cup chopped peanuts ($0.12)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.23)
- 4 cups cooked rice ($0.60)
- 2 Tbsp mayonnaise* ($0.17)
- 1 Tbsp sriracha* ($0.11)
Instructions
- Cut the eggplant into 3/4-inch cubes. The easiest way to do this is to first slice the eggplant into 3/4-inch slices, then lay each slice flat and slice into 3/4-inch squares.
- Add the olive oil to a large skillet at heat over medium. Once hot, swirl the oil to coat the surface of the skillet, then add the eggplant cubes. Cook the eggplant cubes, stirring occasionally, until they are softened (about ten minutes). If the eggplant begins to stick, add a couple tablespoons of water to the skillet to help loosen the eggplant.
- While the eggplant is cooking, prepare the soy ginger glaze. Stir together the soy sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic, and ginger in a bowl.
- Once the eggplant is soft, pour in the soy ginger glaze, making sure to scrape out all the sugar that may have settled to the bottom of the bowl. Continue to stir and cook the eggplant in the skillet, dissolving any browned bits off the bottom, for about 5 more minutes.
- Top the eggplant with chopped peanuts and sliced green onion before serving. Serve over warm rice with a drizzle of sriracha mayo, if desired.
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Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make Soy Glazed Eggplant – Step by Step Photos
Grab yourself one medium eggplant for this recipe. They were priced per item at the store today, so I didn’t get the scale weight from the register, but this recipe is pretty flexible. I had about 5-6 cups once it was cubed. The size of this eggplant was about 1.5x the length of my hand.
Cut the eggplant into 3/4-inch cubes. To do this, first slice the eggplant into 3/4-inch slices, then lay each slice flat and cut into squares.
Add 2 Tbsp olive oil (or your favorite cooking oil) to a large skillet and heat over medium. Once hot, give it a swirl to coat the skillet, then add the cubed eggplant. Cook the eggplant, stirring occasionally, until it has softened (about 10 minutes). If the eggplant begins to stick too much, add a couple tablespoons of water to the skillet to help loosen it up.
While the eggplant is cooking, make the soy ginger glaze. In a bowl combine 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 cloves of garlic (minced), and about 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger. Stir them together. The brown sugar probably won’t fully dissolve, but that’s okay.
Once the eggplant has softened, add the glaze, making sure to scrape all the sugar out of the bowl.
Continue to stir and cook the eggplant with the glaze over medium heat for about 5 minutes more. The glaze should be bubbling.
Top the Soy Glazed Eggplant with sliced green onion and about 1/4 cup chopped peanuts (optional).
I served my Soy Glazed Eggplant over brown rice and with sriracha mayo drizzled on top. To make the sriracha mayo, simply stir together 2 Tbsp mayonnaise with 1 Tbsp sriracha.
Yummy!! Would reduce the sugar a bit the next time, as it was very sweet. The whole family liked it, so that is a winning recipe for me!
This was easy, and delicious! Looks kind of plain while cooking, but after the sauce goes on, and the toppings are added at the end, it’s not plain at all!
Wow! Delicious. I had a sad eggplant, and it was transformed. Lots of char on the eggplant before the glaze makes a difference.
Is there a way to incorporate a bit of protein into this, maybe tofu? I’m not sure how to go about it.
I’m making this tonight for my vegetarian wife and I, and plan on reserving a small amount of sauce to cook some shaved steak in, in a small separate pan. If you’re vegetarian as well, I think adding some cubed firm tofu when you add the sauce should hold up well, or adding it with the eggplant if you want more crunch on your tofu–I haven’t tried this myself, but based on what I know about using firm tofu in the past, I can assume the results.
I add crushed peanuts and a side of steamed (frozen) edamame. Doesn’t change the flavors of the dish and adds protein in just a couple minutes on the cheap.
Great weeknight meal. Love ❤️ the flavor an it works for those of us that get home from work late.
Delicious!! Made to recipe instructions, let it come to a warm stage with a generous amount of green onions and dug in. It was all for me, S.O. is NOT an eggplant fan, so only used those as topping. The only thing needed, IMO, was a healthy squeeze of Siracha or teaspoon+ of garlic-chili paste, ya know, mixed in with the soy ginger glaze. But, that’s me….otherwise, a darn fine recipe for eggplant. My plan is to have the sauced Italian style eggplant sammich next! Thank you for posting, I’ll have it hot over rice next time. Regards, Bill
This recipe is one of the GOATs of this website. I usually make mine with yellow rice and roasted broccoli 🤌
This is really delicious; I will be making it often!
Just a slight typo: “Add the olive oil to a large skillet at head over medium.”
I think that should be “heat.”
Thank you! Fixing now. :)
Another typo – “The size of this explant was about 1.5x the length of my hand.” Will definitely give this a try next time I have an eggplant lying around.
My 14 yr old grandson wanted to try eggplant and I made him this. He loved it! Of course, he went home to his (unadventurous) mom and wanted her to make it. Referred her to your website! :-D
Made this for my vegetarian friend last night & she loved it!! Sooo easy & I already had everything on hand except the eggplant & green onions, & I usually have got green onions anyway
Delicious, and very easy. I added a diced red bell pepper since I had an extra floating about, and there was plenty of sauce for it. I might try adding some shiitake mushrooms and spinach next time.
We had eggplant that we had bought to use in a different dish but we weren’t feeling enthusiastic and wanted to mix things up. I came to your site because I figured you would have some good inspiration and you delivered! Super simple to make, and the eggplant is silky and really absorbs the sauce. We added in a little bit of chicken and some bell peppers and served over brown rice. A great weeknight meal that will definitely be going into the rotation! My spouse said “the sauce really makes the dish”
I forgot to include the main reason i left a comment! We keep ginger-garlic paste on hand in our kitchen to use in recipes like this that call for ginger and garlic. It’s a nice little time/effort saver for sauces and similar. We are fortunate to have a good halal market with lots of South Asian spices and ingredients near us, but you can also sometimes find it in mainstream grocery stores (or online, of course). It makes even a nice quick dish like this even quicker, and of course saves on some chopping/grating (and thus on dishes!)