Korean Spicy Garlic Eggplant Recipe~! 🍆
This is absolutely one of my favorite way of eating eggplant! It is so flavorful, delicious, amazing with warm cooked rice. 😋 You can make it mild, if you omit gochugaru, Korean red pepper flakes for your taste!
I remember my grandma used to make this when we visit her. She will steam eggplants and rip with her hands. She carelessly combine for the sauce ingredients in a a cheap plastic bowl and toss the steamed eggplant. It is hands down, world best eggplant!! Wish I could taste my grandma’s eggplant again, but she passed away a long time ago.
Good thing I remember her eggplant taste and I recreated! Can’t wait to share with you all. This is so delicious, I usually eat 2 bowls of rice only with this Korean spicy garlic eggplant side dish. Let’s get started!
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If you like to check out other Korean side dish recipes, check out down below! Korean spinach, Korean soy bean sprouts, steamed egg, Korean soy potato, Korean zucchini and more!
You will need 1 lb of Korean eggplant for this recipe. They are firm and skinny eggplants, perfect texture for this Korean side dish. If you can’t find them, use regular eggplant. It doesn’t taste as good as Korean one for this recipe, but it will work.
Remove the caps of eggplants. Cut eggplants into 3-inch long then cut into halves lengthwise.
Bring water to boil on a wok or steamer pot. Carefully place bamboo steamer/steamer and place eggplants, skin side down. Cover, steam for 3 to 5 minutes. If you like firmer texture eggplant, 3 minutes will be perfect. If you like silky texture eggplant, 5 minutes will do.
When they are done cooking, remove steamer from the heat and uncover. Let it cool for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop 2 to 3 cloves garlic and 2 green onions. Combine chopped garlic, green onions, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp agave nectar, 1 tbsp sesame oil, 1 to 2 tsp gochugaru, 2 tsp sesame seeds and pinch of black pepper in a mixing bowl. You can reduce agave nectar to 1 to 2 tsp to your taste. Also you can use honey or sugar instead agave.
Gently rip eggplant into half or third, depending on the size of eggplant. Add in to sauce mixture and mix gently with your hand. Garnish with sesame seeds.
Serve with warm cooked rice and other Korean side dishes if you desire. Enjoy!
Korean Spicy Garlic Eggplant
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 lb Korean eggplant
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 to 2 green onions, chopped
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp agave nectar, honey or sugar (reduce to your taste)
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 to 2 tsp gochugaru, Korean red pepper flakes
- 2 tsp sesame seeds
- pinch of black pepper
Instructions
- Remove caps of eggplant. Cut eggplant into 3-inch long then cut into halves lengthwise.
- Bring water to boil on a wok or steamer pot. Carefully place steamer and place eggplants, skin side down. Cover, steam for 3 to 5 minutes. When they are done cooking, remove steamer from the heat and uncover. Let it cool for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, combine garlic, green onions, soy sauce agave nectar, sesame oil, gochugaru, sesame seeds and black pepper in a mixing bowl.
- Gently rip eggplant into half or third, depending on the size of eggplant. Add in to sauce mixture and mix gently with your hand. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve with warm cooked rice and other Korean side dishes if you desire. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
6 comments
Hello Seonkyoung, this recipe looks amazing. Actually i am sure it works amazing the way it is. But i got some ground pork left over i need to use up. Would it work if i fried it and add it to this recipe?
Kind regards
Philip
Yes! That would work great!
Hello Seonkyoung, can this dish be kept in the fridge? If yes, roughly how long can it be kept in the fridge? Thank you so much!!
I wouldn’t keep it longer than a 7 days in the fridge. And Thank YOU for trying out my recipe!
I’ve made this a few times and it’s awesome! Such a simple and quick dinner. Thank you!!
Hi, this looks amazing! What brand soy sauce do you use for Korean recipes like this one?