Szechuan Eggplant with Zucchini

I got some Szechuan Eggplant take out a couple of times and it was really delicious. However, I try to limit the amount of take out I get, since you can’t really be sure what is going in it. (Some places do give full lists of ingredients, but not this place) So, last night I decided to make some from scratch and see if I could make it taste as good and perhaps use less oil than I figure they use in the restaurant’s recipe. While the taste out version has the advantage of being pre-made (I find things made for me tend to taste better than things I make myself…even if it is just a simple sandwich), this turned out really well! I added in some zucchini, since I figured it would go well with the eggplant and it did. 🙂

I got my vegetables at a lovely little food market, where the food is very inexpensive, so I think all of the vegetables cost me $6 and I have tons of ginger, green onion and garlic left if I wanted to make it again.

Hopefully you’ll give this recipe a try! I rarely use eggplants in my recipe, although I really do love them. I think this is because they didn’t turn out so great the first few times I had ever used egg plants, but now I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Ingredients

• 5-9 japanese eggplants, cut length ways and then chopped into small pieces
• 2 large zucchinis, cut length ways and then chopped into small pieces
• 2 tbs peanut oil (I was almost out of peanut oil, so I switched some of it with chili oil)
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 2-3 green onions, chopped into small pieces (Both the white and green parts)
• 1 red chili, minced (I used a green finger pepper and deseeded and minced it since I couldn’t find any fresh red chilis)
• 1″ piece of peeled fresh ginger
• 3-5 garlic cloves, minced (I used 5 since I love garlic!)
• 1/2 cup low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 tbs rice vinegar (I used seasoned rice vinegar)
• 3 tbs low sodium soy sauce
• 1 tbs sweetener – I used honey since it was what was in the house, but you can use cane sugar, coconut sap sugar, date sugar, maple syrup…which should only change the flavour very slightly.
• 1 tbs corn starch
• sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste.
• for garnish: sesame seeds, cilantro and/or basil *I found some “Szechuan Seasoning” in the pantry, so I used that.

I sadly didn’t get any great photos of the process or result. The lighting was screwy and I was exhausted and not in the mood to take photos, but I did my best since I wanted to share this recipe.

Directions

Cut off the ends of the egg plant and zucchini and cut them all lengthwise and then into chunks. Heat up the peanut and sesame oil in a wok or non-stick skillet to medium/medium-high heat. Add in the zucchini and eggplant. I had to do this in three batches, since you don’t want them to be overlapping. Sauté for about 2-3 minutes and then remove onto a plate. Cook the remaining eggplant and zucchini.

Chop and mince the garlic, ginger, chili and green onion. Throw them all into the pan and sauté for about a minute on medium heat. Next, get out a bowl and add in the broth, rice vinegar, corn starch, soy sauce and sweetener and mix together well. Add this mixture into the skillet and continue to cook on medium heat, regularly stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula. After a minute or so, add in all of the eggplant and zucchini and cook for around 10 minutes, or until the vegetables have absorbed a lot of the liquid and are tender. Add in the sea salt and ground black pepper. I probably left them in for more like 15-20 minutes, so just taste one of them after 10 minutes and see if they need to be cooked for a bit longer.

Remove from heat and serve on its own, with rice, salad, more veggies… I had this with roasted veggies and a pumpkin bolani. So good! 🙂

I think the next time I make this, I will leave the vegetables to cook for about 10 minutes longer, but it is still super yummy. Enjoy!