I recently read a fantastic new cookbook called How to Dress an Egg, written by Ned Baldwin and Peter Kaminsky. The book showcases one ingredient and one method of cooking per chapter and then gives you delicious recipes for using that ingredient in your meals. You’ll find things like how to best roast a chicken or make perfect poached cod. I love it because it encourages improvisation and creativity in the kitchen while focusing on those key ingredients.
Making smoky eggplant without a grill
Using the book as inspiration, I decided to make fire roasted eggplant. Since I moved to New York from Austin, I’ve been missing the smokiness created by charcoal grilling. Without a grill, I put the eggplant directly on my gas stove and the results were perfect. It takes just six minutes to cook an entire Asian eggplant and there’s no oil needed. Once done, you simply need to remove the charred skin from the eggplant and it’s ready to serve. The fire roasted eggplant that I made came out with a smoky flavor and a buttery texture inside that wasn’t mushy. You’re going to love it!
Easy cleanup
If you’re afraid it’s gonna make a mess on the stove, rest assured that it’s very easy to clean up. Eggplant has a quite dry interior, so roasting it won’t cause drippings to leak everywhere. There will be some ashy residue on your stove, but it can be easily wiped clean with a damp paper towel.
How to serve fire roasted eggplant
The cookbook comes with a few delicious-looking recipes on how to use the fire roasted eggplant, but I decided to throw together a dish using my limited pantry ingredients. I made a simple garlic vinegar sauce to serve with it that is savory, sweet, sour, and fragrant all at once. It really just hits on every flavor craving you might have and unites them harmoniously. If you wish to make it a meal, I recommend serving it with noodles for a one-bowl dish that’s healthy and delicious. I used soba noodles and served it cold for the warm weather. But you can use your favorite thin noodles and serve it whichever way you like. You can eat this hot or cold. I can’t decide which way I like it best. This fire roasted eggplant is truly one of my new favorite ways to cook with eggplant now!
Other sauce options
You can use the sauces from these recipes to serve with the fire roasted eggplant.
Spicy Rice Noodle Salad – skip the garlic vinegar sauce in the recipe and use the sauce in my noodle salad recipe to make an easy full mealSteamed Eggplant in Nutty Sauce – Upgrade the steamed eggplant with this recipe and serve it with sesame sauce!Homemade Hoisin SauceChinese BBQ Sauce You can use the eggplant to make Baba Ganoush
Serve the eggplant with these recipes
You can also serve the fired roasted eggplant with these recipes to make a full meal.
Chicken Fried RiceVegetable Lo Mein15-Minute Korean Noodle SoupInstant Pot Lentil Soup (Chinese Style)15-Minute Garlic Noodles
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Other delicious eggplant recipes
Chinese Eggplant with Garlic SauceSichuan Eggplant Stir Fry (Yu Xiang Qie Zi)Di San Xian (Fried Potato, Eggplant and Pepper in Garlic Sauce)Crispy Eggplant with Szechuan Meat Sauce
