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This Japanese eggplant recipe makes it taste irresistible! Roast it with garlic and ginger for a simple side dish.

Japanese Eggplant
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Looking for a Japanese eggplant recipe? Here’s a hands-off way to cook it that makes it taste so irresistible, you won’t be able to stop sneaking bites. Try roasted Japanese eggplant with garlic and ginger! We picked up this veggie at our farmer’s market and couldn’t stop ourselves from devouring the entire platter. Roasting eggplant makes it lusciously tender, and beautifully paired with a sauce of garlic, ginger, soy sauce and Sriracha.

Japanese eggplant

What is Japanese eggplant?

We found a few Japanese eggplants at the farmer’s market next to the globe or American eggplant. What’s so special about this variety?

Japanese eggplant is native to Southern and Southeastern Asia and has been used in Japanese, Chinese and Indian cooking for thousands of years. It has a long, narrow shape and a lighter color than globe eggplant, which is very dark purple with a rounded bottom. In terms of flavor, the Japanese eggplant has a sweeter, more delicate flavor, thinner skin, and fewer seeds.

We tried this recipe with globe eggplant to see if there would be a flavor difference. Turns out, the Japanese eggplant was much tastier!

Japanese Eggplant

Tips for this Japanese eggplant recipe

This Japanese eggplant recipe pairs the flavors of fresh garlic, ginger, and soy sauce, which pair brilliantly with this fruit (yes, it’s a fruit!). While it takes about 35 minutes to roast the eggplant, it’s well worth it for the hands off method. It also makes the flesh beautifully tender. Here are a few tips for this recipe:

  • Roast at high heat. An oven temperature of 425°F makes perfectly tender eggplant.
  • Use fresh ginger and garlic: no substitutes! The flavor is dependent on the fresh varieties: no jarred garlic or dried ground ginger here!
  • Peel the ginger with a spoon, then grate with a microplane. Ginger root is notoriously hard to peel with a vegetable peeler: it’s knobby and the skin is tough and stringy. But peeling it with a spoon works like a charm. A microplane is our tool of choice for grating garlic and ginger.
  • Roast 35 to 40 minutes, until the desired tenderness is reached. Roasting a little longer gets the eggplant to the “falling apart” stage; the shorter end still has a little chew and it holds together.

Leftover storage

This Japanese eggplant recipe tastes best the day it is made. If you’d like to store leftovers, they work refrigerated for up to 3 days in a sealed container.

More Japanese eggplant recipes

There are so many ways to prepare this delicious vegetable, including many traditional Asian recipes for preparing it. Here are a few ideas from some recipe creators with Japanese heritage from around the web:

This Japanese eggplant recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

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Japanese Eggplant

Japanese Eggplant with Garlic & Ginger


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4 from 2 reviews

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 35 minutes
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x
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Description

This Japanese eggplant recipe makes it taste irresistible! Roast it with garlic and ginger for a simple side dish.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 1/2 pounds Japanese eggplants (about 3 medium)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon grated fresh garlic*
  • ½ teaspoon grated fresh ginger*
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari
  • ½ teaspoon Sriracha
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • For garnish: thinly sliced chives or green onion / scallion tops or sesame seeds (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat an oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, then cut it into 3-inch pieces.
  3. In a large bowl, mix the olive oil, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, Sriracha and kosher salt. Add the sliced eggplant and toss with your hands until evenly coated. Place the eggplant on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and spread it into an even layer, cut side up. Sprinkle with 1 pinch more kosher salt.
  4. Roast for 20 minutes, then remove the tray from the oven. Flip the eggplant pieces and roast another 15 to 20 minutes, until browned and tender. The eggplant will be very tender so handle it gently.
  5. Garnish with chives or green onion tops and sesame seeds, if desired. Serve immediately. Leftovers store refrigerated up to 3 days. 

Notes

*Ginger root is notoriously hard to peel with a vegetable peeler: it’s knobby and the skin is tough and stringy. Peeling it with a spoon works like a charm! A microplane is our tool of choice for grating garlic and ginger.

  • Category: Side dish
  • Method: Roasted
  • Cuisine: Vegetables
  • Diet: Vegan

About the authors

Sonja & Alex

Hi, we’re Alex and Sonja Overhiser, married cookbook authors, food bloggers, and recipe developers. We founded A Couple Cooks to share fresh, seasonal recipes and the joy of cooking! Our recipes are made by two real people and work every time.

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2 Comments

  1. Eva says:

    Sauce is tasty but only covers the very exterior of 1 lb of eggplant. Since eggplant is very bland by itself the rest of the piece of eggplant is pretty tasteless. Will make more sauce next time and let it soak in to the interior before cooking. With this batch I scraped the flesh out and mashed it to maximize the sauce to eggplant ratio.






  2. Donna Merola says:

    Easy and yummy. LOVE japanesse eggplant and like that this is an oven roasted recipe