Garlic Chinese Eggplant with Wonton Noodles

Ingredients for the eggplant

• 2 large Chinese eggplant
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoon oil
  • I use olive oil, but you can use the oil of your choice.
• 2 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 3 tablespoon minced garlic
• 3 sprigs of scallions
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

Ingredients for the noodles

• 1/2 pack (6oz) thick fresh wonton noodles
  • You can usually find these in the refrigerated section of an Asian grocery store. This is my favorite brand. If you can find these, you can substitute with other types of noodles and cook them according to the instructions on the package.
• 1 tablespoon oil
  • I use olive oil, but you can use the oil of your choice.
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoon hoisin sauce

This recipe makes approximately 2 servings and keeps well in the refrigerator.

Instructions

1. First, let’s prepare the Chinese eggplant. Wash the eggplant and chop off the ends. Then, cut the eggplant in quarters lengthwise. Cut each quarter into 4 parts. For each eggplant, I ended up with 16 pieces. Of course, you can also just chop the eggplant however you’d like, but I like this shape since it leaves me with a good eggplant to sauce ratio in the end. 
2. Fill a large bowl with cold water and add the salt. Mix until dissolved. Then, add the sliced eggplant in the salt water and make sure it’s submerged. Let it sit for 20 minutes.
3. Pat the eggplant dry with a paper towel, sprinkle the cornstarch on the flesh side of the eggplant, and set aside.
4. Now, let’s make the wonton noodles! Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add the wonton noodles and cook until the noodles are al dente (approximately 3-6 minutes). Drain away the water. 
5. Then, in a large pan, heat up the oil on medium heat. Add the cooked wonton noodles, soy sauce, and hoisin sauce. Mix and pan fry the noodles until the sauce even coats all the noodles and the noodles dry out a bit (approximately 7-10 minutes). Set noodles aside.
6. Back to the eggplant! In a large saucepan, add 1 tablespoon of the oil and heat on medium high. Then, add the eggplant to the hot oil. Pan fry on each side of the eggplant until the skin turns color, the flesh has a little browning, and the eggplant become soft, approximately 10-12 minutes.
7. Move the eggplant over to one side of the pan. In the now empty side of the pan, add the rest of the oil, ginger, garlic, and scallions. Stir until garlic turns slightly brown and becomes fragrant. Then, mix the eggplant back in.
8. Now, add the soy sauce and sugar to the eggplant. Stir around for a few minutes until the sauce evenly coats the eggplant and thickens.

Garlic Chinese Eggplant with Wonton Noodles is a delicious and hearty dish that I would order all the time at Chinese restaurants. Now, you can easily make it at home! The garlic eggplant is super flavorful and just melts in your mouth since the the eggplant is so soft. It’s the perfect complement to the thick wonton noodles, which is so quick to whip up. Honestly, both are amazing standalone dishes by themselves, but combining them together makes for a great meal. Also, this recipe is super easy to scale up or down, so not only can this be a great dinner after work, but also something you can make for a potluck or for a group. Let me know if you try out my recipe for this Garlic Chinese Eggplant with Wonton Noodles in the comments below!