Steam the eggplant instead of frying it. Two tablespoons of oil is 240 kcal; a whole eggplant is 63.
2 servings20 min
Cut the eggplants lengthways into quarters. Leave the skin on.
Lay them in a steamer skin side up and steam 7–8 minutes over high heat, until a chopstick slides in easily.
Take them straight out and spread them on a wide plate to cool. Stacked, the residual heat keeps cooking them into mush.
Tear them into long strips by hand. A knife leaves a smeared cut face.
Mince the garlic; finely chop the chilli and spring onion.
Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, chilli and spring onion into a dressing.
Toss the cooled eggplant gently with the dressing and scatter the sesame seeds.
The point of this dish is keeping the eggplant out of oil.
The inside of an eggplant is a sponge full of air pockets. Meeting hot oil, the air leaves and oil takes its place. Eggplant is among the most oil-absorbent vegetables there is.
In numbers:
| 500 g of eggplant (2) | |
|---|---|
| Steamed | 125 kcal |
| Fried in 2 tbsp oil | 125 + 240 = 365 kcal |
Two tablespoons of oil is 240 kcal, twice the eggplant itself. This dish uses one teaspoon of sesame oil — 40 kcal.
Steaming skin side up is about colour. Eggplant's purple (nasunin) is an anthocyanin, sensitive to heat and acid. Skin in direct contact with water, or heated too long, goes dull. But there is no evidence that nasunin does anything in people — keeping the colour is for the eye.
Tearing by hand is about the dressing. A torn face splits along the fibres, giving far more surface for the dressing to grip. A smooth knife cut lets it slide off.
Spreading them out to cool immediately matters too. Stacked, residual heat and steam are trapped and cooking continues. This is the stage where eggplant turns to mush.
The vinegar is not only for balance. Cut eggplant browns through polyphenol oxidase, and acid slows that reaction.
The numbers, precisely. 500 g of eggplant gives 15 g of fibre and 125 kcal, with 10 mg of sodium from the vegetable itself. Almost all the sodium comes from the tablespoon of soy sauce.
And one thing stated plainly — there is no evidence that eggplant lowers cholesterol. Two randomised placebo-controlled trials both matched placebo. The reason to make this dish is the taste and the calories, not cholesterol.
Vegetables
Nutrition dataEggplant has long been sold in Brazil as a folk remedy for high cholesterol, so it was put through two randomised trials. Both matched placebo. The 2004 trial stated outright that the placebo group changed the same way. The 25 kcal and 3.0 g of fibre per 100 g are real.
Vegetables
Moderate evidenceThe evidence for garlic points to a modest drop in blood pressure and cholesterol. The trick is to crush it and wait ten minutes before it hits the heat.
Oils & fats
Nutrition dataSaturated fat sits at 14.2 g, mid-range for a vegetable oil, and vitamin E at 1.4 mg is a tenth of olive oil's. Sesame oil earns its place on flavour.
Herbs & spices
Moderate evidenceAcross 564,748 adults in four countries, regular spicy food eaters had 12 % lower all-cause mortality — with almost no disagreement between studies.