If you like eggplant, it can sometimes be tricky to find recipes that go beyond the standard fare. This Hunan Steamed Eggplant is a nice change over the usual, especially if you’re looking for a spicy dish with strong flavors.
Chinese or Japanese purple eggplants are the best choice for this Hunan Steamed Eggplant. They cook up quickly, are tender and soft, and they really soak up that delicious Hunan-style spicy dressing!
What’s more, this Hunan Steamed Eggplant is completely vegetarian/vegan! When testing this recipe, Judy and I enjoyed this steamed eggplant over lots of white rice, and it makes for a pretty satisfying one plate dinner.
One of Our Favorites in China
I remember the first time we had this Hunan Steamed Eggplant. It was in China (bet no one saw that one coming!) at an authentic Hunan restaurant where we also enjoyed Duo Jiao Fish and Stir-Fried Leeks with Preserved Pork. We ordered the eggplant as an appetizer.
It was served warm, and the green peppers and garlic were barely cooked. The raw flavors and aromas really stood out when coupled with the tender Chinese eggplant. Needless to say, we were impressed by the combination.
Unfortunately, we rarely came across this dish in Chinese restaurants locally, until recently, when it popped up on the menu of a new Hunan restaurant we tried in New Jersey–still one of the best places to find unexpectedly authentic Chinese food, if you ask us!
Their version of Hunan Steamed Eggplant was very close to the dish we first tried in China, and I immediately thought to add this dish to our family archives and share it with everyone! It took a few tries to get this steamed eggplant recipe just right, so hope you all enjoy this one!
Hunan Steamed Eggplant: Recipe Instructions
Cut your Japanese eggplants into 3-inch pieces and then cut them into quarters lengthwise. Arrange on a heatproof plate for steaming.
Prepare your wok or large covered pot pan for steaming (or use a metal steamer or dedicated steaming kitchen gadget, if you have one). If you are not familiar with how to steam foods, check out some of our favorite gadgets for steaming on our Chinese cooking tools page.
Better yet, see our post on how to set up a steamer if you’re not familiar with steaming foods in Chinese cooking.
Steam the eggplant for 10 minutes, or until soft. You can serve the eggplant on the same plate, or transfer it to a serving plate. If transferring your steamed eggplant to a serving plate, be sure to include any liquid from the steamed eggplant.
Heat the vegetable oil and toasted sesame oil in a wok or saucepan over medium high heat and add the fresh ginger and sesame seeds.
After 15-20 seconds, stir in the hot chili oil (preferably homemade), sesame paste, soy sauce, salt, and sugar until well combined.
Once the sauce begins to simmer, turn off the heat and stir in the finely chopped long hot green peppers, garlic, half of the scallions, and the fermented black beans. Add the Thai chili only if you like your food super spicy, because they are extra spicy and your dish will already be on the spicy side without them!
Pour the sauce over the eggplant and top with the rest of the scallions.
Serve your Hunan Steamed Eggplant as an appetizer, side dish, or as a full meal alongside steamed rice!
Steamed Eggplant, Hunan Style
Ingredients
- 2 medium Chinese or Japanese eggplants (12 to 16 ounces)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ¼ teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon ginger (minced)
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons chili oil
- 1 tablespoon sesame paste (or tahini)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon long hot green peppers (finely chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 scallion (finely chopped)
- 1 tablespoon fermented black beans (rinsed and drained)
- 1 small Thai bird chili (chopped, optional)
Instructions
- Cut your Japanese or Chinese eggplants into 3-inch pieces and then cut them into quarters lengthwise. Arrange on a heatproof plate for steaming.
- Prepare your wok or large covered pot pan for steaming (or use a metal steamer or dedicated steaming kitchen gadget, if you have one).
- Steam the eggplant for 10 minutes, or until soft. You can serve the eggplant on the same plate, or transfer it to a serving plate. If transferring your steamed eggplant to a serving plate, be sure to include any liquid from the steamed eggplant.
- Heat the canola and sesame oil in a wok or saucepan over medium high heat and add the fresh ginger and sesame seeds.
- After 15-20 seconds, stir in the hot chili oil, sesame paste, soy sauce, salt, and sugar until well combined.
- Once the sauce begins to simmer, turn off the heat and stir in the finely chopped peppers, garlic, half of the scallions, and the black beans. Add the Thai chili only if you like your food super spicy, because it will already be on the spicy side.
- Pour the sauce over the eggplant and top with the rest of the scallions.
Have made this twice so far and I like it overall, but for me it keeps coming out kind of…smoky? More black in color than red. This time I got all the ingredients prepped and mixed ahead of time, but even so, the sesame seeds burned very quickly (more like 5 seconds than 15) and the rest of the ingredients started bubbling and burning as soon as they hit the pan. I’m using a stainless steel saucepan instead of a wok, maybe that’s the issue? Still edible!
Hi Ethan, I think you just need to use a lower heat to keep the aromatics from burning ;-)
Just wanted to say thanks for this recipe – it’s awesome! Rarely do you find something so easy to cook that is also incredibly delicious.
You’re welcome Hallie, glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely loved your recipes. Helps me when I ran out of ideas what to cook. By far this is one of the most authentic Chinese recipe website. Thank you
You’re welcome Jen and thank you for your kind comment!
My family weirdly doesn’t like eggplant so I made this tonight all for myself. So delicious!! I think this sauce would be good on okra too.
You are very right, Andi. It will work well on okra. Here is my new okra recipe. Hope you can give it a try and let me know how you like it :-)
This is my new favorite eggplant! Why haven’t I made it before?? It’s fast, easy, no mess, and so delicious- I did accidentally leave out the salt, but since I never rinse black beans it was still plenty salty- it’s spicy and savory and satisfying, and it’s exactly what you want when it’s hot out and nothing seems worth the trouble of eating.
Have not cooked this yet, so can’t rate the recipe. Other than the number of eggplants, there is no indication of quantity. It would really be helpful to get the weight of the eggplants, since there is such a variation in sizes, or amount in cups.
Hi Gloria, I updated the post – the eggplants vary in size but the recipe should use 12 to 16 ounces of raw eggplant.
This is very delicious and easy to put together. Deeply flavourful and moorish. I’m enjoying the adventure of learning Chinese flavours and cooking with the help of your recipes! This one is going on repeat.
Yayyyy! So glad you are enjoying our recipes.
Hello! Is there a substitute for the fermented black beans? can I use doubanjian?
Hi S Wu, fermented black beans are quite different than doubanjiang, but you if you don’t have them, you can definitely try the doubanjiang. The taste will be different but probably very good. Happy cooking!
Super tasty. So good, I used my extra eggplant to make another batch.
My familiarity with Chinese cuisine is with Cantonese style, so I feel like I’m becoming familiar with other types of Chinese cuisine by trying recipes on your site. Thanks for this. I’ve never had a dish like this growing up, but after coming upon this recipe I ran out to purchase Chinese/Japanese eggplant to try it. Honestly, your site has introduced me to Chinese ingredients that my parents never stocked in their kitchen, like fermented black beans and sesame paste. I used to just use tahini because I never had enough dishes to use it up, but I wanted to see if using sesame paste would make a difference to dishes like Dan Dan mian. It totally does. Chinese sesame paste- and take care to check ingredient lists, because they sometimes they sell sesame paste with peanut butter- has a nuttiness that tastes closer to peanut butter to me than tahini. I’ve been hitting my jar up so frequently I’m almost out. Time for a trip to a Chinese supermarket!
I found this dish a bit salty following the recipe as is (even after rinsing and draining the black beans) so the second time I cut out the salt and reduced the black beans to 2 teaspoons and the soy sauce to 1 1/2 teaspoons. I suspect might be able to reduce the soy sauce even more to just 1 teaspoon. Also, I couldn’t really tell if my eggplants were done steaming the first time around. They’re kinda soft to begin with. But I followed the recipe steam time the second time around (10 minutes) and they turned out fine. I’ll be keeping this dish in my rotation from now on.
Hi J, thanks for your thoughtful comments on the recipe and for sharing your experiences. Hunan cooking has strong flavors and usually errs on the side of being saltier rather than bland. Thanks for highlighting that and I encourage people to season and taste while cooking.