This Grilled Eggplant with Garlic Sauce and Mint and served with perfectly grilled steaks makes for a quick and light summer dinner.
I always say eggplant is not my friend and the only thing I love with eggplant is my eggplant salad, but today I was proud of myself, I gave eggplant a chance and I am glad I did. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would love to eat grilled eggplant. As a matter of fact, I can’t even remember why I don’t like eggplant. How silly is that. Maybe I didn’t like the texture, maybe because I thought it was slimy in other dishes, who knows and who cares. All that is behind me. I am now an eggplant lover! OK, maybe I would not go that far, but at least I loved this grilled eggplant with this amazing garlic sauce.
As my husband was grilling outside, he took out a couple pieces of eggplant that were ready and I thought I’d give it a try. I loved the texture of it, it’s very light and what can I say, I could not stop eating it. And this was before I even added the garlic sauce to it. Today was a big day for me indeed! The eggplant won! Now I won’t go as far as saying I’d try eggplant Parmesan, or eggplant curries or anything like that. For now I’ll stick to what I know.
I’m going to share this recipe with you as it is dear to my heart and I want the whole world to experience what I experienced today. I urge you to try this eggplant dish and write to me and tell me if you enjoyed it as much as I did.
This dish was so simple to make, and we grilled some nice beef steak to go with the grilled eggplant, but obviously you can have it as an appetizer, side dish, whatever you heart desires. I’m not expert on eggplant types, since I’ve been avoiding them most of my life, but I believe the ones I used are Italian eggplants, and I used 2 big ones. Slice them in round slices, about 1 inch in thickness. Brush them with olive oil on both sides, and sprinkle them with salt and pepper.
Grill them on high, until slightly charred and cooked through. Now as we are grilling the eggplants, we also added a couple nice steaks on the grill, and as usual while we wait for the food, we take pictures of our baby, and I just have to share this picture with your because she is the cutest beggar there ever was.
Don’t worry, we’re not cold hearted, Mia always gets her share of steak and more, but she always has the most innocent face. Back to the recipe here. Let me tell you how to make that delicious garlic sauce. I tell you this garlic sauce is gold! You’ll need about 6 garlic cloves which you need to make a paste with, I usually prefer to use a mortar and pestle. Add the garlic paste to a small bowl, and add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper and the red chili flakes. Stir it all together and you’ve got yourself a wonderful garlic sauce.
After grilling the eggplants, drizzle them with some of the garlic sauce, garnish with some chopped mint and serve. Mmmm, mmmm!
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Grilled Eggplant with Garlic Sauce and Mint
Ingredients
- 2 large eggplants
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame seed oil
- 1 tsp red chili flakes
- mint chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat the grill on high.
- Cut the eggplant in round slices about 1 inch in thickness.
- Brush each side with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Grill the eggplants until slightly charred and cooked through.
- While eggplants and steaks are grilling, make the garlic sauce. Using a mortar and pestle smash the garlic into a past.
- Add the paste to a small bowl, and add the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame seed oil and chili flakes and stir well.
- Drizzle the garlic sauce over the eggplant, garnish with the chopped mint and serve along with your favorite protein.
Oh, this was wonderful! This was the main dish to our vegan feast, with grilled corn on the cob, grilled mushrooms and pepper kabobs, and sticky rice to soak up any leftover garlic sauce. WOW!
This look delicious. Will definitely give it a try. But, I’d really love to know, what is the breed of your dog? My parents have two mutts that look just like that! Beautiful!
My mutt is a beagle. 🙂 Not sure if she’s pure bred, but it doesn’t matter to me, she’s my baby.
I have my eye on that garlic sauce. My husband would love this. Thanks for another wonderful meal inspiration.
Hi Alisa, you have to try it, I made it again today and we had it with beef and it is too good.
I love eggplant in many forms, even the slimy stuff, but this looks delectable in a totally different way! Thank you!
I love eggplant and this is right up my alley. We’re very big on eggplant as Egyptians and use it in its many forms. I’m glad you’ve picked up on it too. It’s a beautiful thing. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Hi Sarah, you’re right, it is a beautiful thing. Who says we can’t change? 🙂