Thai Basil Eggplants Stir Fry – eggplants sliced and stir fried with Thai Basil in s chili soy sauce – easy and flavorful! Perfect meal any day of the week!

Thai Basil Eggplant Stir Fry is so tasty and so easy to make. Even those that are not eggplant fans find it super tasty. The sauce this one comes with is yum on white rice, or you can mix it with some noodles for a Thai Basil Eggplant noodle dish too!

By the way, if you love this recipe, be sure to also check out my Chinese Eggplants in Garlic Sauce recipe here!

This recipe calls for only X ingredients! The main ingredients are the eggplants and the basil. So Let’s look at what types to use!

Chinese Eggplants

There are actually so many different types of eggplants! For example, you can use Italian eggplants for Eggplant Parmesan, American eggplants for grilling (or air fry!).

For this recipe, we are going to use Chinese Eggplants. Japanese Eggplants would also work well for this.

For preparation, we will wash the eggplants, and then cut off and remove the top and end of the eggplant. Then, cut the eggplant in to slices.

Cutting the Eggplants

Cut the eggplants in chunks. If they are on the larger size, you can cut them vertically first (length wise) and then cut them in to 1/2 to 1 inch width. Or you can do this very cool cutting style called ‘roll cutting’.

Roll cutting aka oblique cutting is a technique where you can cut long veggies like zucchini, carrots, Chinese eggplants, in a way that will expose the most amount of surface are – this makes it cook faster and absorbent of sauces/spices.

Types of Basil

Unsurprisingly, this recipe calls for Thai Basil, and that is the recommended type of basil to use for this dish. However, if you can’t find any Thai Basil, you can use other types of basil.

A popular basil substitute for Thai basil is the Italian basil. This will give you the most similar basil flavor.

Thick Soy Sauce

I do not use regular soy sauce for this recipe. I use Thick Soy Sauce, aka Soy Paste. There’s actually many different types of soy sauce! Thick soy sauce is a lot thicker than your normal soy sauce. It has a richer, sweeter flavor, which is perfect for this dish.

If you can’t find any thick soy sauce, you can actually use regular soy sauce. If you do this route, here’s a couple of recommendations:

• Add some sort of sweetener. Since Thick soy sauce is more sweet, you are now missing a flavor, so I would recommend adding a bit of sugar or sweetener of your choice.
• Thicken it. Since Thick soy sauce is, well duh, more thick, you may want to add something to thicken the sauce. To do this, you can mix cornstarch and water in a separate bowl to create a thickener, and then adding it to the dish prior to adding the basil.

Or even more simple – Oyster sauce can often be used as a substitute because it is similar in texture and it is also salty and sweet at the same time.

Chili Bean Paste / Doubanjiang

The chili sauce/paste I often use is called Chili Bean Sauce aka Doubanjiang.

Chilli Bean Paste aka Doubanjiang 豆瓣酱, is a chunky sauce you can buy at the store that is spicy and savory. It’s traditionally made from fermented broad beans, chili peppers, soybeans, salt and flour. There are also different ones you can find, for example some will add spicy chili oil in it already.

Chili Bean Paste is often used in Sichuan food (ex: mapo tofu), which might explain why I love it because I love Sichuan food (and my grandma was from there!). I use it in my Szechuan Chicken, Twice Cooked Pork and Jalapeno Chicken.

You can buy it at your local Asian super market or even on Amazon such as this one: Lee Kum Kee LKK Chili Bean Sauce (Toban Djan).

How to make Thai Basil Eggplant?

First, gather your ingredients:

• 2 Chinese eggplants, cut in to 1 inch chunks
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tbsp thick soy sauce aka soy paste or Thai Sweet Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp chili bean paste, Doubanjiang
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)
• 1 bunch Thai basil leaves

Slice eggplants in to 1 inch chunks

Place eggplants in a large mixing bowl and fill with water. Add salt and either vinegar or lemon juice, and mix well. Allow it to soak for at least 15 minutes. This helps keep the eggplants from browning and helps keep it more ‘purple’. Remove from water, and pat dry with paper towel.

In a wok or cooking pan, add cooking oil and allow it to heat up.

Then add eggplants and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Add in thick soy sauce, chili bean paste, and sugar (optional), and stir fry for about 5 minutes or until eggplants are cooked thoroughly.

At the very end, add the basil, and mix well for about half a minute, and turn off the heat. Stir to mix well. This helps keep it green.

Remove from cooking pan or wok and serve!

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Want to learn more?

Check out my FULL BLOWN “How to Stir Fry at Home” Course! You will learn everything you need to know to master stir fries at home!

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