Chinese Eggplant Salad

Chinese Eggplant Salad (凉拌茄子) is one of my favourite dish all year. This eggplant dish is delicious, easy to make, and healthy. I am going to share with you an easy and fail-proof recipe on how to cook Chinese eggplant salad. Chinese eggplant salad is a refreshing and healthy cold appetizer and serves as a side dish in many Asian cuisines. In this recipe, I use green lime to replace vinegar to pickle the eggplant as it is a healthier natural ingredient. I always cook this dish whenever I bought fresh eggplant from the market.

How to Choose the Fresh Eggplant?

Fresh eggplants are usually darker in colour (dark purple colour). Besides, you should also choose eggplant with smooth and shiny skin (as per the picture below). Avoid picking eggplant with lighter purple colour and wrinkled skin as these are normally bad or not fresh.

Recipe Ingredients

The recipe calls for:

Main Ingredients

• 2 medium-sized eggplants
• 6 small green limes
• 1 small chili
• 5 – 6 small shallots

Seasoning

• 1 tbsp shallots oil (recipe refer to the previous post)
• 3 tbsp soy sauce

How to Make Chinese Eggplant Salad?

1. Mix the source: squeeze 6 lime juices, 3 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 small chili. Set aside.

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add in the eggplant. Close the lids and boil for 10 minutes.

1. Drain the eggplant. Set aside and let it cool down (around 10 minutes).

1. Roughly remove the eggplant skin.

1. Use the fork to tear the eggplant into thin strips.

1. Pour in the sauce.

1. Add 1 tbsp of shallot oil.

1. Add 1 tbsp of crispy fried shallots. Mix well.

1. Done and serve.