Spicy Eggplant Stir-Fry

I’ve been on a bit of an eggplant kick lately, and factored it in to last week’s meals again. I had every intention of making some breaded and fried eggplant to go along side some simple pasta earlier in the week, but the hectic work-week took over, and it was left for Saturday night. The eggplant was on it’s way out, but after doing so research I learned it would still be okay to eat, just possibly bitter. I made sure to cook it a little longer than I normally would have to hopefully cook out the bitter flavor, and instead of breading and frying it, chopped it up and made a stir fry of sorts.

I wasn’t completely sure what I was doing, so I kind of just threw some ingredients together. I don’t have any type of fish or oyster sauce, but I did have some Worcestershire sauce, so I figured that would have to work instead. The entire recipe only took about 15-2o minutes to make from start to finish, which was perfect considering I had spent 4+ hours reading and doing homework that day. Who would have thought online grad school would be so time consuming?! (Oh right, I knew that). One of these days I’ll have the time to bread and fry up some nice eggplant slices. But until then, I’ll keep throwing it into a stir-fry of sorts!

Spicy Eggplant Stir-Fry
– Serves 2 –

Ingredients:
1 medium sized eggplant, peeled and cubed
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 Tbsp oil
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce (or Oyster sauce)
1 Tbsp hot chili sesame oil
2 Tbsp red chili paste
1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
Your favorite noodles (pad thai, soba, lo mein, etc.) or rice

Directions:
1.  Heat wok or skillet over medium high heat with oil. Add eggplant and sauté 5-10 minutes, until tender and heated through. Remove from heat (place in a separate bowl).
2. Cook noodles or rice according to package
3. Add onion and pepper, and sauté for another 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients, and sauté for an additional 2-4 minutes.
4.  Add eggplant back into mixture, and cook additional 3-5 minutes, making sure to combine everything well
5. Add cooked noodles, making sure to fully coat in the sauce and combining ingredients.