This eggplant dish has got to be one of the most beautiful dishes I have ever made. I actually stared at my plate for a while just to admire the beauty of Mother Nature’s creations. At the farmers market, I found the most beautiful Thai basil I have ever seen with purple flowers.
I’ve really gotten into flowering plants because they look so pretty. What a fun way to add some beautiful garnish to your dishes. Next to the basil were some cool looking purple Thai peppers. I love me some purple colored foods, and jumped at the chance to make a purple power dish.
For the eggplant, I went with the smaller rounder style eggplant versus the longer skinnier eggplant just to play with some shapes.
Instead of pan frying the eggplant, I roasted the vegetable because I really love the flavors and textures you get from roasting. Roasting vegetables is not a traditional Asian style of cooking but hey, it’s fun to fuse different styles together, right?
For the sauce, I used gluten-free tamari to make the dish gluten-free.
Ingredients (serves 4):
- 1 pound of round eggplant cut into quarter pieces
- 12-14 Thai peppers (depending on how spicy you want the dish)
- 3/4 cup chopped Thai basil leaves
- Thai basil flowers for garnish
- Chopped red jalapeno (optional for topping)
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Sea salt
For the sauce:
- 3 tbs gluten-free tamari
- 2 tbs organic brown sugar
- 2 cloves finely chopped garlic
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. On a baking sheet spread the eggplant pieces out and cover the eggplant with olive oil. Sprinkle a few dashes of sea salt over the eggplant pieces. Use just a small amount of salt because the tamari used in the sauce is high in salt.
Roast for 25 minutes. Do not remove the sheet yet. Coat the Thai peppers with some olive oil and toss onto the sheet with the eggplant and roast for an additional 5 minutes. We are basically sweating the peppers a bit so they become a little softer.
Remove the sheet from the oven and let cool down. The eggplant should be soft to the touch, not too mushy.
To make the sauce, in a small bowl, combine the tamari, brown sugar, garlic and garlic powder, and mix together until the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.
Heat on medium a wok or large sauce pan. Put the roasted eggplant and peppers into the pan. Toss in the chopped basil leaves and pour the sauce over the eggplant. Mix well.
Cover the wok or pan, and let the eggplant simmer in the sauce for about 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Take the pan off the burner and let the eggplant cool down.
When plating your eggplant and pepper dish, garnish on top with some of the beautiful flowers and sprinkle on some chopped red Jalapeno like I did in the photo for some fun burst of color.
Enjoy!
