• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FatFree Vegan Kitchen

Simply delicious oil-free vegan recipes

  • Recipe Index
    • Recipes by Category
    • Recipes by Tag
    • Recipe Box
  • About Me
    • Press
  • NewsBites
  • Shop!
  • Website

Grilled Baby Eggplants with Korean Barbecue Sauce

August 14, 2007 By Susan Voisin 13 Comments
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Privacy Policy.

Jump to Recipe Share on Facebook

Homemade Korean barbecue sauce adds the sultry flavors of sesame and ginger along with sweet and spicy notes to grilled baby eggplants, but it’s also delicious on tofu, tempeh, or anywhere you love barbecue sauce.

Grilled Baby Eggplants with Korean Barbecue Sauce

Blame my husband. Normally I wouldn’t post back-to-back eggplant recipes, but while visiting his family in New Orleans, D took a shopping trip to the Hong Kong Market and brought home the last thing we needed, more eggplant. But he knows how much I love baby eggplants, so he and E couldn’t resist buying them for me, even though we’re up to our ears in their longer, thinner Japanese cousins.

Double Eggplant

They also couldn’t pass up the opportunity to bring home this cute double eggplant. They know me so well that they assumed I’d want to take photos of it, which of course I did, before reluctantly cutting it apart.

But what to do with the eggplants? They’d brought home a whole bag of them, in sizes that ranged from smaller than a golf ball to almost as big as my fist. I knew that I needed to watch them individually as they cooked so that I could remove the little ones before they got overdone while letting the big ones cook longer. And somewhere along the line I got these visions of grill marks dancing in my head, which was really inconvenient with the temperature outside at 104.

So against all sense and reason, we started the charcoal and prepared the grill. Earlier in the day, I made the Korean barbecue sauce, marinated some sliced tofu, and made Mung-Bean Salad from D’s other major Hong Kong Market purchase.

It was ridiculously hot over that grill, turning eggplants and tofu every minute or so to prevent them from burning. And I will not lie to you. By the end I was hot, smoky, tired, and cranky as hell and wished I’d just roasted them in the oven. But as we sat down to eat in the lovely air conditioning, it seemed almost worth it to savor the smoky flavor that you can get only from grilling. That doesn’t mean I’ll be doing it again any time soon!

Grilled Baby Eggplants with Korean Barbecue Sauce

To Grill Baby Eggplant:

Grilling baby eggplant is easy because there isn’t a lot of slicing involved. Simply cut the eggplant in half. You can even leave the stem on and cut it in half, too, though most people remove it.

Get your grill very hot before placing the eggplant cut-side down. Since many of my eggplants were tiny, I used a vegetable grill basket similar to this one at Amazon, which kept them from falling through the grill. Watch your eggplants carefully, turning them long before you think they’re done because they will burn in the blink of an eye. (Tofu will burn even more quickly, so if you’re grilling tofu at the same time, watch it too or you’ll wind up with black-crusted tofu as I did!)

When the eggplants are done, arrange them on a plate, drizzle them with Korean Barbecue Sauce, and serve topped with the optional Spicy Green Onion Garnish (recipes below).

Grilled Baby Eggplants with Korean Barbecue Sauce
5 from 2 votes
Print SaveSaved! Add to Recipe BoxGo to Recipe Box

Korean Barbecue Sauce

You can, of course, buy this wonderfully sweet and savory sauce. In fact, I have a whole jar of it in my refrigerator, but homemade is really tastier and not filled with thickeners and preservatives. See the notes for the recipe for the garnish.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 6
Author Susan Voisin

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon minced ginger
  • 1 clove garlic , pressed
  • 1 teaspoon minced chile pepper
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon rice wine
  • 2 tablespoons agave nectar or other sweetener
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened apple juice concentrate (the frozen kind is fine)
  • 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

  • Place all ingredients except the sesame seeds into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to very low and simmer until partially reduced, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add sesame seeds. Sauce should thicken as it cools. To use, warm slightly and serve over vegetables and tofu. Makes about 6 2-tablespoon servings.

Notes

Spicy Green Onion Garnish

For best color, make this right before you plan to serve it.
4 green onions, bulb removed
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced red bell pepper
1-2 teaspoons minced hot chile pepper (I used jalapeño)
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
Finely chop the green onions. Mix them well with the remaining ingredients. Serve over eggplant or other vegetables.
Nutrition Facts
Korean Barbecue Sauce
Amount Per Serving (2 tablespoons)
Calories 57
% Daily Value*
Sodium 359mg16%
Carbohydrates 14.1g5%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutritional info is approximate.

Course Sauce
Cuisine Korean, Vegan
Have you made this recipe?Mention @SusanFFVK and tag #fatfreevegankitchen in your photos on Instagram.
Share on Facebook Share by Email

 

Tis the season to grill eggplant! If you’re looking for more recipes, check out Kalyn’s Spicy Grilled Eggplant with Red Pepper, Parsley, and Mint. As an added bonus, she has links to 10 more grilled eggplant recipes from other bloggers.

And if it’s too hot to grill, try one of my other eggplant recipes (currently 50 of them!)

Please Pin and share!

Korean barbecue sauce adds the sultry flavors of sesame and ginger along with sweet and spicy notes to grilled baby eggplants. Vegan, preservative-free.

Filed Under: Main Dishes, Recipes, Sauces and Seasonings Tagged With: Eggplant Recipes, Gluten-free, Soy

Get NewsBites!

Sign up for our newsletter to receive new recipes & tips by email!

Privacy Policy
Previous Post: « Garden Gumbo
Next Post: Home-Style Tofu with Shiitake Mushrooms »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jon Cianci

    April 16, 2010 at 11:17 am

    I think this is the recipe? Am I right??

    Reply
  2. Laina

    April 17, 2010 at 2:15 pm

    I’m guesssing this is the recipe because you love eggplant. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Starlet

    August 18, 2010 at 9:36 pm

    Thank you so much for this recipe. I happened to have Korean left over and bunch of eggplant, this is perfect, super easy, and a big hit!

    Reply
  4. rocketandrosesvegankitchen

    March 2, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    I made this today…with a couple of changes. Firstly I slices the eggplants and sliced four slices of tofu. I brushed these with a tiny bit of oil and then cooked them on my griddle pan. I served it over brown rice. I’ve taken some photos and they are on my blog with a review of the recipe.

    I really enjoyed this recipe Susan..as always…thanks..

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome to My Kitchen!

Susan VoisinI'm Susan Voisin, and I love creating delicious whole foods plant-based dishes with no added oil. Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram.
  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Find It Fast

  • Instant Pot Recipes
  • Ridiculously Easy Recipes
  • Weight Watchers Recipes
  • Recipes by Tag (ingredient, gluten-free, etc.)
  • Complete Recipe Index

Find a Recipe

Allergens

All of my recipes are vegan, dairy-free, and fish free. To find recipes free of other allergens, click on an icon below.

Gluten FreeNut FreeSugar FreeSoy Free

Footer

Fall Favorites

Pasta Fagioli with Cranberry Beans and Kale

Pasta Fagioli with Cranberry Beans and Kale

Vegan Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Vegan Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Spaghetti Squash Pesto Lasagna

Spaghetti Squash Pesto Lasagna

Lentil Soup with Coriander and Cumin from FatFree Vegan Kitchen

Lentil Soup with Coriander and Cumin

See More Fall Favorites

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Photos, original recipes, and text © Susan Voisin. All rights reserved. Do not republish content without permission.

Nutritional information is approximate and is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. This site has no affiliation with Weight Watchers™️ and cannot guarantee accuracy of Points™️.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Copyright © 2023 · Susan Voisin · Privacy Policy· Log in