Quick and easy Eggplant with Sesame Ponzu Sauce is sliced and pan-fried until tender golden brown. The combination of Japanese eggplant, shiso leaves, and the bright citrus-based soy sauce is simply amazing!
One of the vegetables that I learned to appreciate is eggplant. I didn’t understand why my mother cooked this vegetable so often when I was growing up. How funny I became to enjoy eggplant in my early 20s. This Eggplant with Sesame Ponzu Sauce (ナスの胡麻ポン酢和え) is one of my favorite eggplant dishes and I hope you enjoy it. It’s so easy to prepare and delicious!
Tips on Making Eggplant with Sesame Ponzu Sauce
- Cut the eggplant right before you cook. Eggplant changes its color when exposed to air. Therefore, as soon as you cut it into slices, fry them in the oil immediately.
- Kobucha or kombucha (昆布茶) is not a kombucha, the fermented drink, you may know of. It’s granules made of kombu and salt, and we drink it as a tea in Japan. Since it’s made of kombu and salt, we often use it as a seasoning.
- Try serving this chilled in the summer and warm in other seasons. So refreshing and delicious!
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Eggplant with Sesame Ponzu Sauce
Quick and easy Eggplant with Sesame Ponzu Sauce is sliced and pan-fried until tender golden brown. The combination of Japanese eggplant, shiso leaves, and the bright citrus-based soy sauce is simply amazing!
Servings: 2
Ingredients
- 2 green onions/scallions (finely chopped)
- 5 shiso leaves (perilla/ooba) (cut into chiffonade)
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil (for pan-frying)
- 1 Japanese or Chinese eggplant
For the Sauce
- 2 Tbsp ponzu (you can make your own homemade ponzu)
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
- ¼ tsp kobucha (kombucha) (this is NOT the fermented drink kombucha; Japanese kobucha/konbucha is a kelp tea powder made from kombu seaweed; you can substitute it with salt, but it will lack kobucha‘s umami)
Japanese Ingredient Substitution: If you want substitutes for Japanese condiments and ingredients, click here.
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Finely chop 2 green onions/scallions and cut 5 shiso leaves (perilla/ooba) into a chiffonade.
- In a small bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce: 2 Tbsp ponzu, 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil, and ¼ tsp kobucha (kombucha) powder. Set aside.
- In a nonstick frying pan, heat 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil on medium-high heat. While the oil is heating up, cut 1 Japanese or Chinese eggplant into slices ¼ inch (6 mm) thick. Before the eggplant starts to change color, immediately start cooking. Pan-fry both sides of the eggplant until golden brown.
- Transfer to a serving plate or individual plates. If you‘d like to serve it cold, keep the sauce and finished eggplants separately in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.
- Sprinkle the chopped green onions and shredded shiso leaves on top. Drizzle the sesame ponzu sauce over the eggplant. Serve hot, at room temperature, or chilled.
To Store
- You can keep the dish in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 3 days or in the freezer for 2 weeks. Store the sauce and eggplant in separate containers.
Nutrition
Calories: 62 kcal · Carbohydrates: 7 g · Protein: 1 g · Fat: 4 g · Saturated Fat: 1 g · Polyunsaturated Fat: 2 g · Monounsaturated Fat: 1 g · Sodium: 212 mg · Potassium: 262 mg · Fiber: 3 g · Sugar: 4 g · Vitamin A: 36 IU · Vitamin C: 3 mg · Calcium: 12 mg · Iron: 1 mg
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Lovely! As I was cooking loads of dishes I made my life easier by baking these in the oven. What a lovely combination of flavours!
Hi Afra,
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
Baking these in the oven is a great idea! Thank you for sharing your cooking tip with us.🙂
This and your shogayaki made for a very quick and cheap dinner. Delicious as always, even if I don’t always follow the recipe word for word, hahah. Thanks again for sharing.
Hi Jace! Thank you for your kind feedback! I’m glad you enjoyed the dishes! 🙂
This was so delicious and easy…loved the shiso leaves. Fortunately I doubled the amount of eggplant because there might have been a fight. LOL
Hi Linda! Hahahaha! Good call. I love this simple dish too. I’m glad you enjoyed it (even though it’s posted a long time ago) and thanks for your kind feedback. 🙂
Omg yes! I love eggplants and sesame. I didn’t have shiso but this recipe was still amazing. I like that it was really simple to put together and will definitely be making this again. Thanks Nami.
Hi Agnes! So happy to hear you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for your kind feedback. 🙂
Nami, I made this for dinner tonight and it was so delicious. I served it with your tofu/ground chicken meatballs (I used ground turkey), steamed squash and rice. What a fabulous meal! I was hoping to save several slices to pack in a bento box lunch tomorrow but it was all gobbled up. I loved that eggplant could be fried in the morning and finished when II got home from work. I like to mix up the tofu meatballs in the morning too and then cook them later. I love your blog. I have enjoyed learning about japanese cooking. My family has enjoyed every single dish that I have prepared from your recipes. So, thank you! Now I need your assistance. What else can I do with the can of Konbu Cha that I purchased for this recipe? Are there other dishes that I can use it with? Thank you.
Hi Christine! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! Your meal sounds absolutely healthy and delicious. And thank you so much for your kind words. I’m just happy that you’re cooking Japanese food at home!
Regarding Konbu Cha, you can use it to replace salt (because it’s salty) when you want to add more umami (from kombu).
I always keep konbu cha to make Unagi Chazuke.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/unagi-chazuke/
Others:
https://www.justonecookbook.com/japanese-style-mushroom-tuna-pasta/
https://www.justonecookbook.com/chicken-tofu-hamburger-steak/
I made this using sliced zucchini instead of eggplant. It was delicious!
Hi Anni! Awesome! Thanks so much for trying this recipe (especially it’s so old…). I’m happy you enjoyed it. Thank you for your kind feedback. 🙂
I swill start looking for Shiso but my resources are fairly limited. Even thou I live near a huge city most of the Asian supply stores are on the far side to where I am. Soo…. after trying to read up on Shiso – do you think it would sort of compliment the eggplant if I were to use a light mix of basil with mint and a filler of flat-leaf parsley?
I also wanted to compliment you on your blog. I’ve only just found you and have done nothing but read, read, copy, copy, print, print your recipes! Thank you so much for this amazing compilation of tempting foods!
Hello Gwen! Shiso is hard to find unless you go to a Japanese grocery store, as other Asian cuisines don’t use this Japanese herb. I’m sure other herbs work BUT the flavor of shiso is so distinctly unique… there’s nothing like that. I really wish this herb will be easily accessible in the future!
Thank you so much for your kind words. I’m so happy you found some recipes you’d like to try from my site. Hope you enjoy them. 🙂
My husband loves eggplant. I made this recipe as an entree for dinner this evening, along with Yaki Nasu. This is the first time I’ve ever cooked with shiso, and my goodness, as soon as I started the chiffonade, I was completely overwhelmed with the HEAVENLY scent of the shiso. This dish was fabulous, and you are so right: the konbucha really truly does add that extra umami-ness. Thank you so much for your recipe, and your blog! P.S. I should also let you know that I have become a total fan of shungiku, which I had never heard of prior to your sukiyaki recipe. It MAKES the sukiyaki. But I have a hard time finding it locally in Hawaii; it is not always available. So in my yard, I just started a Japanese greens garden. I planted shungiku, red and green shiso, komatsuna, mitsuba, mizuna, and negi. I hope it all grows well. Had it not been for your blog, I would never have dreamed of planting these things.
Hi Debbie! I can imagine eating eggplant as main course with you two. 🙂 I LOVE eggplant too even though I didn’t like it growing up. So happy to hear you tried kombu-cha. You can use it as salt. It’s basically kombu essense so it really brings wonderful flavors. It’s too bad most people can’t use it, so I rarely share recipes with this type of ingredients anymore (or else I get too many emails asking for substitute haha). And shiso… ohhh it’s my favorite!!! Search “Shiso” on my blog – I have shared some recipes using shiso until many people said they can’t find it… and that’s the main flavor for the recipe… and can’t really sub… 😀
Yeah shungiku is wonderful in all types of nabe recipes. Napa and shungiku are the main veggies for hot pot (even for Chinese hot pot too).
And your garden!!!!!!!!! Wow… I want to live right next door!!!! This is awesome. I’m so happy that you are enjoying Japanese greens. Thank you for making my day! 🙂
Hello Nami,
I found your blog by accident while looking to purchase some Japanese cookery and china last week (late Feb). Ever since, I’ve been making and replenishing my stock of Sunomono cucumbers and wakame, made 3 batches of salted salmon and right this moment I have some seabass marinating in miso paste in my fridge.
Tonight my husband had a huge smile when I served the eggplant with ponzu sauce. However, I substituted the eggplant with green and yellow zucchini since I have them in my fridge. I roasted the zucchini instead of deep frying. On his tray my husband also found Chawanmushi with shrimps, pickled cucumbers served with rice and salted salmon soaked in ocha for dinner. Needless to say it is simply delish!
Thank you for sharing some really amazing recipes. Looking forward to try more of your recipe.
Hi Lily! Your feedback and comment made me really happy! Thank you so much for trying all these recipes. I’m so happy to hear you’ve been enjoying cooking and eating Japanese food at home. Thank you again for writing! 🙂
I can’t get away from the computer since discovering your wonderful website. I’m searching for a published cookbook that you might be offering for sale, as I find myself printing your delicious recipes and using up a lot of my printer ink! I even salivate at the food photos. Great website! Never heard of Ponzu Sauce before so will have to check my local asian supermarket. Thanks for sharing your recipes. Japanese food is my favorite that I never get enough of. You make it easy to attempt preparing the food. Even your CAPTCHA is easy enough!
Hi Sharon! Thank you for your kind words! :-). I hope you enjoy my Japanese recipes!