Easy Sauteed Eggplant

This sauteed eggplant is simple and irresistible! It comes out tender and perfectly seasoned with garlic and oregano.

Here’s a quick kitchen trick for you. Want to cook eggplant quickly? Try this irresistible sauteed eggplant! It takes just 10 minutes to cook, but tastes like it’s been simmering all day. The eggplant is tender with just the right amount of bite, seasoned with garlic, oregano and salt until the flavor pops! Add a quick sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and it’s positively heavenly! This is our go-to method to cook this vegetable. Plus: add a jar of marinara sauce and cooked pasta, and it’s a meal!

Ingredients for sauteed eggplant

Many people thinking of roasted eggplant when it comes to cooking this vegetable. Why sautéing isn’t more popular, we’re not sure! Sauteed eggplant is our new favorite method for cooking this purple vegetable. It takes just 10 minutes: no need to salt the eggplant first or do any prep. Simply throw it in the pan with olive oil! Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe:

• Eggplant
• Olive oil
• Garlic powder
• Dried oregano
• Salt
• Optional garnishes: Parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, fresh parsley

The eggplant tastes great as is, so the garnishes aren’t really necessary! The Parmesan cheese is optional, though it does step up the flavors a notch.

Do you need to salt and drain eggplant before cooking it?

If you’ve cooked eggplant recipes before, you may notice that some recipes call for mixing the eggplant with salt and letting it drain for 1 hour to extract some of the bitterness from the eggplant. Is this extra step really necessary?

According to Epicurious, it’s actually not! Salting and draining eggplant used to be conventional practice because eggplants in the past were more bitter. Today’s eggplants are bred to be less bitter, so there’s no need to waste an hour salting the eggplant.

Tips for how to make sauteed eggplant

This sauteed eggplant recipe comes together in a flash. And it tastes just as good as other cooking methods! In fact, we prefer it to our roasted eggplant recipe because some of the texture is retained (it doesn’t get quite as mushy). Here are a few tips for cooking eggplant on the stovetop:

• Eggplant absorbs a lot of oil. Keep this in mind throughout the cooking process! You’ll need 3 tablespoons of olive oil to start with because the eggplant is like a sponge.
• The pan will get dry during cooking, so stir often. Again, that eggplant soaks up all the oil quickly. The pan will be pretty dry throughout the cooking process, which is okay! Just remember to keep stirring so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
• Taste and add additional salt as desired. We like it with a few more pinches to bring out the savory flavor.

Ways to use it

In all honesty, we ate this sauteed eggplant right out of the pan! We couldn’t stop sneaking those savory morsels. But if you’re able to resist, there are lots of ways to serve this dish! Here are a few ideas:

• Eggplant pasta with purchased marinara sauce and cooked pasta (or make Pasta alla Norma)
• Side dish for chicken, seafood, vegetarian or vegan meals
• Salad topping for a main dish salad
• Bowl meal component, like in a power bowl, rice bowl or Mediterranean bowl

How are you planning to serve your eggplant? Let us know in the comments below.

More eggplant recipes

Eggplant is one of our favorite vegetables to incorporate in recipes, from eggplant Parmesan to ratatouille! Here are a few of our top eggplant recipes:

• Go for classic Italian Eggplant Parmesan
• Try simple Pasta alla Norma
• Opt for Classic Ratatouille or Eggplant Caponata
• Grab Eggplant Meatballs or Eggplant Pizza

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15 Tasty Eggplant Recipes

02

Pasta alla Norma

03

Classic Ratatouille

04

Eggplant Parmesan (Eggplant Parmigiana)

This sauteed eggplant recipe is…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.

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