Eggplant Adobo Recipe – There is a variety of popular dishes to know about in Filipino cuisine, and one of them is adobo. Adobo is both a dish and a cooking process in the Philippines. It basically involves meat, seafood, or vegetables simmered in a marinade. Said marinade consists of soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, and black peppercorns. Popular and classic mains for this dish are chicken and pork but there are plenty of ways to enjoy the flavors of this dish, even if you don’t eat meat.
Some of the vegan and vegetarian options you can try with this dish/cooking method are tofu, mushroom, and eggplant. If you decide to try and make an adobo dish using eggplant, you get adobong talong. Whether you’re a fan of eggplants or not, this Adobong Talong Recipe makes for a highly flavorful dish to try:
Eggplant Adobo
Ingredients
- 5 Chinese eggplants (medium sized with ends trimmed)
- ½ cup vegetable oil (or more as needed)
- ⅓ cup vinegar
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ tsp freshly ground pepper
- 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 tsp sugar
Instructions
- Prepare the eggplants by cutting them in half lengthwise and then cutting each half into 2-inch pieces.
- Heat vegetable oil on a wok or non-stick frying pan then fry the eggplants, make sure to do it batches in batches.
- Cook the eggplants until they are brown on both sides. Add more oil as needed, then when the eggplants are done, drain them on paper towels and set aside
- Pour off excess oil from the pan then add the vinegar, soy sauce, ground pepper, garlic, and sugar and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Add the fried eggplants then lower the heat to medium. Cover the pan and cook for the mixture for 2-3 minutes or until eggplants are soft.
- Gently mix the eggplants and sauce together then turn off the heat. Leave the covered pan on the stove for couple more minutes since the eggplants will continue cooking.
- Once the eggplants are done, transfer the meal to a plate and enjoy it with some steamed rice.
Notes
Alternatives to an Eggplant Adobo Recipe
Not everyone is a fan of eggplants, but there are plenty of non-meat alternatives you can use if you want to try adobo. If you wanna go for a different vegetable, water spinach is one of the many options to choose from. Otherwise, you can try tofu as the main. Aside from variations of ingredients you can use as a main, there are other additions you can enjoy with the dish. In certain places in the Philippines, coconut milk is added to the dish. Other ingredients you can add for extra layers of flavor to the dish are mashed pork liver or turmeric.
Another adobo variation you can try is “Beef Adobo.” Or if you want another vegetable dish to try, check out our “Filipino Vegetable Stew Recipe.”
