Sometimes the simplest dishes are the best. They whip up quickly and they don’t take a ton of planning to execute. That’s certainly the case with this glazed gochujang eggplant recipe. It comes together in a flash and offers a healthy dish that tastes so good you’d think you were having dinner in an Asian restaurant.

I love having this eggplant over rice or soba noodles as my main dish. But, you can serve it alongside chicken or your protein of choice for a yummy veggie side as well.

The trick to making great eggplant for this dish is to start with Chinese eggplant (sometimes called Japanese eggplant, too) which is easier to cut and cook than the larger varieties of eggplant. Then bake it to draw out some of the moisture before adding it to the pan with the sauce ingredients. You can get the rice cooking while these bake.

The sauce relies of a hefty dose of gochujang, the Korean chili paste that’s in so many Asian dishes. It’s a little spicy and full of flavor. For this recipe you’ll need 2 to 3 tablespoons of it, unless you want to amp up the flavor even more- in which case you can add more gochujang to taste.

First you fry the green onion in some oil before adding the gochujang glaze to the pan to thicken. Some maple syrup adds sweetness and helps this glaze to thicken. If you don’t have any on hand you can use honey or some brown sugar with water to get that same sweetness.

Then add in you eggplant and the rest of the ingredients and get ready for a trip to flavor town. This dish is a little sweet, a little spicy, and full of savory flavor to bring it all together. The combination is a very satisfying one, especially when you consider how easily this dish comes together.