Ground Pork and Eggplant Skillet

This ground pork and eggplant skillet meal is a tasty stir fry that you can make in only 20 minutes. A healthy and satiating weeknight dinner.

Jump to:

• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💭 Top tips
• 🥗 Serving suggestions
• 📖 Variations
• 🍲 Leftovers
• 🍴 You might also like these recipes..
• 📋 Frequently asked questions
• Recipe

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There are few things I appreciate more than a quick and easy one skillet meal. Especially when they are as nice as this pork and eggplant dish. It's honestly so easy to make, with really accessible ingredients, and tastes great.

We make our own quick stir fry sauce with a few common ingredients, cook the eggplant and ground pork, then combine all the ingredients together. Serve as it is, or with a side dish like rice, and you have a flavorful lunch or dinner that your family will love!

🥘 Ingredients

For this recipe you will need ground pork, eggplant, garlic, ginger paste (or fresh ginger), chili and scallions (also called green onions or spring onions).

To make the sauce, you need rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper. You can alternatively replace this with a store bought stir fry sauce.

🔪 Instructions

Dice the eggplant into bite sized cubes. Mince the garlic cloves, and finely chop the chili and spring onions.

Combine the rice vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce in a bowl to form a simple stir fry sauce. Set these to the side for now.

Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large skillet on medium heat. Add the cubed eggplant along with a pinch of salt. Cook until the eggplant has completely softened, about 5 minutes. Remove the eggplant from the skillet, and set it to the side.

Add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil to the skillet, and add the ground pork. Stir fry until the meat has almost browned completely (check my guide on how to brown mince for more tips).

Then, add the chili, garlic and ginger to the pork. Stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the cooked eggplant back to the skillet, and pour over the stir fry sauce. Cook for another minute, then serve with some scallions sprinkled on top.

💭 Top tips

Here are my top tips to make this perfectly:

• Serve this with your favorite sauce or toppings if you want. I add some sriracha to mine, but poached eggs, sweet chili sauce or sweet honey mustard are other great options.
• This one skillet meal is similar to a stir fry, but we cook it on medium heat. This way, we can make sure that the ingredients cook through completely without burning.

🥗 Serving suggestions

This pork and eggplant skillet can be enjoyed in many ways, but here are some of my favorites:

With rice: Serve it with plain white rice, Thai coconut rice or lemon and garlic rice.

With a vegetable side dish: Za'atar roasted eggplant, sauteed spinach with garlic and spicy roasted carrots are all great side dish options.

In a wrap: Add it to a wrap, or serve with any other type of bread.

📖 Variations

It's easy to customize this recipe to suit your dietary needs! Remember to always check the nutrition labels of the ingredients you use to ensure that they comply with your requirements:

Whole30: Replace the vegetable oil with additional sesame oil for a whole30 compliant recipe.

Sesame free: If you're allergic to sesame seeds, you can replace the sesame oil with vegetable oil or any other oil of your choice.

Vegan: To make a vegan version of the dish, you can replace the ground pork with a vegan option. These are found in most supermarkets worldwide.

More vegetables: If you want to add more veggies to your dish, consider adding any vegetables that you typically enjoy in a stir fry. Try adding mushrooms, peppers, baby corn, sugar snap peas or even spinach! You can also serve the dish with a vegetable side dish.

🍲 Leftovers

Leftover pork and eggplant stores really well. This is how you can store them correctly:

Storing: Store the leftovers in a refrigerator for up to 3 days in an airtight container. You can serve the leftover cold, but they taste much better if you reheat them first!

Freezing: Leave the ground pork and eggplant skillet meal to cool completely, then freeze it in freezer safe containers for up to 6 months. If you want, you can freeze it in portion sizes for easy and quick future meals.

Reheating: You can reheat this dish in a microwave for 2-3 minutes, or in a skillet for 4-5 minutes. Reheat until it's hot throughout, then serve.

Make ahead / meal prep: This recipe is perfect as a make ahead meal. Store the dish in portions as is, or with rice or other side dishes. Reheat as needed!

🍴 You might also like these recipes..

If you love healthy stir fry recipes or other skillet meals, you should try any of these recipes:

📋 Frequently asked questions

Can I use other types of ground meat? - Absolutely! Ground turkey, chicken or beef will also work perfectly fine in this recipe. Ground pork is great as it has a lot of flavor, but using ground turkey will result in a much leaner meal.

How can you tell that the eggplant has cooked through? - The eggplant will be soft and tender when it has cooked through. If you're in doubt, you can do a taste test!

Recipe