Skip to Content

How to Make Eggplant Soba Noodles {Easy Recipe!}

Eggplant Soba Noodles is a delicious way to enjoy a vegetarian dish for dinner! Full of delicious eggplant and fresh basil, this tastes great hot as a main dish or enjoy cold as a side dish! You decide! 

Thug Kitchen Eggplant Udon Noodles is our take on soba noodles and is darn good. Full of juicy eggplant and fresh basil, this vegetarian dish is sure to please your friends and family.

If you are looking to start the New Year off with at least one vegetarian dish a week, this is it.

Many meal plans will include “meatless Monday” and this rich dish full of grilled eggplant, fresh basil, and hearty soba noodles are where it's at. 

Grilled or Roasted Eggplant 

When making this recipe, I grilled eggplant in my cast iron skillet. I wanted thicker chunks of eggplant, so this cooking method worked really well. You could also roast in the oven if you didn't want to use a skillet. 

  • Either cooking method will work for this Asian-inspired dish. 
  • Any variety of eggplant will work in this recipe- feel free to choose purple & white Japanese or deep purple Italian. 
  • Make sure your vegetable has shiny skin, free of cuts or soft spots. 
  • Vegetables should be firm. 
  • If using small eggplants, you can keep the skin on for cooking or roasting. If on the larger size, peeling the skin would be preferable as the skin can be tough. 

If you choose to roast in the oven, be sure to line your cooking sheet with parchment paper or toss eggplant in a little bit of oil before roasting. Set oven to 400 degrees and cook for 15 minutes. 

Continue to check as the eggplant will cook fast and you want to make sure it doesn't burn. 

Eggplant Soba Noodles

How to make eggplant soba noodles

When searching for a recipe to make to celebrate the Chinese New Year we decided to take out our Thug Kitchen's Cookbook.

I love cooking from this cookbook because their vegetarian recipes actually have a TON of flavor and are not bland at all. 

I found a recipe that looked yummy and decided to give it a try. However, because it is winter and snow is everywhere, it makes it hard to have fresh basil on hand. I also did not have soba noodles, so I used Udon noodles instead. 

We improvised a little and the recipe still turned out pretty damn good.

Tips for making this eggplant recipe:

  • Any style or variety of eggplant will work in this recipe.
  • Fresh basil is key for this dish. You can find fresh basil leaves and sometimes the whole plant in your grocery produce section. 
  • Sesame seeds are tasty, but you will not miss them if you don't add them. 
  • Don't skip the rice vinegar or toasted sesame oil
eggplant soba noodles in bowl

The best vegetarian cookbook to have on the shelf

Thug Kitchen Cookbook

If you are not familiar with the name Thug Kitchen, then it's high time you make yourself acquainted with this foul-mouthed food blog duo – turned cookbook authors.

They take all the best ingredients and with a lot of recipe testing and a lot (A LOT) of swearing, churn out delicious eats time and time again. 

Not only has it been enjoyable to cook my way through their book, but fun discovering they can make vegetables taste GOOD. That's right, vegetables. This is an in-your-face-style vegetarian cookbook and they make no bones about the fact you “Need to eat your F*ing vegetables!”

I've been a TK fan on Facebook for a while and thumbing through the 200 or so pages makes for some fun reading material and even better foodstuffs. 

What are the health benefits of soba noodles?

Soba noodles are made of buckwheat and offer a great nutritional punch to any dish calling for noodles. Some good health benefits in soba noodles:

  • Good Source of Manganese, Thiamin, and fiber
  • High in Protein
  • Low in Fat & are gluten-free

If you are not following a gluten-free diet, you can easily substitute whole wheat pasta for this recipe. 

Are soba noodles healthy?

To pull from above, soba is full of healthy compounds. It is shown that eating these buckwheat noodles can help control blood sugar, heart health, and help with inflammation too. 

If you like making this eggplant soba noodle dish, make sure you try our other recipes too! 

Eggplant Parmesan

But we are here for the tasty Eggplant Noodle dish!

Be sure to enjoy this warm or cold- it is SO GOOD! 

Eggplant Soba Noodles

If you make this recipe, please share it on Pinterest and Facebook!

Yield: 4

Grilled Eggplant Soba Noodles

Thug Kitchen Eggplant Udon Noodles is our take on soba noodles and is darn good. Full of juicy eggplant and fresh basil, this vegetarian dish is sure to please your friends and family.

Famed recipe from Thug Kitchen, We kicked it up a notch with Udon noodles and grilled eggplant making this tasty dish pretty awesome! This will be in your meal rotation more often for sure!

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • Marinade:
  • ½ cup rice vinegar
  • ¼ cup water
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • 2 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
  • 1 Tbsp. agave syrup
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 medium eggplant (1 pound)
  • Noodles:
  • 8 oz. udon noodles (or buckwheat noodle)
  • 1 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
  • 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar
  • 3 Tbsp. water
  • ½ cup fresh basil, cut into strips
  • 1 ½ Tbsp. sesame seeds

Instructions

  1. In a glass jar with lid (like a mason jar) Mix all ingredients for marinade. Shake well.
  2. Slice eggplant into ¼ inch rounds and place into a bowl.
  3. Pour marinade mixture over the eggplant and marinate 15 minutes (at least) up to an hour (preferable).
  4. Meanwhile, cook noodles according to package directions.
  5. Drain and run cold water over noodles to rinse and stop cooking process.
  6. Place in large bowl and add sesame oil and vinegar and toss to coat.
  7. Bring grill (or in our case a cast iron skillet) to medium heat.
  8. Place eggplant on grill or in pan and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, brushing occasionally with reserved marinade.
  9. When all eggplant is cooked, cut into bite-sized chunks. Mix with ½ cup left over marinade and 3 Tbsp. water.
  10. Pour over noodles and add basil. Give a quick toss to incorporate and top with sesame seeds.
  11. Eat!

Notes

This recipe is adapted from Thug Kitchen.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 289Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 885mgCarbohydrates: 38gFiber: 5gSugar: 8gProtein: 7g

Did you make this recipe?

We would love for a share on Pinterest! You can also leave us a review in the recipe card. Click the buttons below to share on FACEBOOK too! Thank you!

original post: 2/19/15

updated post: 1/7/20

15 Fantastic Recipes To Celebrate Chinese New Year - Operation $40K

Thursday 6th of May 2021

[…] Get your recipe of Grilled Eggplant Soba Noodles here […]

4 Easy Italian Pasta Meals | Eat Picks

Sunday 31st of July 2016

[…] Thug Kitchen’s Grilled Eggplant Soba Noodles is another healthy pasta dish we love to have in our meal planning rotation. Do you have this cookbook? If not, you should. There are some great recipes to try. This is a vegetarian version with grilled eggplant, sesame seeds and fresh herbs. So good. […]

Friday Coffee Talk is Car Talk - eatpicks.com

Friday 28th of August 2015

[…] awesome- can’t wait! I’ve been enjoying preparing dishes from the first one like this Grilled Eggplant Soba Noodles recipe. […]

.
Skip to Recipe