Going out with vegetarians was a little difficult in Beijing, because they kept wanting to have the meat taken out of all the dishes. (I
like those little crumbled bits of pork in my dry-fried string beans!) The one bright spot when dining with vegetarians was that someone always ordered
di san xian 地三鮮, or “three treasures.”
The three treasures are eggplant, potato, and green pepper. They’re each stir-fried separately, then cooked together in a semi-sweet, savory sauce with a bit of darkly smoky awesomeness from the caramelized edges of the vegetables. It's one of my favorites, but it tends to soak up a
lot of oil in the prep stages, so I've always worried that it was a secret calorie bomb despite being just made of vegetables. (I normally don't like to fret about calories, but China did a serious number on me, so now I play it a little more cautiously with Chinese food. (Which I honestly think may be the best food in the world.))
But then last week I was working on an article on how to roast eggplant for
The Kitchn when I found myself thinking, “I have an oven now … could I roast the vegetables first instead of stir-frying them individually?” It turns out I could! I wound up using a lot less oil than normal, and it tastes just the same. (If you want a more authentic version, the instructions for that are in here, too.)