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    Home » Recipes » vegan and vegetarian

    Di San Xian—Chinese Sautéed Potato Eggplants and Green Peppers

    Last Modified: February 15, 2023 by Elaine| 30 Comments

    5.8K shares
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    A popular vegan dish from Northern China –DiSanXian (地三鲜) made with the three most common vegetables in the Chinese daily market: potato, eggplants, and green peppers. This dish gives a slightly crispy potato texture, soft eggplant, and fresh green peppers.

    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com
    Jump to
    • What's Di San Xian
    • How does it taste like
    • Make eggplant easier to cook
    • How to cut the potatoes
    • 📖Steps
    • Other Chinese Eggplants to try
    • 🧾Recipe

    What's Di San Xian

    Di San Xian (地三鲜) literally can be translated as the three treasures of the earth. In daily cooking, we are more likely to use seasonal and local fresh ingredients. The most famous version is with potatoes, eggplants, and green peppers. But they are never dull! You can combine some of them together and season them with different flavors.

    The name Di San xian literally translates to "three fresh ingredients", because all the ingredients are grown on the earth. Traditionally, the ingredients are deep-fried and then coated with a savory sauce. But we will use a shallow frying process which takes longer time and less oil.

    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com

    How does it taste like

    Basically, this dish has a sweet, garlicky, and savory taste. So is typically served with steamed white rice or noodles. The sauce will combine well with the staple food and makes it even better.

    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com

    Make eggplant easier to cook

    Sometimes we feel eggplant is quite hard to cook because it will absorb the oil at the first and make the food become greasy. Here is a tip about how to solve this.

    1. Soak the eggplants in salty water for around 15 minutes. The water absorbed can help to fasten the cooking process.
    2. Coat them with cornstarch, this helps to hold the shape of the eggplants.

    How to cut the potatoes

    You can choose to cut the potatoes either into slices or larger chunks. However, the treatment of the two might be slightly different. If you cut the potato into slices, you can use fry or sautee. However, for larger chunks, we recommend boiling them first and then frying them until a little bite crispy on the surface.

    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com

    📖Steps

    Soak the eggplants in slightly salted water for 15 minutes. Drain and then coat evenly with a thin layer of cornstarch. The eggplants can be softened even with a small amount of water. Drain completely.

    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com

    In a small bowl, mix all of the stir-frying sauce together.

    Heat oil in a wok (recommend adding more oil to fasten the process, do not worry, we will remove extra oil later) to form a 3 cm oil layer.

    Place boiled potatoes in and fry until well cooked. Then place the eggplant in and gently fry during the process until well cooked.

    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com

    Also, fry green pepper for 10 seconds.

    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com

    Pour extra oil out and leave around ½ tablespoon of cooking oil in. Fry green onion white and garlic until aromatic. Place the stir-fry sauce in.

    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com
    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com

    Wait for a while until boiling. Place potato, green pepper, and eggplants in. Fry until each piece is well coated.

    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com

    Serve hot with steamed rice.

    Other Chinese Eggplants to try

    Eggplant is my favorite ingredient for my daily cooking. Following are some of the most delicious eggplant dishes you must have a try.

    Chinese Eggplants with Garlic Sauce

    Savory Crispy Eggplants

    Chinese Stuffed Eggplants

    Chinese Eggplants with Minced Pork

    Chinese Steamed Eggplant Recipe

    Chinese Yu Xiang Eggplant Recipe

    🧾Recipe

    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com

    Di San Xian—Chinese Sautéed Potato Eggplants and Green Peppers

    Elaine
    Famous Chinese Northern Dish- Di San Xi known as three treasures of the earth.
    5 from 9 votes
    Print Recipe
    Prep Time 10 mins
    Cook Time 15 mins
    Total Time 25 mins
    Course Side Dish
    Cuisine Chinese
    Servings 2
    Calories 187 kcal

    Ingredients
      

    • 2 long eggplants , cut into 2cm chunks
    • ¼ cup cornstarch for coating
    • 1 potatoes , cut into thick slices or chunks
    • 1 green pepper , cut into small pieces
    • 1 green onion , white part only, chopped
    • 2 garlic cloves , chopped
    • oil for frying

    Stir-frying sauce

    • 2 tbsp. light soy sauce
    • ¼ tsp. sugar
    • ¼ tsp. salt
    • ½ tbsp. dark soy sauce
    • 1 tsp. cornstarch
    • 3 tbsp. water

    Instructions

    • Soak the eggplants in slightly salted water for 15 minutes. Drain completely and then coat evenly with a thin layer of cornstarch.
    • In a small bowl, mix all of the stir-frying sauce together.
    • If you cut potatoes in chunks, then cook the chunks in boiling water for around 4-5 minutes. Transfer out and drain.
    • Heat oil in wok (recommend adding more oil to fasten the process, do not worry, we will remove extra oil later) to form a 3 cm oil layer.
    • Place potatoes in and fry until the surface becomes slightly crispy. Then place the eggplant in and gently fry during the process until well cooked. Fry green pepper for 10 seconds.
    • Pour extra oil out and leave around ½ tablespoon of cooking oil in. Fry green onion and garlic until aromatic. Place the stir fry sauce in. Wait for a while until boiling. Place potato, green pepper and eggplants in. Fry until each piece is well coated.
    • Serve hot with steamed rice.

    Notes

    Tip about the wet starch coating: if you prefer a thicker coating, you can double the amount or for a more clean and dry version, skip the wet starch.
    Traditionally, this dish is deep-fried. If you are watching out the daily oil intake, you can fry all the ingredients with less oil. But the later method requires more time and patience.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 187kcalCarbohydrates: 31gProtein: 4gFat: 5gSodium: 1314mgPotassium: 445mgFiber: 4gSugar: 4gVitamin C: 10mgCalcium: 30mgIron: 1.9mg
    Keyword Eggplant, potatoes
    Tried this recipe?Mention @ChinaSichuanFood
    di san xian|chinasichuanfood.com

    More vegan and vegetarian

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Suzana Nilsson

      October 10, 2019 at 9:52 pm

      5 stars
      Very good recipes I'm a vegetarian and I use to make your without meat. That works ! I love your recipes .

      Reply
      • Elaine

        October 11, 2019 at 8:00 am

        Thank you Suzana. Happy cooking.

        Reply
    2. Matt

      April 07, 2020 at 7:03 am

      The recipe says the potatoes should be sliced thick but they look pretty thin (maybe 1/8"?) in the pictures. Are they thicker than that?

      Reply
      • Elaine

        April 08, 2020 at 9:03 am

        Thinner or Thicker slices work fine too.

        Reply
    3. Butch

      April 19, 2020 at 6:56 am

      5 stars
      Wow...This dish was so delicious and simple to make!
      I hosted a dinner party last night and made (from this site) Salt & Pepper Tofu, Bok Choy and Mushrooms, and Di San Xian, (Chinese Sauteed Potatoes Eggplant, and Green Peppers), along with Chinese BBQ Beef Ribs, for the meat eaters, and Jasmine Rice. We devoured everything and drank 2 bottles of Sake...there were no leftovers!

      love this site...Cheers!!!

      Reply
      • Elaine

        May 06, 2020 at 7:20 am

        That's a great job Butch and good combination too! Happy cooking!

        Reply
        • Margery

          January 25, 2022 at 12:42 pm

          Hi can i have the recipe for the salt and pepper Tofu.

          Reply
          • Elaine

            January 25, 2022 at 7:21 pm

            Hi Margery,
            Get salt and pepper tofu here.

            Reply
    4. Liz Dubravcic

      April 26, 2020 at 9:28 pm

      5 stars
      With the shorter commut, during this stay at home period, we've been using some of the extra time to explore more vegetatian dinner options. Thank you for this authentic recipe! We used a combination of green peppers - bell, poblano and jalepeno, It was delicious!

      Reply
      • Elaine

        May 05, 2020 at 7:26 am

        Simple ingredients taste plain and 3 simple ingredients combined together creates brilliant flavors. Happy cooking, Liz.

        Reply
    5. Kez

      August 09, 2022 at 8:53 am

      Simple and yummy .
      I add chopped garlic, ginger and fresh chilli to sauce to give it an extra kick.
      Perfect vegan dish.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        August 10, 2022 at 9:08 pm

        Thanks Kez for your lovely feedback. This is one of my favorite vegan dish too.

        Reply
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