BBQ Grilled Eggplant Steaks (Gluten-Free, Vegan)

These BBQ Grilled Eggplant Steaks are meaty, tender, and full of flavor! This recipe is vegan, gluten-free, keto, and paleo! Thick tender slices of eggplant coated with a smokey dry rub, perfectly charred and glazed with your favorite BBQ sauce! Serve as a great vegetarian entree for summer barbecues or a quick & easy vegetable side dish!

Veggies should always be the star of the show! Vegetables that are hearty, meaty, and easily absorb all the flavors you throw at them are ideal for tossing on the grill! Take the humble eggplant and use it as a perfect vegetarian grilled entree at your next summer cookout! These grilled eggplant slices become perfectly tender and charred, soaking up all the flavor in your favorite bbq sauce!

Perfect Eggplant Steaks

If you ever thought, "how can I turn a veggie into a meaty grilled entree?" This is the recipe for you! Nothing fancy, easily customizable, and so quick and easy! There's no marinating nor peeling required! These BBQ eggplant steaks are...

• Gluten-Free
• Vegan & Vegetarian
• Allergy-free (Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Egg-Free, Nut-Free, Peanut-Free, Wheat-Free, Sesame-Free, Corn-Free)
• Paleo, Low-Carb, & Keto
• Kid-Approved
• Quick, Easy, Only 3 Ingredients & 10 Minutes
• Perfect for Indoor or Outdoor Grilling
• Serve as an Entree or Side Dish

Ingredients You Need

• Whole Eggplant: A beautiful fresh in-season eggplant, the bigger, the better! You can easily scale this recipe so one, two, three, however many eggplants you need to feed the crowd you'll be serving!
• Seasonings: Lumping these together since you can customize these! But the one spice that is essential is some smoked paprika! This adds even more deep smokey flavor to your grilled eggplant steaks beyond just the charring from the grill! It's also great if you only have an indoor grill pan that doesn't have that extra "outdoor grill taste". Then I added some garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and black pepper to taste!
• BBQ Sauce: Completely up to you! Use your favorite bbq sauce. Sweet, spicy, smokey, sugar-free, homemade, whatever you and fits your dietary needs.

How To Grill Eggplant

1. Slice your whole eggplant into ¼ inch thick slices.
2. Rub in the dry rub seasonings to your sliced eggplant steaks.
3. Grill them for 5 minutes on the first side.
4. Flip them and brush the grilled side with bbq sauce.
5. Flip on more time to brush the other side with bbq sauce before removing the slices.
6. Brush them with a fresh coat of bbq sauce while they're still hot from the grill.

Do You Need To Soak Eggplant Before Grilling?

You'll find recipes suggesting that you salt, rinse, and dry eggplant before cooking or even brine the eggplant to draw out any unwanted bitterness that is naturally present in uncooked eggplant. It's not always needed though and doesn't tend to hold true! That's why this recipe uses a simple dry rub that includes salt and other flavorful spices. You will not have to worry about any bitterness!

Do You Need To Peel The Eggplant?

No way! The skin is perfectly edible and softens up as you grill the eggplant slices. It's full of nutrients and should never go to waste! Larger eggplants tend to have tougher skin, but keeping your steaks to ¼ inch thickness will solve that!

How To Keep Your Eggplant From Getting Soggy

The larger your eggplant, the more air pockets it holds and the more it will absorb what you put on it. This is why no matter the size of your eggplant for this recipe, you don't want to brush them with oil before the grill. Make sure to lightly spray your grill with non-stick only. You only want the eggplant to absorb the flavor of the dry rub and bbq sauce after. each side has had a chance to char and for moisture to evaporate

Other Tips & Tricks

• You want the outside of your bbq eggplant to be nice and charred with a tender creamy middle. Each side of the slice only needs to be grilled for 5 minutes, just until you see the skin begin to ripple. The eggplant slices will soften up over time after you remove them from the grill.
• You want to add the bbq sauce after each side has been grilled. This way the eggplant doesn't get soggy and the natural creaminess is locked in by the charred skin. The bbq sauce acts as a delicious glaze.
• You can change up the spices in the dry rub and add as much or as little of the bbq sauce as you'd like. This is a 100% taste preference kind of recipe!
• Leftover grilled eggplant can be stored in the fridge for up to 7 days.
• Reheating the slices works best in the oven so the eggplant doesn't get rubbery, but you can also use a microwave in a pinch. Make sure to reapply bbq sauce before reheating to help reduce rubberiness or dryness. Leftovers also taste delicious cold!

How To Serve BBQ Grilled Eggplant

As An Entree:

These BBQ Eggplant Steaks are an ideal grilled vegetarian entree! Summer cookouts no longer need to be a scramble for finding something hearty and delicious to serve your vegan guest as the main dish!

Serve them up as is or slice the steaks and add them to a salad, pasta, or grain bowl for easy weekday lunches and dinner too!

As A Side Dish:

Grilled vegetables are perfect to serve up as a side dish on a platter! Even the meat-eaters are allowed to grab a bbq eggplant steak as a simple flavorful side! These bbq slices also pair well with a delicious veggie burger, grilled chicken, grilled salmon, chicken burgers, you can even use them on a burger or as a gluten-free keto burger bun!

Print

Don't sleep on the deliciousness of grilled vegetables! Although eggplant is a fruit, we can pretend this nightshade is a veggie!

More Eggplant Recipes:

• Grilled Eggplant Banh Mi Sliders
• Easy Vegan Eggplant Parmesan
• Middle Eastern Twice-Baked Baby Eggplants
• Black Eyed Pea Curry with Swiss Chard & Roasted Eggplant
• Baba Ghanoush Hummus

So tell me:

+ What is your favorite veggie to grill?

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