{"id":189359,"title":"Eggplant with Pork Fatback","modified":"2026-10-06T18:03:38+02:00","plain":"A skillet dish of meltingly tender eggplant cooked with pork fatback, garlic, oregano and chili, with no sauce and naturally low in carbs.\n\n\n\nThe eggplant flesh turns meltingly tender beneath the spatula, its edges browning with garlic, oregano and chili. This simple skillet dish has the honest flavor of everyday home cooking, generous and sauce-free, with the pork fatback providing most of the flavor. Designed for one person, it cooks entirely in a skillet in about 25 minutes. Find this recipe among my keto dishes.\n\n\n\nWhat is eggplant with pork fatback?\n\n\n\nThe name says it all: eggplant cooked with diced pork fatback, which provides flavor, fat and savoriness. Cooking begins with a drizzle of avocado, mild olive or high-oleic sunflower oil; before long, the fatback renders, coating the hot base of the skillet and soaking into the spongy flesh of the vegetable. This gradual absorption is what gives the dish its balance.\n\n\n\nThe texture depends on the balance between rendered fat, tender flesh and browned edges. The aromatics are added once the eggplant has begun to soften: pressed garlic adds fragrance without burning, dried oregano lends an herbal note, and chili balances the richness of the fatback. For another way to cook the same vegetable, air fryer eggplant offers a very different texture.\n\n\n\nAlso discover: Cucumber sandwich.\n\n\n\nThe origins of this version\n\n\n\nEggplant with pork fatback belongs to a family of very simple homemade skillet dishes: a vegetable, a cured pork product, straightforward cooking and serving piping hot. Pork fatback plays the leading role, rendering, seasoning, browning and adding substance to a very simple ingredient. Eggplant is a good match for it, as its flesh readily absorbs fat and transforms during cooking.\n\n\n\nA small PFAS-free skillet is all you need for this single-serving dish: it concentrates the heat, renders the fatback gradually and helps the pieces brown toward the end of cooking. If you enjoy cooking over very high heat, the guide to choosing a wok can also be useful for this type of skillet dish. Chili and oregano add depth while keeping the straightforward character of the dish.\n\n\n\nThe main ingredients\n\n\n\nOne eggplant provides the vegetable base: its spongy flesh absorbs the rendered fat, becomes tender and browns around the edges. The 60 g of diced pork fatback provide fat and savoriness; they render little by little, coating the eggplant, flavoring the whole dish and potentially adding salt, depending on the fatback, along with little golden, crispy morsels.\n\n\n\nAlso try: Teriyaki eggplant.\n\n\n\nTwo garlic cloves, pressed just before adding, deliver a bold aroma that quickly spreads through the already tender eggplant without burning. Two teaspoons of dried oregano complement the richness of the fatback, while one teaspoon of chili flakes, or a piece of red chili, adds controlled heat. A simple drizzle of avocado, mild olive or high-oleic sunflower oil gets things started in the skillet before the fatback takes over.\n\n\n\nThe choice of pork fatback matters: it adds morsels to the dish, but above all provides rendered fat; diced, it releases its fat evenly. In Asian cooking, chashu pork also shows how pork fat flavors a dish. Adjust the chili to your tolerance; for a more pronounced heat, a touch of quick homemade chili oil can offer seasoning inspiration.\n\n\n\nCooking tips and serving\n\n\n\nPay particular attention to the texture of the eggplant. After about 10 minutes, it begins to soften: this is the right time to add the freshly pressed garlic, oregano and chili. Gentle cooking allows the flesh to soften, followed by a higher-heat finish to brown the edges, the same browning principle used in a Chinese pork stir-fry. Too much oil at the start makes the dish heavy; it is better to give the fatback time to render and release its flavor.\n\n\n\nIn the same vein: Cod ceviche.\n\n\n\nServe the dish hot, with a green salad or raw vegetables for freshness. It also goes well with simply cooked meat or fish, such as an air fryer fish fillet. With no flour, starchy ingredients or added sugar, it is naturally low in carbs; net carbs per serving are not listed, so it is best not to give a figure, while calories come to 547 per serving. In the same light spirit, konjac noodles can serve as a side dish.\n\n\n\nYou can find other similar dishes among my low-carb recipes.\n\n\n\n\n\n\tEggplant with Pork Fatback\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t1 eggplant60 g pork fatback (diced)2 cloves garlic1 teaspoon chili flakes (or a piece of red chili)2 teaspoons dried oreganoAvocado oil, mild olive oil or high-oleic sunflower oil (for cooking)\t\n\t\n\t\tWash the eggplant and cut it into pieces.Heat the frying pan with an initial drizzle of olive oil. You won't need as much as you would if cooking with oil alone, as the diced pork fatback will release fat.Add the eggplant and diced pork fatback to the pan. The fat will melt and be absorbed by the eggplant.Once the eggplant is tender, after about 10 minutes, crush the garlic. Add it along with the oregano and chili. Don't do this too early, as the mixture will stick more readily while there is still too little fat in the pan.Cook for about another 10 minutes over fairly low heat to soften further.Turn the heat up high for the last 2 minutes to crisp everything up.\t\n\t\n\t\tEquipment: small PFAS-free frying pan.\n\t\n\t\n\t\tAccompagnementFran\u00e7aise","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}