Up until this week I was the only person in my family who liked eggplant.
Ok, full disclosure, I don’t think the kids had ever tried eggplant because KYLE DOESN’T LIKE eggplant, so why would I bother making eggplant?
This is why.
Anna Jones’ honey and white miso eggplant is why.
Guess who likes eggplant now??
Answer: EVERYONE. Winner winner purple dinner.
Something is going on with me…tahini…pesto…fresh herbs…eggplant…I’m obviously in a groove with a certain genre at the moment.
I added a step to her recipe because I have read it helps tenderize eggplant better if you salt it and let it sweat for a while and then press it. Similar to brining a turkey, and then pressing tofu, you can dehydrate the veggie in a way that maximizes how it absorbs flavor.
That’s not remotely scientific, it’s 100% my made up interpretation of non culinary school sources of info that I pieced together. So take the info with a grain of salt (love a good pun!!).
But it worked!
Forewarning: you have to do this a few hours in advance. But then you can just leave it out and forget about it until you’re ready to make dinner.
I sliced the eggplant per Anna Jones’ criss cross method and then rubbed salt all over the eggplant and let it sit for 3ish hours, wringing out the liquid that accumulated on top once half way and then again before starting the cooking process. Rather than being stiff and eggplant like when I went to broil it, it was soft and semi broken down.
Meanwhile…I picked a bunch of chard from the yard.
Hellooooo garden!
The recipe called for bok choy, but our garden overfloweth…soooo, we went with chard.
Before, above; after, below.
Ohhhh baby.
I don’t know why mine doesn’t look like the photo in the cookbook, but oh well. I even did an extra few minutes of broil at the end to try to get it super bronzed on top.
The miso sauce was eat-off-the-spoon good. I swapped maple syrup for the honey, but otherwise left it as is. This cookbook is so good! I served it with rice and chard sautéed in tamari, lime juice and coconut oil. I also added the leftover sticky cashews from another one of her recipes to the chard.
Do you like eggplant?
How exciting to have a new all thumbs up vegetable and recipe! That reminds me a lot of the miso eggplant i always order at japanese restaurants. I’ve tried to make it a few times, the time i used japanese eggplant was the best, but it never was as gorgeous as yours here!
Miso glazed egg plant is my favourite thing I ALWAYS order if it is on a menu. Never made it myself though so maybe it’s time….
It’s time 🙂
The recipe I used called for japanese eggplant but I coulsn’t find any and just decided to slice the globe eggplant into thin strips rather than halve the japanese ones like it said to. Seemed to work fine!?