Description
Miso Eggplant, also known as Nasu Dengaku, is a Japanese eggplant starter recipe. Simply halve the eggplants, bake them, glaze with miso and grill. Serve on its own as a starter, or create a vegan meal by serving it with rice and salad.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Baked Eggplants
- 2 large eggplants, washed
- 80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
Miso Sauce
- 55g (3 1/2 tbsp) miso paste
- 30ml (2 tbsp) sake
- 30ml (2 tbsp) mirin
- 25g (2 tbsp) sugar
- 7.5ml (1 1/2 tsp) rice wine vinegar
- 1g (1/2 tsp) grated fresh ginger root
- 1.25ml (1/4 tsp) sesame oil
Garnish
- 17g (2 tbsp) sesame seeds
- chives, snipped to decorate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / fan 160°C / 350°F / gas mark 4.
- Line a large baking tray with baking parchment and set aside.
- Halve the eggplants lengthways and flip them over. Cut a thin slice off the bottom’s skin side in order to stabilise the eggplant.
- Flip it over again and score the flesh in diamond shapes. Be careful not to slice it all the way through.
- Place the eggplants in the lined baking tray and brush each half with half of the oil.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, checking halfway through to see if more oil is required. I.e. if it looks dry, give it a brush with oil. The eggplant should be soft at the end of cooking time.
- While the eggplants are baking, make the miso sauce.
- Place all the miso sauce ingredients, except the sesame oil, in a small pot and bring to simmer.
- Continue to cook until the miso paste and sugar has dissolved.
- Stir in the sesame oil. Remove the heat and retrieve the eggplants, once cooked.
- Preheat the broiler / grill.
- Baste each eggplant with equal amounts of miso sauce then place under the broiler / grill until caramelised and golden. This will take about 3-4 minutes.
- Decorate with sesame seeds and chives. Serve immediately as a starter. Enjoy!
Notes
- It’s up to you whether you use white or red miso paste. You can even have a mixture of both!
- If you can’t get hold of rice wine vinegar you can substitute it with white wine vinegar.
- You can prepare the miso sauce a few days in advance and keep it in the fridge until needed.
- Nasu Dengaku also makes the perfect vegan dinner if you serve it with a green salad and rice.
- Alternatively, instead of baking the eggplants, you can cook them in a pan. Fry them in oil, flesh-side down first until golden brown, then flip them over and cover with lid and cook for a further 3-4 minutes. Proceed with the making of the miso sauce and broiling them afterwards. Warning: with the pan frying method risks compromising the integrity of the eggplant in the cooking process and the vegetable might “break”.
- If you are gluten intolerant, check the miso's label. Some miso is gluten-free, others not.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Starter
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Japanese