Eric took a leap this year and planted eggplant in our deck garden (the largest thing he’s ever grown before on our deck is tomatoes). Because Covid. To our great surprise, we are getting a lot of beautiful eggplants!
We like eggplant in our simmer sauce made with our Thai Green Curry Spice Blend (just cube it with skin on, toss it in and cook until tender), but we wanted to try other ways to make it. Which led us to create this recipe, which is great as a main dish with some rice or as an appetizer or side dish.
We are just discovering the many ways to cook with eggplant. Check out our vegetarian recipe and demo video to make our easy Roasted Eggplant with Thai Green Curry Miso Glaze & Tomato Salad. Yummy!
Ingredients
For the Eggplant
6 small or 4 medium Japanese eggplant (regular eggplant also works, just slice it into 1/2" rounds)
3 TBSP olive or coconut oil
1/4 C miso (white, yellow, doesn’t really matter)
1 TBSP Masi Masa Thai Green Curry Spice Blend
1 TBSP peanut or cashew butter (can also sub coconut butter)
Juice of 1 large orange or 2 TBSP orange juice (fresh squeezed best)
1/4 C roasted peanuts or cashews, roughly chopped
Handful of cherry tomatoes, diced (regular tomatoes fine, just need about 1/2 C)
Cut eggplants in half lengthwise, leave stem on or cut off.
Score flesh of eggplant 2-3 times lengthwise (don’t cut through).
Brush both sides of eggplant with oil and place on parchment lined baking sheet skin side up.
Roast eggplant 10 minutes, flip over.
Roast another 10 minutes until tender.
Remove eggplant from oven.
Move rack to upper third of oven, turn heat to broil.
Once You Get the Eggplant into the Oven
Whisk together the sauce in a small mixing bowl.
If the sauce is too thick, add a little more oil and/or orange juice. (You want it to be thin enough to spread on eggplant without having to mash it in).
Prepare Salad Topping
Roast nuts in a skillet over medium-high heat, being careful not to burn.
Once cooled, roughly chop nuts.
Roughly chop tomatoes.
Roughly chop cilantro.
Stir nuts, tomatoes and cilantro in a bowl—set aside.
Broil Eggplant with Sauce & Top with Salad
Smear sauce on eggplant.
Let broil for 3-5 minutes until golden (OK if eggplant gets charred).
Remove from oven.
Move to serving dish and top with “salad.”
Serve!
Recipe Note
Leftover sauce will last in fridge for up to a week.
This is one of the most strangely delicious mashups we’ve ever tasted. We’ve created two versions—this one for vegans/vegetarians and another with chicken. Try them both!
Sending gifts? You can ship Masi Masa Spice Blends to multiple addresses. Just shop until you have all your gifts in your cart. Then enter mailing and gift messages at checkout. We’ll take care of the rest!
