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.
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)
Handful cilantro, roughly chopped
Directions
Prep & Bake Eggplant
Preheat oven to 425°
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
Prepare Sauce
Once you get the eggplant into the oven, whisk together the sauce in a small mixing bowl:
1/4 C miso
2 TBSP oil
1 TBSP peanut butter
1 TBSP Masi Masa Thai Green Curry Spice Blend
Juice of large orange or 2 TBSP orange juice
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
Broil 3-5 minutes until golden (OK if eggplant gets charred)
Remove from oven
Move to serving dish and top with “salad”
Serve!
NOTE: Leftover sauce will last in fridge for up to a week.
This tried and true favorite takes no time to prep (less than 15 minutes) and there’s no need to turn on the stove or oven, because it’s all done in your rice cooker!
