Miso Aubergine with Salted Peanut Topping

This is a vegan recipe and can be cooked under the grill or on a BBQ, either way it always turns out tasting great and looking amazing.

 It’s sometimes nice to stay away from the meat, and this is when I pull this recipe out of my cook book and into a BBQ or if the weather isn’t up to it, under a hot grill.

 I’m a fan of aubergine, and I sometimes think that it gets to be one of those forgotten vegetables sitting on the supermarket shelf.

 My theory for this is because it’s just got a bad rep’ as being a vegetable that is slimy or when cooked, way to oily.

 If you fall into one of these categories, this is a recipe to tip your opinion over into the ‘I’m in love with it’ camp.

 Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!

Juicy and flavoursome.

What You Need

•  100g Salted Peanuts - roughly chopped

• 3 Large Aubergines

• 3 Large Spring Onions – roughly chopped

• 2 Green Chilli – roughly chopped – See Tip Box

• 2tbsp vegetable oil

Simple ingredients but add so much to this dish

For the glaze

• 200ml Mirin – See Tip Box

• 2tbsp Miso Paste

• 2tbsp Maple Syrup

• 2tsp Ground Turmeric

• 2 Large Garlic Cloves – Minced

Mix all the glaze together

 How It’s Done

•  Wipe the aubergines clean and then slice the aubergines in half lengthways, and set aside until needed – Leaving the stem at the top attached.

• Preheat the grill until its nice and hot – See Tip Box

• While the grill is heating, make the glaze.

• Place all the glaze ingredients into a small bowl and use a fork to mix together until everything is combined.

• Brush the skins of aubergines with the vegetable oil, and place them under the grill pan, skin side up.

Brush more glaze on the cooked aubergine

• Cook under the hot grill until the skin begins to blister – around 5-10 minutes.

• Once the skin begins to blister, turn them over and brush the flesh liberally with the glaze.

• Place them back under the grill until they become a little charred and the flesh becomes brown and a little soft. – Around 3-5 minutes.

• Remove the aubergines to a serving plate and brush the flesh with more glaze.

• Sprinkle the aubergines with lots of the peanut topping .

• Serve with any extra glaze and topping on the side. 

Delicious with lots of glaze

Tip Box

• Mirin - If you can't get hold of mirin, use a sweet white wine instead.

• Chilli – 1) Don’t be too precious about which colour chilli to use, if you have red, use those.

2) if you like more or less chilli in the topping, just adjust how much chilli to use.

• Peanuts – Salted peanuts are a beautiful addition to this dish, but salted cashews work great too.

• Grill or BBQ – 1) Either of these methods work well to cook the aubergines.

Just adjust the cooking time, depending on the method

2) If using the BBQ, be mindful that the flesh may stick to the rack

Lots of peanut topping on top.