When people (insert ‘nutritionists’) say the word ‘fermented’ it doesn’t really conjure up desirable comfort foods for people. Yet, fermented foods are some of the most delicious and depending on how you use them can be anything from a simple addition to amp up the nutrition on your plate or be the focal flavour of the dish.
As a nutritionist, I’ll encourage clients to incorporate fermented foods to improve and support gut health and immunity. These foods can do so because through the fermentation process they produce beautiful bacteria best known to us as probiotics. And probiotics feed the gut flora so it can flourish and absorb nutrients from our foods. Just like we give water and manure to the plants in our garden to help them grow, probiotics and fermented foods do so for our gut.
Fermented foods can include kimchi, sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables (you can find these on supermarket shelves as they’ve been around for centuries), fermented tea such as kombucha, miso (fermented soybean) and yoghurt (natural, no sugar added, preservative and additive free of course).
With that in mind, I devised this miso eggplant recipe. Miso eggplant (or Dengaku Eggplant) is absolutely insane accompanied by any vegetables, soba noodles, seared tempeh, tofu or a good quality piece of grass fed beef. Should there be any leftover (often an unlikely case) it’s yum the next day popped into a salad too.
Miso Eggplant
Serves 4 as a side
GF : DF : SF : V : VG : PALEO
Ingredients:
2 large eggplants
2 tablespoons olive oil
pinch sea salt
Sesame seed to serve
Miso Dressing:
2 tablespoons white miso paste
1 tablespoon maple syrup or rice malt syrup
3 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons water
Method
- Heat the oven to 200ºC and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Place eggplant on a tray and toss the in the olive oil and season with a little salt. Roast for 20 minutes or until slightly golden.
- Whilst eggplant is cooking whisk together miso ingredients, then pour over the roasted eggplant and toss well. Continue to roast for a further 10 minutes, during this time the miso should caramelise beautifully.
- Once the eggplant is cooked, transfer to a serving plate, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.
