Miso-Glazed Eggplant With a Bowl of Rice

By Sam Sifton

Miso-Glazed Eggplant With a Bowl of Rice
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks.
Rating
4(950)
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This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen.

You know how to make rice. For the rest of this dish, grab some small eggplants — the Japanese variety is a good option — and cut them on the bias into little steaks. Drizzle them with neutral oil and roast in a 400-degree oven for 20 minutes or so, turning them once or twice, until they’re soft. Then crank the oven to broil, and paint them with white miso that’s been cut with splashes of sesame oil and rice wine, a smaller splash of soy and a few grinds of black pepper. Let that get going until the skin begins to pop, then serve those little vegetarian flavor steaks over rice, with a spray of sesame seeds over the top.

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4 out of 5
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Comments

InkieD

Cut 1 large eggplant in half & then into 1-inch thick steaks. Roasted for about 30 minutes. Flipped once; will flip 2-3x next time. Broiling sauce = 3T miso 3T toasted sesame oil 3 T rice wine vinegar 1.5T soy sauce black pepper. That amount of sauce allowed liberal application on the steaks. Broiled for 5-8 minutes. Served over brown rice with scallions.

Pegah

My mother does an Iranian version of this for me with saffron rice and roasted tomatoes. My absolute favorite meal. So yummy and healthy! I have to try it with sesame seeds!

Dani

I made this with coconut brown rice (cooking the rice with a cup of coconut milk and some minced ginger) and topped with pickled ginger. Delicious vegan dinner!

mpf101

Yum! I’ve been trying to make something like this for years. I lived in Japan for 4 years in the early 90’s and glazed eggplant was one of my go-to’s, but I’ve never found it done right in the states and never got close enough in my attempts. This is the real deal. Even my eggplant-hating wife loved it. Followed no-recipe pretty closely but added splash of ponzu. Now the only issue will be finding Japanese eggplant, which my local Whole Foods never has.

jes

This works equally well with small zucchini or summer squash.

Marcie Kesner

3/23/24. Made. Pretty tasty. Not sure worth doing again. G seemed lukewarm.

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