Miso eggplant is a Vegan Japanese side dish.* It is super easy to make and delicious. The best part of miso eggplant is that it has a delicious sweet miso paste glaze and the eggplant melts in your mouth.
What is Nasu Dengaku?
Nasu is eggplant in Japanese. Sweet miso paste can glaze dishes with ingredients such as tofu or konnyaku. These dishes are called Dengaku. So Nasu dengaku literally means, miso glazed eggplant.
The size of eggplants
The size of eggplants in Australia are surprisingly huge compared to those in Japan. You can get bigger eggplants in Japan, called “Kome Nasu”. Generally speaking though, eggplants in Japan are fairly small. But eggplants in Australia are huge!!
How to prepare eggplants
Because of the size and also the astringent taste that eggplants can have, we need to do a little bit of preparation. A popular and photogenic way is to cut them in half, lengthwise. Then score around the edge and diagonally so that it cooks evenly and quickly in the microwave. Soaking the eggplant in water removes astringent taste.
How to make miso glaze?
Super easy! While the eggplant is soaking in water, just combine all ingredients and place over medium heat and cook until the miso paste becomes shiny. It does not take a long time either, so cook only for a few minutes.
Which type of Miso to use for the glaze?
Miso is commonly classified by its colour, Shiro(white), Aka(red) and Mixed. White miso is sweeter in taste but we add sugar to the glaze anyway so any type of miso is good to use. I make my own miso and if you would like to know more about miso, read my previous post about how to make miso paste.
Garnishes for Miso Eggplant
Grated ginger and chopped shiso leaves complement the sweet miso flavour. And sesame seeds add a nutty flavour to miso paste. Shiso may not be a familiar herb or garnish but it is my favourite and a common herb in Japan. Garnishing Sashimi and Sushi with Shiso is quite normal.
Miso Glaze for everything
Use about 1 tbs of sweet miso paste for a half of a large eggplant. You should have some left over miso glaze. Don’t throw it away though, because it can be used for glazing other ingredients such as salmon, tofu, konnyaku and is even daikon in Oden, the Japanese one pot dish.
Here is my updated Miso eggplant recipe. I am 100% sure you will love this and it could even become your staple weekday dinner menu.
Check out these traditional and classic Japanese dishes using Miso paste such as simmered Mackerel in Miso (Saba Misoni), Miso Egg for Ramen and Miso Glazed Salmon
Also, don’t forget to follow me on Youtube, Pinterest, Facebook , Twitter and Instagram to keep up to date with all the latest happenings on Chopstick Chronicles. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #ChopstickChronicles so I can see your wonderful creations!
* This recipe can be vegan if you use 1 tbs of shiitake mushroom dashi stock. See how to make Dashi stock post. Or omit using dashi powder.
Nasu Dengaku ナス田楽
Video
Ingredients
Miso glaze
- 1.5 tbs miso paste
- 1.5 tbs sugar
- 1/2 tbs Mirin
- 1/2 tbs Sake
- 1/2 tsp dashi powder *4
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1 Eggplant
- 1 tbsp grated ginger to garnish
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds to garnish
- 1 tbsp chopped Shiso leaves to garnish
Instructions
Sweet miso paste for glazing *1
- Put all the miso glaze ingredients in a small sauce pan and simmer for a couple minutes over low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the glaze become shiney.
- Remove from heat and set aside.
Prepare eggplant
- Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise.
- Score around the eggplant and diagonally.
- Soak the eggplant in water in a large bowl for about 5 minutes to take off the bitter taste.
- Take the eggplant out of the water and wipe off the excess water with a paper towel.
- Gently wrap the eggplant with cling wrap microwave for 5 min.
Grill and glaze
- Start to preheat the oven on grill setting *2
- Put the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the eggplant until the cut side becomes brown about 5 minutes and turn the heat off. *3
- Glaze the eggplant surface with about 1 tbs of miso mixture each.
- Put the frying pan in the preheated oven and grill for 3-5 minutes.
- Serve it on a plate and top with grated ginger, garnish with shiso and sprinkle sesame seeds over.
Really good recipe – I ended up frying the eggplant as I would for pad maku yao, and it was so good. I used white miso and ended up subbing Shaoxing wine for sake because I realized I didn’t have any on hand. Can’t wait to get sake and a different miso to try this recipe again. I have a feeling it’s going to be part of the regular rotation from now on!
Thank you for making Nasu Dengaku, glad it become your regular menu 😀
I made this recipe for dinner tonight and it was delicious. I had some broccoli that I needed to use up and it was so good too! Thanks for the recipe.
Too strong miso flavour
Delicious recipe! Made it without the dashi in the glaze this time and sliced my eggplant into 4 sections instead of 2. This is my favourite eggplant from now on!
Thank you so much for sharing!
You are welcome Kay 😀
I have tried making this dish and failed (eggplant was undercooked in the middle) so I was nervous about attempting it again. It came out perfect, so soft, almost creamy. Great recipe. Paired very well with miso pasta.
Great information if you can wade through all of the totally over done advertising!!!
Would this dish be cook eaten the next day as part of a bento box packed for lunch?
Hi Ramsey, yes.
thank you for this fabulous and time-saving recipe! I have tried so many and this was the best.
You are welcome 😀
Thank you for the recipe, looks real delicious! One question: is there any alternative I could use if I don’t want mirin and sake? I’m a muslim so I can’t involve any alcohol in the ingredients.
Hi Rachmadio, Mirin can be substituted with sugar but I am not sure what sake can be substituted.
I cooked this for dinner last night as a side for the meat eaters and a main for the vegetarians. It was delicious. Sweetness was perfect. I added a little extra dashi for depth of flavour. I cooked 3 large aubergine and there was plenty of glaze.
I also used kitchen paper as we are a clingwrap free household, and gave them an extra minute in the microwave. And I substituted Basil as we do not have the herb your recipe called for. Worked a treat. Will definitely be cooking this again soon. Maybe black sesame next time??
Lyndi
Well done Lyndk 😀 Thank you for sharing your tweek and it sounds great! Yes “shiso” may be difficult to get ( so I grow mine 😀 ). It can be omit or basil is great idea. And yes black sesame will be great addition.
Yum first time I’ve made this and was just like the one you get when eating out!
I used the bbq rather than the oven.
That’s fantastic!
Great instructions, delicious and I learnt few tricks as well !
Thank you Marianne for 5 stars rating and lovely comment 😀
I made it last night and it was simply perfect. Loved it! You made the recipe easy to follow and the flavours are awesome.
Will start exploring your other recipes and can’t wait to try them out 🙂
Thank you Carolina 😀 I am glad to know that you liked it because this is my favourite 😀
Thanks for such a delicious recipe. I made this for dinner tonight and microwaving the eggplant first really sped up cooking time . Very tasty. I made double quantity to take to work for lunch tomorrow.
You are welcome Stacey 😀 I am glad you liked it.
Hi, lm wondering if this could be cooked and frozen for lunches. It’s probably my daughters favorite recipe. Thanks Stacey
Hi Stacey, freezing may not be a good idea because of the moisture it has and by lunch time, things in the lunch box soak up the moisture which makes the other foods in the lunch box soggy. Check this Obento rules https://www.chopstickchronicles.com/obento/ So you could cook a night before and make sure you evaporated moisture as much as you could.