Roasted Eggplant with Soba Noodles

I work up this morning to a beautiful sunrise. The days are getting longer and warmer, which means I can get a short walk in before work during the week - yeah!

I’m still working my way through the Master Gardener program - should be finished with the course work by mid-April and then the fun part actually doing stuff. Our garden planning is underway and I started some of my seeds for leeks, fennel, and some flowers yesterday - looking forward to another growing season. 

In my effort to make different things I bought an eggplant at the store this week. Usually, I make garlic eggplant but I wanted to do something different so I hopped on over to Kenko Kitchens and used their Japanese Salad as a base for dinner. 

I didn’t have broccolini (but I did have broccoli), while it’s not the same thing it’s close enough. I also didn’t have rice bran oil - and honestly, I have no idea where I might get it. I did check my local Asian grocery store but they didn’t have any so I used olive oil. I added more mushrooms and edamame because I love them both and it made the “salad” a “meal.” This is definitely on the rotation. 

Ingredients:

1.5 crowns of broccoli - cut into florets

100 grams of buckwheat noodles 

1 cup edamame

1 cup enoki mushrooms

2 tbsp organic tamari

2 tbsp sesame oil

3 tbsp miso paste

1 large eggplant

1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

Cut the eggplant into 5-6 wedges length-wise. Rub the eggplants with 2 tbsp of the miso paste and the olive oil then place on an oven tray lined with parchment paper. Cook the eggplant for 20-30 minutes until golden and soft - flipping the eggplant wedges over halfway in between.

In a pot of boiling water, cook the soba noodles for 5-10 minutes until just al dente, strain, rinse and set aside in a bowl of cold water to prevent the noodles from cooking further and sticking together.

Cut off the ends of the enoki mushrooms and wash thoroughly. Place in a frying pan with the sesame oil and cook for 2 minutes. Add in 1T miso paste, tamari and broccoli. Add in the edamame and then add in the soba noodles, coating in the tamari/miso sauce, and turn off from the heat (broccoli and edamame should still have a slight crunch and be vibrant in color).

Place noodles and greens in a bowl then top with the roasted miso eggplant. Serve with pickled ginger and wasabi on the side.