This recipe wears many hats in my house - quick weeknight dinner, fancy salad to take to a bbq, big batch work day lunch... you name it. You can do whatever you like with it and there are endless substitutions and short cuts you can take to make it suit what you have in your cupboard and the effort you want to put in.
Don't be scared of the long ingredient list - like I said, you can sub in and out any ingredients you have on hand.
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 large eggplant (or 2 small ones, about 400g eggplant total)
1 tabs olive oil
2 tabs miso paste
2 tabs mirin
2 cups baby spinach
1 pack soba noodles (about 100g or one of those wrapped up sticks you get in the packet)
1 tabs sesame oil
1 cup shelled edamame beans (you can buy these pre-shelled in the frozen section of most asian grocers)
1 bunch broccolini (about 100g)
1/4 cup thinly sliced radishes
1 avocado, cubed
1/2 cup roasted cashews
2 tabs black sesame seeds
1/4 cup pickled ginger
For the dressing
1 tabs soy sauce
2 tabs vegetable oil
1 tabs rice wine vinegar
1 tabs sesame oil
Juice of one lime
1 clove minced garlic
1 tabs honey
1 tabs fresh grated ginger
Method
In a medium sized pot, bring some water to the boil and cook the soba noodles according to the packet instructions (should be boiling for about 5 mins) and then drain and rinse in cold water. This is super important for them not to get gluggy. Once cool, toss 1 tabs sesame oil through the noodles and put aside.
Next, heat some more water (absolutely use the same pot - no one wants that much washing up) and boil the edamame beans until they are tender, about 5 mins. Drain and refresh under cold water and put aside.
For the miso eggplant, cut the eggplant/s into rounds about 1cm thick. Heat a large frypan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tabs olive oil to the pan and cook the eggplant for about 5 mins on each side or until browned and soft. You may need to do this in two batches depending on the size of your pan.
While the eggplant is cooking, turn your oven grill onto high and let it heat up. In a small bowl, mix the miso paste and mirin until combined. Once the eggplant is cooked, put the slices onto an oven tray lined with baking paper and brush with the miso and mirin glaze. Put the glazed eggplant under the grill for a couple of minutes or until the glaze is bubbling and looks kind of caramelised. Watch it like a hawk under the grill to make sure it doesn't burn. Once done, set aside.
Heat the frypan you used to cook the eggplant over high heat. Once hot, add the broccolini and cook for 5-8 minutes, tossing occasionally until it is nice and charred. Set aside.
To make the dressing, put all the dressing ingredients into a jar and shake it like a Polaroid picture.
Finally, in a large salad bowl add the spinach, soba noodles, miso glazed eggplant, broccolini, avocado, edamame beans, radishes, cashews, sesame seeds and ginger and toss to combine. Just before serving, add the dressing and toss to coat. Note that the dressing does make quite a bit so you won't need to use it all. Just do what your heart tells you.
Enjoy!
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