Servings: 4
Air Fryer Eggplant with Miso Sauce
This air fryer eggplant deserves a spot in your weeknight dinner rotation! The recipe features tender eggplant topped with a lightly sweet miso sauce that is packed with umami flavor. I like using Asian eggplant (sometimes called Chinese or Japanese eggplant) for this recipe because they have small seeds and tend not to be bitter. Feel free to use whatever eggplant you can find. When developing this recipe, I used a Cosori air fryer (the one with a large basket). There are many varieties of air fryers on the market, each with slightly different heating mechanisms. Use the cooking times below as a guideline–you may need to increase or decrease the cooking times by a minute or two.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (118mL) water
- 1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
- 4 to 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon gochugaru (Korean pepper flakes), (see note 1)
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons white miso, (see note 2)
- 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds (567g to 680g) Chinese or Japanese eggplant
- sea salt or kosher salt
- toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
- sliced scallions or chives, for garnish
Instructions
Make Sauce
- Stir the water and cornstarch in a bowl and set aside.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds to a minute, stirring frequently. Give the cornstarch and water a quick stir again, in case the cornstarch settles to the bottom of the bowl. Carefully pour the water into the saucepan. Next, add the soy sauce, gochugaru, and sugar. Once the liquid reaches a boil, reduce the heat slightly and let it simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and add the miso paste to the saucepan. Whisk the paste into the sauce. It usually takes me about a minute to fully incorporate the miso. Set the sauce aside.
Prepare Eggplant
- Rinse the eggplant and pat dry. Peel off the petals from the top of the eggplant and slice off the remainder of the stem.
- Slice the eggplant lengthwise into 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick planks. The two slices on the outside of each eggplant will have the most skin. I suggest using the tip of your knife to make several diagonal cuts to pierce the skin. This will help make the skin easier to eat later. If you are working with very long eggplants (anything over 8 inches long), I’d recommend slicing the eggplant in half crosswise so they can fit into the air fryer.
- Pour 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a small bowl. Brush both sides of each slice of eggplant with the olive oil. If you’re running out of olive oil, pour another tablespoon of oil into the small bowl. Sprinkle tiny pinches of salt over the eggplant slices.
Air Fry Eggplant
- Preheat the air fryer to 400ºF (205ºC). Working in batches, add the eggplant slices to the basket of your air fryer in a single layer. Try not to overlap the eggplant slices. Cook for 4 minutes. Flip the eggplant over and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes, until the eggplant looks softened and slightly browned. Transfer the cooked eggplant to a plate and continue air frying the remaining eggplant.
Finish Dish
- Using a spoon, spread miso sauce over all the eggplant slices. Garnish with sesame seeds and scallions. Serve the eggplant with jasmine rice or egg fried rice. You’ll likely have leftover miso sauce. Drizzle it over the rice! For some protein on the side, I like serving the eggplant with a fried egg or teriyaki tofu.
Notes
- Substituting Gochugaru: If gochugaru is difficult to find, you can use 2 teaspoons of paprika instead. The flavor profile will be a little different, but it’ll definitely enhance the flavor of the sauce.
- White Miso Alternatives: If you can only find red miso or some other variety of miso, I recommend tasting the miso first. If the paste has a pretty strong funky fermented flavor, add 1 tablespoon of the miso to the sauce first. Then, taste the sauce and add more if needed.
- Make Ahead Tips: You can air fry the eggplant and prepare the sauce a few days ahead. Refrigerate the cooked eggplant and sauce separately. Heat the eggplant in a skillet and the sauce in a saucepan for several minutes, until heated through.
- Variation Using Fuyu Butter: Instead of miso sauce, you can slather some of my fuyu butter on the air-fried eggplant. Fuyu is Chinese fermented bean curd.
Nutrition
Serving: 4slices of eggplant | Calories: 192kcal | Carbohydrates: 15.2g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 14.9g | Saturated Fat: 2.1g | Sodium: 284mg | Fiber: 5.4g | Sugar: 7.5g
Did you make this recipe?Tag @hellolisalin or leave a star rating and comment on the blog!