feel food club

vegan comfort food

Super easy roasted sesame miso eggplant with coconut rice

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The soft „meat“ of the eggplant, soaked with flavour of the sesame miso marinade combined with creamy coconut rice and a baby spinach salad. Way easier than it sounds. And so delicious. 30 minutes, full of flavour, healthy and comforting.

I have never been to Japan, unfortunately, but it definitely is one of the top destinations of my travel list. I just really like all of the flavours, spices and fermented goods in their cuisine. Since the current situation makes travelling a bit difficult, it is time for us to bring Japan home! Taking the delicious and decadent flavours and making masterpieces out of them in the kitchen! And also, here is no better way to start into the slightly colder season than with some good comfort food. Heating up the oven and baking and the bubbling food on the stove. A super soft on the inside eggplant and creamy rice is the perfect dish for such occasions.

What is special about this dish?

Kind of everything, to be honest. The eggplant that is prepared and soaked up with the slightly sweet but so delicious asian marinade and baked to perfection and the rice that is not you average side dish rice but made with much more flavour.

What is miso and where can you get it?

Miso is a paste made from fermented soy beans and salt. It originated in Japan and is typically used in Asian, especially Japanese cuisine. Probably it’s most common use is in miso soup, which you can find at most Japanese restaurants. There are several different kinds of miso paste, from black to yellow and sweet so sour. For this recipe, I would recommend using a yellow/ light one without added sugar since we are adding the sweetness ourselves.

You can find Miso paste at pretty much any asian grocery store. It also often can be found at health stores or organic markets because of its high content of probiotics (through fermentation) or speciality stores.

Is this dish healthy?

I would definitely say so! You get great nutrients such as vitamins and fibre form the eggplant and also healthy probiotics from the miso (although there won’t be as much due to heating it up). The rice adds some great carbohydrates and protein and the coconut milk adds a healthy dose of fats. The only thing you should note is that this dish is a bit high in sodium because of its Miso and soy sauce content. If you have issues with sodium or make it sodium reduced, you can long for sodium reduced soy sauce, which you can find at any supermarket!

Meal prep & friendly?!

Yes and yes! You can very well store this in containers and heat it up whenever you want to enjoy it. The flavours will stay and consistency wise the reheating won’t be a problem. It also is pretty family friendly and a great way to sneak some more veggies onto the plates. If in your family, someone cannot go without meat, an easy way to include this is to just add some chicken, prawns or any other meat/ seafood of your preference into the marinade and then just fry it up in a pan while the eggplant is baking!

I hope that you will enjoy this recipe and that it gets you a little bit excited for the colder season ahead of us!

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Super easy roasted sesame miso eggplant with coconut rice

Soft eggplant that is full of flavor and easy to make paired with some dreamy, creamy coconut rice and a fresh salad!

Course dinner, lunch, Main Course
Cuisine asian, Japanese
Prep Time 5 Minuten
Cook Time 35 Minuten
Total Time 40 Minuten
Servings 4 people
Calories 530 kcal

What you will need

For the eggplant:

  • 2 eggplants
  • 1 tbsp Tahini
  • 3 tbsp miso paste
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • a few drops Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp hot sauce
  • 6 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup

For the rice:

  • 250 g rice
  • 200 ml coconut milk
  • 300 ml water

For the rest:

  • 4 handful baby spinach
  • 2 scallions (spring onions)
  • 2 tbsp sesame seeds

How to

  1. Cut the eggplants lengthwise. Carefully cut a grid-pattern into each half of the eggplant. This only is supposed to add some depth to the eggplant to soak up the flavor better. Do not cut the eggplant through!

  2. In a bowl/ tupperware combine all of the inrgedients for the sauce. Place the eggplant halfes, pattern side down in the marinade and let marinade for about 2-4 hours if you have got the time (if you do not, continue on from the next step).

  3. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place the eggplant halves on a baking tray and brush some of that remaining dressing into the grids. Bake the eggplant for 25-30 minutes. Take them out of the oven, heat it up to 225°C. Brush the eggplants again and bake for another 5 minutes.

  4. In the meantime add the rice along with the coconut milk, some salt and water to a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and let simmer until all liquid is absorbed. Cover and let steam on very low heat for another 3-5 minutes until the rice is soft.

  5. Wash the baby spinach and toss it with some slat, pepper,a nd the remaining eggplant marinade.

  6. Divide the rice and salad onto the plates and add the eggplant on top. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, chopped up scallions and cliantro. Enjoy!

Happy cooking,
Enjoy,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière

Tomato and Bean soup (V, GF)

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This soup is just in time for the snow that is expected soon. I feel like December is the perfect time for soups. Especially with all the cookies and treats I often feel like having a light soup that still fills me up, for dinner. This soup is ready in 20 minutes, it’s vegan, packed with protein, and super delicious.

To be honest my very favorite soup is Beef Soup. It’s a traditional Austrian dish that is very common. We add noodles, carrots, beef, and „Fritatten“ to it, and it is so good! We make it for Christmas every year! My mom is the best Chef when it comes to making this soup. It is a lot of work! But anyway, since we all to not have a bunch of time, especially during the week, for making dinner, I share this quick but super delicious recipe with you guys.

How to make it:

To make the soup the first, and essential step (don’t leave this out!! It adds so much flavor) is to brown the onions and herbs in the pot. No oil, no anything. We want them to turn a little bit burnt because that way the flavor will be super intense. You really do not have to worry wether it sticks to the pot or not because it doesn’t matter. 

After that we pour a mix of vegetable stock and canned, diced tomatoes on top. The vegetable stock is like a life hack when making soups, because it instantly gives a bunch of flavor. The tomato sauce, guess what, gives the tomato-y taste to the soup. This is going to simmer with a few other ingredients. Just before serving, you add in the freshly cooked and drained white beans. I like to use canned beans simply because they are more convenient but you can also cook fresh ones and add them. If you are not a fan of white beans at all, you can add other ones or if you want and are not vegan, prawns would work great in here! 

When to serve it?

This soup works great as an appetizer whenever you are having friends over but also as a full dinner. I like to serve it with some bread or rice or quinoa, which you could add to the soup, just to make it a complete meal and more filling. The great thing is, you could just prepare it whenever you have time, and when you come home from work or school and had a long day, you can simply heat it up in 5 minutes and it will taste like a freshly cooked meal. This is the awesome thing about this. 

What about meal prep?

This meal is ideal for a big family because you can make it in large batches, it works great for meal prep, and it is very versatile. Of course, the way I would recommend you to eat it, is with white beans, just because I believe that they taste best, and it is a great plant-based meal, which always is great to have before going to bed. But you can also add in some cooked and shredded chicken, or prawns if you would like to have it with some animal protein. You can just make it for you and your family or friends and place the different protein sources/ add-ins on the table to everyone can pick whatever they like.

I hope that you are having a beautiful winter time and this soup will be added to your weekly meal plan. If you like it, it would mean a lot to me if you could leave a rating here on the website! If you decide to recreate it, be sure to tag me on Instagram with @uneptcuisiniere or with #unepetitecuisiniere !

Enjoy,

Katie 

5 von 1 Bewertung
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Tomato and Bean Soup

A delicious soup to warm up during winter season. Works great for meal prep and is super versatile.

Course Appetizer, dinner, lunch, Main Course, Soup
Prep Time 2 Minuten
Cook Time 18 Minuten
Total Time 20 Minuten
Servings 2 Servings
Calories 202 kcal

What you will need

That’s what you will need:

  • 1 Red Onion
  • 1/2 Handful Thyme
  • 1/2 Handful Rosemary
  • 500 ml Vegetable stock
  • 300 G Canned Tomatoes
  • 1 Tsp Avjar
  • 1 Tsp Tomato Paste
  • 150 G White Beans
  • 1 Tbsp Hummus

How to

This is how it works:

  1. Dice up the onion in quarters. Heat up a pot and add the onions along with the rosemary and the thyme. Let that all brown for about 5 minutes, until the onion is slightly burnt.

  2. Add the vegetable stock and the canned tomatoes. Also add the ajvar and the hummus to make it more creamy. If you want it spicy, add some Chilli flakes here.

  3. Once it has boiled, reduce to a simmer and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Add in the beans and let simmer for 2 more minutes.

  4. Serve kn soup bowls with some bread or rice and enjoy!