miso-glazed asparagus and eggplant

miso-glazed asparagus and eggplant

miso2 Asparagus season is going to end soon and my new part time job is to eat as much of it as possible. If I start to turn green you know why! Unfortunately, we don't grow our own asparagus, but we are lucky enough to trade produce with other farmers who do. That is one of the major perks of going to the farmers markets. Trading produce is fun! melettuce 2 heads of lettuce for a bunch of asparagus. Sweet deal! Speaking of sweet deals, if I had it my way the price of an organic tomato would be 100 dollars a pop! We spent the first part of our day pruning, staking, and stringing our first tomato planting.  We have 2 beds that are each 150 feet long full of tomatoes.  Staking and stringing them sucks! Did we bleed? Yes. Did I cry? Just a little. staking  Pounding 6 ft tall stakes into the ground when it's 80 degrees outside (not to mention our soil is rocky) is not my idea of fun. The only thing that got me through  this horrible task was imagining my first bite into a ripe tomato. Preferably from one that is the size of my head! Photo1 (Photo: Hutchins Farm 2012) My first experience staking and stringing tomatoes was at Hutchins Farm. If you are in the mood for a good laugh you should check out this post I wrote 3 years ago. Please excuse any grammatical errors (which I am still guilty of all the time but hey, I'm pooped when I write these posts!) string1 The good news is that we got this horrible task out of the way first thing. The bad news is that we have 3 more plantings of tomatoes later this season. Any volunteers want to come do this for me? I'll treat you to a beer and cheer you on from the sidelines! While I'm busy trying to recruit people to come stake tomatoes, you should get busy cooking up this lovely dinner.

Miso-Glazed Asparagus and Eggplant

Prep Time: 10 mins.
Cook Time: 20 mins.
Serves: 4

Ingredients

  • 1 cup uncooked quinoa
  • 1 medium-sized Italian eggplant, cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
  • 2 TBS Grapeseed oil
  • 2 TBS mirin
  • 1.5 TBS low sodium tamari
  • 1 TBS mellow white miso
  • 1 TBS water
  • 2 tsp fresh minced ginger
  • pinch of red pepper flakes
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

  1. Preheat the oven to 400. Lightly grease a large sheet pan.
  2. Cook quinoa according to your specific brands directions
  3.  Combine the oil, mirin, tamari, miso, water, red pepper flakes and ginger in a bowl. Whisk until well incorporated.
  4.  In a large bowl combine 1/2 of the miso sauce with the eggplant and asparagus.  Toss well to coat.
  5. Place eggplant and asparagus on the sheet pan and roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Tossing veggies halfway through cooking time. Check often to make sure they aren't burning.
  6. Remove veggies from oven and toss with cooked quinoa and the remainder of the miso sauce.  Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve warm and enjoy!

Notes

As always taste test as you go. These measurements are an estimate. Enjoy!

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