If you guys follow me on Instagram, then you’ll probably be aware that’s I’ve recently moved house. I’m super excited about getting all set up in my new kitchen and back into my usual recipe creation routine! My last kitchen was pretty ideal in terms of food blogger kitchen requirements; there were large sliding conservatory doors, providing amazing natural light and a fair amount of kitchen counter space. however, this kitchen has large south facing balcony doors, more kitchen cupboard space, a larger fridge AND an island! I don’t know about you, but I love a kitchen island and they’re pretty ideal for filming, so expect some more personal recipe videos coming your way soon! I’m going to start making more of an appearance and chatting to you guys a bit more! I think it’s about time to be honest! I mean, I constantly find myself rabbiting on in my Instagram stories and getting interrupted when they cut off on me mid-sentence. I have to record about 20 of them just to finish talking about one topic and by the end of it, I often don’t even find myself uploading it because It would just be far too long and tedious for you guys to sit through.. or have to skip past if you’re just here for the food and not my daily ramblings!
Anyway.. how did this recipe com about? Well, as I was saying, I’ve recently moved house. Right before the move, I wanted to try and use up the majority of the fresh produce from inside my fridge and I had a few veggies lying around, including an aubergine. I feel that aubergines can be a little hit and miss sometimes and how they’re prepared can make all of the difference to their taste and texture. I find that they’re one of those things can either taste really delicious, or kind of bland and rubbery. For me, it’s all about the preparation and marinade.. and then also how you cook the aubergine. For this recipe, I like to roast the aubergine in coconut oil for a while first, then coat it in the delicious miso dressing and bake it further covered in foil. The dressing caramelises in the oven, providing an incredibly crisp, sweet and sticky glaze over the humble vegetable. Roasting the aubergine for a long period of time, insures that it’s completely cooked throughout and has a really soft and gooey texture. They’re also an amazing vegetable for absorbing different flavours and marinades!
This miso dressing is perhaps on of my favourite meal accompaniments.. it’s honestly so good! I’ve spoken briefly about my love for miso on here before and my favourite kind to use is the sweet white miso paste. I just find this to have a slightly milder flavour, with a really tasty undertone of sweet, salty flavours. The second key ingredient- and another firm favourite of mine, is coconut aminos. This is basically a soy free alternative to soy sauce, that is coconut based. It’s fairly similar in taste, however I find it to have a slightly more sweet and smokey flavour. It tastes incredible added into soups, stews, stir fires and used in sauces like this one. It’s even amazing, just added onto some veggies and roasted in the oven. Such a quick and simple way to pack your meal with a tonne of flavour! I feel that this would make an excellent main or side dish for both summer and winter time and is also a great way to include some extra veggie based dishes into the day. Although personally I’m, not a vegetarian, I’ve always loved my vegetables and never had a problem eating greens- I’m not even joking when I say that broccoli is genuinely one of my favourite foods! (does that make me weird?) So I do like to include a few veggie meals into my routine here and there and I think it’s important to make conscious effort to get in your portions of veg throughout the day! If you’re not such a keen veg fan, recipes like this can be really useful for making them more exiting and spicing things up a bit!
