miso-glazed asparagus and eggplant
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!
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.
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!
(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!)
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
- 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
- Preheat the oven to 400. Lightly grease a large sheet pan.
- Cook quinoa according to your specific brands directions
- Combine the oil, mirin, tamari, miso, water, red pepper flakes and ginger in a bowl. Whisk until well incorporated.
- In a large bowl combine 1/2 of the miso sauce with the eggplant and asparagus. Toss well to coat.
- 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.
- 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!
That looks like hard work! I’ll stick to my 2 tomato plants that I can put in a cage and walk away from quickly 🙂 My dad planted asparagus this year (maybe last year) but I guess you don’t want to harvest it for a year or two so that it spreads and you get more? Seems like a lot of work, especialy when you trade your beautiful lettuce for it 🙂
Looks like those stakes are pounding YOU into the ground instead! I hope it’s all worth it when those luscious tomatoes are ripe! This dish looks delicious, and I have a bunch of asparagus just waiting to be used up.
I’ll come steak a tomato! I wanna help!! Hey lady, I bought the BEST beets from our local farmers market here in Sonora on Staurday and I thought of you every step of the way!! Hope you had fun this weekend!
I would come help you in a heartbeat if I lived closer to you! I would love to learn a few things to start a home garden and who better to learn from than a pro? I’m sorry you can charge what you deserve for those tomatoes but they are delicious and you’re contributing to the health of everyone who eats them so that should feel pretty darn good! Oh, and I love your friend chocolate covered tooth! 😉
Yum!! I seriously cannot say no to a dish that contains asparagus AND miso :).
You might have to feed us well if you want us to go help…jaja
I love recipes with miso, and absolutely love eggplant. Great recipe to try!
Mmmm I love Miso! I have 3 eggplants plantsand one of them finally has a teensy eggplant on it, going to try this once it’s ready for pickin’! And I just learned about growing tomatoes this way in April when I went on a farm tour in Vermont, so interesting! I am going to do it this way next year, since mine have already outgrown their tomato cages are are slumping sadly over the sides 🙁