Japanese Eggplants broiled with Miso (Nasu Dengaku)

After cooking more than 1 dish for the mega blogging marathon, I think I got in the habit of making more dishes. So here I am with the second Japanese dish for #Food of the World event that I served with Miso Noodle Soup.

I planted 2 eggplant plants in my raised garden bed and after waiting the whole summer, they have just started to grow some beautiful, long Japanese eggplants. I wanted to make a Japanese dish using them and found this simple Broiled Japanese eggplants with miso recipe on Fatfree Vegan's site.

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Japanese Miso Noodle Soup for #Food of the World

For this month's #Food of the World event, we are visiting the beautiful country of Japan. My knowledge of Japanese food is very limited and I've only eaten it a couple of times. We have a Mitsuwa close to our house with a huge food court, but I didn't find many vegetarian options there, so never really tasted Japanese food outside except for the couple of dishes I made at home.

As I was looking for Japanese recipes to make, I found this simple Miso noodle soup recipe in Vegetarian Times magazine. I had all the ingredients on hand, so made it right away. It is a light and tasty soup. I slurped the entire bowl you see in the picture :-) I added a few dashes of hot sauce to spice it up but otherwise it is a great tasting soup.

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Korea -- Miso Soup & Joomuk Bap (Vegetarian/ Vegan Recipes)

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: K for Korea

Dish: Korean Miso Soup & Joomuk Bap
We are staying in Asia and visiting Korea today. I knew from day 1 that I would be doing Korea for K, since I live in a town that has a very high Korean population. We have a Korean grocery store in town and most of the stores have signs in Korean.
I hardly cook Korean food at home even though I have full access to all the Korean veggies, spices and other ingredients. I don't have much knowledge of Korean cuisine and I thought this is a good opportunity to give some Korean dishes a try.
I was under the impression that all of the Korean dishes have meat in them. But there are a lot of Korean dishes that are actually vegan. Buddhist temple food is completely vegetarian and/ or vegan. I found an amazing Vegan Korean blog called Vegan 8 Korean and they have some awesome Korean dishes. I have tried a few Korean dishes already, check those out here.

I made Korean Miso Soup that uses Korean Miso paste called Doenjang. But a good substitute would be red or brown miso paste. I found quite a few recipes that used anchovies and fish sauce, but I skipped them and used some vegetarian options instead. Most of the ingredients were bought specially for this recipe.

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New Pantry Additions

Lately I’ve started expanding my pantry staples with items that I have never used before. Here are some items that are new in my pantry/ fridge: Vital wheat gluten, Nutrition Yeast, Flax seed meal, Miso, Wheat Germ.

I made Seitan with Vital wheat gluten and nutrition yeast with Seitan O' Greatness recipe from here. This is a very versatile dish and you use any seasonings to make it your own. I added some cumin pd, coriander pd, pinch of turmeric. My husband thought it tasted a little bit like chicken, but it did not have the texture of chicken.
To use, just sauté in little bit of oil and you can use it in million different ways. Freeze the unsautéed seitan in plastic wrap or aluminum foil, it makes quick and easy BLD (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner) recipes, so always make the complete recipe even if you are making for two.
I made Seitan Curry with mixed vegetables and coconut milk with half of the log (no pics.. sorry) and used half of the rest in wraps (lavash wrap smeared with mayo and filled with seitan, rice, onions, tomatoes and spinach).
I’m still snacking on the rest of the sautéed seitan. So good.. yummmmm..