This savory vegan eggplant miso soup is made with tender sautéed Japanese eggplant, crispy pan-fried tofu and rice noodle vermicelli in a flavorful garlic-ginger miso broth.
Last year I planted two globe eggplant plants in my little backyard garden and ended up with a ton of eggplants to show for it. I was posting eggplant recipes for weeks! This year I decided to switch things up a bit and go with Japanese eggplants. I figured we've all got enough globe eggplant recipes in our lives by now. Time for Japanese eggplant. I was pretty excited about all of this.
I got even more excited when my little plant started sprouting little purple blossoms before anything else in my garden, followed by cute little baby Japanese eggplants. I started making all kinds of plans for Japanese eggplant recipes. In my mind, you guys were so sick of hearing about Japanese eggplants by September. So many recipes.
Guess what happened though? My cute little eggplants never grew up. I don't know what went wrong, except that I'm not that great a gardener and it was probably my fault. My eggplants never quite matured past bite size, even though I went out back on a daily basis to stare them down in the hopes I could guilt them into growing. My neighbor, who has a serious green thumb, mentioned that it wouldn't hurt if I'd watered them.
Kidding! Of course I watered them, at least one or twice.
I considered harvesting them at one point but instead held on to hope that they'd grow bigger. Before I knew it they withered up on the vine. I guess it's going to be a tomato year.
Anyhow, I'd gotten myself so psyched up about eggplant recipes that I had to head out to the farmers' market to pick some up. That was easy.
I ended up with this soup, which just might be my favorite soup ever. It was delicious and satisfying and left me feeling good and not weighed down. I could eat this soup every day and be happy. Even every day in August.
Japanese Eggplant Miso Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 ½ tbsp. vegetable oil divided
- ½ lb. extra firm tofu drained, pressed for at least 20 minutes, and cut into 1 inch cubes
-
1
tsp.
toasted sesame oil
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- ½ tbsp. fresh grated ginger
- 2 medium Japanese eggplants about ½ lb. total, cut into ½ inch cubes
- 5 cups water
-
3
oz.
rice noodle vermicelli
-
¼
cup
white miso paste
- 2 tbsp. rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 3 scallions chopped
- 1-2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
-
Coat the bottom of a large nonstick saucepan with ½ tablespoon of vegetable oil and place over medium heat. Add tofu cubes and cook about 10 minutes, flipping a few times, until browned on multiple sides. Remove from pot and transfer to a plate.
-
Add remaining vegetable oil, sesame oil, garlic, ginger and eggplant to saucepan. Saute until eggplant is lightly browned and tender, 5-7 minutes. Add water to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add noodles. Allow to soak until tender, typically 5 minutes, but refer to package instructions.
-
Add miso, rice vinegar and soy sauce to pot. Stir until miso is dissolved and well blended. Stir in tofu.
-
Ladle into bowls and top with scallions and sesame seeds.
Recipe Notes
Substitute whatever variety of eggplant is available if you can't get your hands on some Japanese eggplant. The texture may be a bit different, but I'm sure it will still be delicious.
Eggplant is one of the only things I've been able to successfully grow, they must be sturdy little vegetables! I am IN LOVE with the idea of putting them into a miso noodle soup, YUM!
that looks really, really, really good.
for so long, i snubbed eggplants but i think i'm going to go purchase one today...
This looks and sounds delicious but the directions are a bit confusing. The beginning is fine its somewhere around the middle that's not clear.
Ah! I forgot to include the instruction to add the eggplant along with the garlic and ginger. Is that what it was? I just updated the post. Thank you!
I think Japanese eggplants are less bitter than the bigger ones, but I must admit I can't remember the last time I bought an eggplant. I love it with miso and curious about this soup, so I may need to remedy that. Sorry the gardening is so sporadic. I only grew herbs and collards this year and the collards were decimated by bugs. :(
I have tons of eggplant growing in my garden and this bowl of goodness looks SO good! I kind of want to dive right in!
So yummy, thank you for the healthy recipe. Bc I was lazy & short on time, I just dumped everything in the pot without cooking/browning in the saucepan - still family approved!
Awesome! Glad everyone liked it!
This was delicious. I subbed out the tofu for oyster mushrooms because I finally found them in the supermarket and wanted to use them and I really wanted soup! Also used red miso instead because I had it on hand. I'm always a little skeptical when I see water as the base of a soup because I always feel they tend to be a little bland, but this was so flavorful.
I love oyster mushrooms and I bet they were delicious in this! Glad you enjoyed it! :)
The soup was okay, but I wish it didn’t have the word “Japanese” in the title. When I fed it to my husband, he said, “This is NOT Japanese food.” He ate it and said it was okay, but that we should not have vinegar in miso soup. He also had me add dashi and double the amount of miso. I know some miso comes with dashi in it, but then it wouldn’t be vegan.
It's actually not supposed to be Japanese (none of my recipes are authentically anything) - maybe just Japanese-inspired. "Japanese" in title refers to the variety of eggplant.
I plan to make it again but with less vinegar. Will add mushrooms & other vegetables similar to a hot & sour soup. In trying to crisp the tofu, I overcooked & made it tough. I have 1/2 lb of tofu left. I plan on browning the both sides & then cubing. I think the recipe could have used one lb of tofu.
I rarely try out new recipes for miso soup, but I had to write here! It was so good and comforting- and the eggplant was 'the legend' in this flavorful soup. Thank you so much Alissa :) Oh and I added mushrooms- but replaced vinegar with lime juice since I didn't have the right type. I loved it.