This super easy meal was inspired by my sister during my most recent trip to Australia. She is a wonderful creative cook and when she served me this dish I fell in love. When I got back home I experimented with her recipe, playing around with the ingredients and deciding to add wasabi for an extra kick. Saying that, the wasabi flavor in this recipe is very mild so if you want a bigger wasabi kick you can experiment adding more and see how it goes! I am all about playing around with recipes to adjust to your taste/food items available. Get creative!

This is delicious served with veggies, brown rice or just eaten on its own as a snack. So here's how its made:

Cooking time: 30-35 mins

Prep time: 5 mins (plus additional 30 mins to allow eggplant to sweat)

Ingredients:

2 slices of large eggplant, sliced approximately 3/4 inch (2cm) thick. *if you are using a smaller/medium sized eggplant you can increase the number of slices to 3 or 4, depending on size.

2 tablespoons tahini

1 1/2 teaspoons miso paste (any colored miso paste is fine)

1/2 teaspoon wasabi paste

2 teaspoons water

1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional for topping:

1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds

Chopped chives

Directions:

Sprinkle salt over both sides of the eggplant slices, and allow to sit for minimum of 30 mins to sweat. While eggplants are sweating, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (204 degrees C)

Once eggplants have sweat, pat the slices with a paper towel or cloth to soak up excess liquid.

Rub both sides of the eggplant with a small amount of olive oil and place on a baking tray. Bake for 15 mins and then turn slices over and bake for a remaining 5 mins.

While eggplant is baking, prepare the topping by mixing the miso paste, tahini, wasabi and water together.

Remove eggplant slices from the oven. Divide the topping evenly amongst the slices and press it down to cover the top of the eggplant slice. * it can be sticky so wetting your fingers before pressing the paste down can assist with this process.

Return eggplant to the oven and bake for a further 10-13 mins, or until topping has turned golden brown.

Top with sesame seeds and chopped chives or whatever garnish inspires you!

Serve and enjoy!