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Grilled Vegetables with Miso Glaze

Grilled eggplant, acorn squash, shiitake mushrooms and baby corn brushed with a sweet miso glaze and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Miso and sesame match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 121 recipes mention both. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven350°F

Ingredients

Contains: soy, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the glaze

  1. In a small saucepan, combine vegetable broth, mirin, sugar and soy sauce.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, just until sugar dissolves.

  3. Remove from heat and whisk in miso until the glaze is smoothly blended.

Prepare

  1. In a small bowl, combine vegetable and sesame oils.

  2. Cut eggplants diagonally into ovals about 1/4 inch thick and 3 inches long.

  3. Cut squash crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices.

  4. Discard mushroom stems and cut caps in half.

  5. Place sesame seeds in a small frying pan over medium heat. Cook, shaking pan frequently, until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Immediately remove from pan to cool.

Grill and glaze

  1. Preheat electric grill to 350°F, or heat grill pan over medium heat.

  2. Brush grill with some oil mixture.

  3. Place vegetables on grill and brush with oil. Cook, turning once and brushing again with oil, until vegetables are tender: about 2 to 3 minutes on each side for squash, 1 to 2 minutes for mushrooms and eggplant, and 1 minute for baby corn.

  4. Reduce heat to low.

  5. Brush half the miso glaze on vegetables and cook for 30 seconds. Turn vegetables, brush with remaining glaze, and cook 30 seconds.

  6. Place on serving plate and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Miso + sesametop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together121 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sesame + shiitaketop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Miso + shiitaketop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together25 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sesame + eggplanttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together43 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Shiitake + mushroomtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together552 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red miso
Gives the glaze its savory depth and helps it cling to the vegetables as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the glaze and promotes light browning on the grilled surfaces.
Mirin
Adds sweetness and a mild aroma to the glaze.
Vegetable oil
Carries heat and keeps the vegetables from sticking and drying as they grill.
Eggplant
Its flesh softens as it cooks, becoming tender and moist.
Acorn squash
Its dense flesh becomes tender and sweet when grilled, holding its shape.

The step that matters

Glaze only at the end over low heat. Sugar and miso scorch quickly over direct high heat. Brushing the glaze on at low heat for a short time lets it caramelize lightly without turning bitter or burnt.

Flavor stand-ins for the acorn

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, sauce, miso, sesame, eggplant, shiitake, mushroom):

  1. Beansbetter flavor fit
  2. Peanutbetter flavor fit
  3. Cashew nutbetter flavor fit
  4. Acornthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sauce, miso, sesame, eggplant, shiitake, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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