These Maple and Miso Glazed Aubergine Bao Buns are so soft and fluffy. The filling is sweet, salty and full of umami flavour. Get the recipe below.
Vegan bao buns
Bao buns are one of my absolute favourite dishes. They originate from China but you will find versions in places like Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam.
You can make your own light and fluffy bao buns by following my simple bao bun recipe.
These bao buns are light, fluffy oval shaped buns that are perfect for stuffing with a a range of different fillings. They'd commonly be filled with meat like tender pork belly but we can experiment with fillings for a vegan alternative.
Some of my favourite plant based fillings include sticky tofu or tempeh with pickled veggies. Today I'm sharing a recipe for maple and miso glazed aubergine. I serve this with thinly sliced radish and cucumber. If you like a it of spice you can also add a squirt of sriracha or sriracha mayo.
Maple and miso glazed aubergines
Aubergine is a fantastic vegetable which, when cooked properly, can absorb a tonne of flavour. It also has this fantastic silky texture.
The marinade
The trick is to marinade thin slices of aubergine in a sweet and salty mix of maple syrup, soy sauce, miso, garlic and rice wine vinegar. It's full of flavour and creates a sticky, caramelised coating on the outside of the aubergine
Cooking the auberinge
Now because the aubergine will have soaked up all of the delicious marinade, you don't want to drown that out by frying the aubergine in a tonne of oil. So, I dry fry in a non-stick pan. If you don't have a non stick pan just use a little neutral, flavourless oil like sunflower oil or vegetable oil.
By dry frying you're letting the aubergine continue to soak up the flavours of the marinade and letting it get those sticky edges.
Because the aubergine is thinly sliced it won't take long to cook. This really is the perfect way of cooking aubergine for stuffing in vegan bao buns.
The recipe
Now we know how to marinade and cook our aubergine let's take a look at the recipe in full.
Maple and Miso Glazed Aubergine Bao Buns
Ingredients
For the aubergine
- 1 aubergine
- 4 tablespoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 0.5 teaspoon garlic puree
- 0.5 teaspoon miso paste white
To serve
- 8 bao buns
- 0.5 small cucumber
- 8 radishes
- 1 bunch coriander leaves only
- 2 tablespoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- Begin by thinly slice your aubergine. I like to do mine in half moons as they fit in the bao buns really well.
- Mix the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, maple syrup, garlic puree and miso paste together then pour over the aubergine.
- Toss the aubergine in the marinade then leave to sit for at least 1 hour.
- Once the aubergine has marinated, place a non-stick pan on to a medium heat.
- Add the aubergine slices to a pan and cook for 5 minutes either side, or until the aubergine is soft and the marinade has become sticky.
- Cook in batches if needed, keeping the aubergine warm in an oven on low.
- Steam your buns according to the packet's instructions or recipe if cooking from scratch.
- Once steamed, stuff the buns with the aubergine and raw veggies.
- Serve with coriander leaves and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
Nutrition
More Chinese inspired recipes
Just like these bao buns, I've developed a range of Chinese inspired recipes for the blog. You can find them all in the Chinese recipe archive.
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