Air Fryer Eggplant With Miso Sauce

That’s why I developed this air fryer eggplant recipe, which is more practical for everyday meals. It uses much less oil, and the eggplant has a nice soft texture once it’s cooked. Simply brush the eggplant with oil and pop into the air fryer. I’m pairing the eggplant with an umami-packed miso sauce that is lightly sweet. The eggplant is so delicious, you’ll want to eat the whole batch by yourself!

COOKING NOTES FOR AIR FRYER EGGPLANT

USING ASIAN EGGPLANT

In general, I like cooking with the long and thin variety of purple eggplant, which can be labeled as Asian, Chinese, or Japanese eggplant in stores or farmers markets. This variety of eggplant has smaller seeds and typically isn’t bitter. If you can find Asian eggplant, I highly recommend using it for this recipe. Otherwise, feel free to substitute with whatever eggplant you can get your hands on.

SAUCE INGREDIENTS

The ingredients list for the sauce is pretty straightforward. However, I wanted to focus on two ingredients that may be slightly more difficult to find: miso and gochugaru.

Miso

When developing the recipe, I used white miso (see photograph above), which is a sweeter and less fermented variety of miso. If you can only find red miso or some other variety of miso, I recommend tasting the miso first. If the paste has a pretty strong funky fermented flavor, add 1 tablespoon of the miso to the sauce first. Then, taste the sauce and add more if needed. Where to find miso: You can generally find miso in Asian grocery stores or the refrigerated foods aisles near other fermented foods.

Gochugaru

I love using gochugaru, Korean pepper flakes, in my cooking because it brightens up the flavor of the dish without adding too much spice. If gochugaru is difficult to find, you can use 2 teaspoons of paprika instead. The flavor profile will be a little different, but it’ll definitely enhance the flavor of the sauce.

TYPE OF AIR FRYER I USED

I own a Cosori air fryer (affiliate link) that has a large air fryer basket that I push into a machine. There are so many types of air fryers on the market right now. Some are multi-function toaster ovens with air frying capabilities; Instant Pot has developed an air fryer lid that you can fasten onto some models of pots. The heating mechanisms for all of these machines vary. Use the cooking times in my recipe as a guideline–you may need to increase or decrease the cooking time by a minute or two.