Meatless Monday with Vegan Japanese Eggplant Dog

Welcome to the Miratel blog for another summer installment of our Meatless Monday vegan recipe share series. Miratel took the Meatless Monday pledge to support reducing meat consumption 15% by eliminating it one day per week to preserve the health of our planet. We consider our support of this great movement part of our CSR business strategies as it spreads awareness of the impact of our food choices on our environment.

Every Monday we share with you a vegan recipe to help take the guesswork out of what to make for dinner. Recently we’ve shared some amazing summer BBQ inspired vegan recipes like Vegan Grilled Vegetable and Tofu “Lasagna” with Pesto, Vegan Eggplant Crunchburger and Vegan Kidney Bean & Walnut Burgers with Mississippi Comeback Sauce. Today’s recipe is definitely different as it is a homemade version of a summer classic: the hot dog. That’s right, we’re making a vegan Japanese eggplant dog, which comes by way of Food Republic.

Ingredients – serves one

• 1 medium Japanese eggplant, ends trimmed
• 1 tablespoon each mustard, veganaise and white miso
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 extra-long hot dog bun (or use a soft hoagie roll)
• a few lettuce leaves
• furikake (Japanese toasted nori and sesame seasoning)
• sriracha or other hot sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Combine the mustard, veganaise and miso in a small bowl.
3. Using a small, sharp knife, make a slit down the length of the eggplant about halfway deep.
4. Take half of the miso mixture and combine it with the soy sauce in another small bowl. Make a foil packet for the eggplant, then pour the marinade over the eggplant and rub it in with your fingers.
5. Close up the packet and roast in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove packet from oven, open slightly to let the steam vent and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
6. Line the bun with lettuce, then place the roasted eggplant on top.
7. Top with the rest of the mustard/mayo/miso and a generous squirt of sriracha, sprinkle with furikake and serve.

This is an easy meal to make and takes about forty minutes from start to finish. To make this dish even healthier you could choose to use a whole wheat, whole grain or gluten-free bun as opposed to a traditional white flour hotdog bun or roll.

Serve this hotdog alongside a raw green salad, some grilled corn and perhaps your favourite potato salad.

My tip for making perfect grilled corn, is to clean the corn (remove the husk) wash it then microwave it for two minutes on high. Then wrap the corn in parchment paper, then a layer of foil and finish it on the grill. You could boil the corn first it you’d rather not use the microwave. The point is to cook the corn about 75% through so it is just finishing on the barbecue and doesn’t dry out on the grill.

If you haven’t already, we encourage you to visit the Meatless Monday website and join us in taking the pledge today. Spread the word at home and at work and promote CSR business initiatives to make your green call centre, office, factory, shop, restaurant or salon even greener.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including PCI compliant inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.