usage of JTAG-UART without NIOS CPU and avalon interfaces

Dear experts,

I have a module, which is connected to 3C120 development kit via HSMC connector. This module exports several UARTs. In order to avoid
cluttering the device with cables I'd like to use JTAG-UART as a 'pass-through' from the HSMC connected device to the JTAG (which connects to ethernetblaster, but that's another story), and then to use nios2-terminal as a terminal for that module

Now my question is, whether the JTAG-UART component in qsys can be used as a standalone entity without running into the complexities of avalon master design. Of course I could do a small NIOS system consisting of CPU+JTAG uart + some small internal memory, which takes whatever comes to some port and prints it on JTAG-UART. But this takes unnecessary space and it is not elegant at all...

do I have to do avalon master component and connect all together using avalon bus? or I can somehow handle the connection directly?

thanks

david