You would think that it'd be easy to find breadcrumbs that are vegan friendly, right? Wrong! That's what I thought when I first got a craving for eggplant a few months ago. Looking through all the different brands of breadcrumbs they have at my local grocery store, almost every single one has milk and/or eggs in them! Which I think is unnecessary. My mom found one or two of the Shake n' Bake brand ones that are safe, but I had ordered a different brand online (Italian style) that I thought I would give a try tonight.
It's Edward and Sons Italian Herbs Organic Breadcrumbs. Vegan and organic, perfect! But I was worried about how it would taste. The last time I tried making eggplant, I used panko and that did not work out at all. It was flavorless, and way too crunchy for coating eggplant. These worked out great though! I'll definitely be using them again.
The ingredients are simple for this one:
1 Eggplant
Breadcrumbs
Italian Dressing
Cooking spray/olive oil
First you want to slice the eggplant - you can keep the skin on if you want..I usually cut that off first and then slice it into thin circles.
Next, pour some breadcrumbs into a bowl that will be large enough to dip your slices into.
I used both Italian dressing and water to coat the eggplant before dipping it in the breadcrumbs. The dressing gives more of a sweet flavor to it, which I like. My mom likes it plain though, which it why I used water for hers. It's definitely healthier than using eggs, and you save some calories this way too. Once you do that, just dip it into your breadcrumbs.
For frying it, you're going to need to spray your pan with cooking spray or put some olive oil in your pan.
Cook on medium heat until the eggplant is soft and until it's brown enough to your liking.
Mmm, so good!
