If you are searching for healthy, tasty or roasted eggplant recipes, you have come to the right place! This family friendly Crunchy Roasted Eggplant Fries recipe is a great way to use up or introduce your family to eggplant.
This Crunchy Roasted Eggplant Fries recipe was created out of necessity. Many moons ago, when the farm to table movement was just getting rolling, I signed up to receive local farm deliveries. This was my first experience with local, in-season produce and it stretched me in a really good way. I had to figure out ways to use what I was given, which meant cooking kohlrabi, turnips, okra and yes, eggplant. There was a lot of eggplant in fact, because that’s a food that apparently grows really well in northeast Florida.
After eggplant parmesan I was out of ideas of what to do with this vegetable that didn’t involve tons of cheese or frying. Surely there are healthy and tasty eggplant recipes! So I began to experiment with eggplant ideas and stumbled across a winner of an idea with this recipe for crunchy roasted eggplant fries.
Fast forward now to present day and I have once again signed up to receive a local produce delivery. Since the beginning of summer, my produce bags have almost always included an eggplant or two. It had been a long time since I made crunchy roasted eggplant fries but I found my recipe in old blog archives. I’ve “dusted it off” and retaken the photos (the originals from circa 2010 were atrocious) and am so happy to share it with you today.
If you’ve never worked with an eggplant, here’s a few shots on how to cut them up into fries.
First, cut them length-wise into about ½” thick planks.
Next, cut the planks into ½” wide sticks or fries. Lastly, cut them into hand held size if they are too long.
These crunchy roasted eggplant fries are indeed crunchy without frying. This is thanks to using panko bread crumbs as well as lightly spraying them with oil right before baking. The touch of garlic makes these super savory and tasty. Surprisingly (at least to me), Coach thinks these are not so bad and will eat them. V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
To achieve this crunchiness, dredge the eggplant in an egg and milk mixture and coat with the seasoned bread crumbs.
Here’s the full recipe:
PrintRecipe
Crunchy Roasted Eggplant Fries
- Total Time: 32 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
A family friendly way to enjoy eggplant at dinnertime.
Ingredients
- 1 Eggplant (large)
- 2 cups Panko Bread Crumbs
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
- 1 Large egg
- 2 tbsp Milk (any type)
- Cooking Spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray or cover baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Wash and dry eggplant. Cut off the top and bottom of the eggplant. Slice eggplant from top to bottom into ½" thick planks. Cut each plank into ½" sticks. Cut sticks in half, if needed, to make them about 3" long.
- Set out 2 shallow dishes. In one dish, pour in bread crumbs, salt, garlic powder, and pepper and mix together. In the second dish, beat egg and milk together.
- Dredge each eggplant stick into the egg mixture first to fully coat, shaking to remove excess. Then dredge in breadcrumbs to fully coat. Lay covered stick on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with all sticks.
- Spray the top of all the prepared sticks lightly with cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown and crunchy. Serve immediately.
- Prep Time: 12 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Side
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Calories: 118
- Sugar: 4
- Sodium: 549
- Fat: 2
- Saturated Fat: 1
- Carbohydrates: 21
- Fiber: 3
- Protein: 5
- Cholesterol: 28
I hope this Crunchy Eggplant Fries recipe gives you a delicious option for how to incorporate eggplant into your weeknight meals. It’s a really fun way to eat vegetables!
Looking for other fun ways to eat your veggies? Try these favorite MHE recipes:
