The breaded eggplant fans cutlet style are a simple, quick, and delicious recipe, a tasty and flavorful vegetarian dish prepared in just a few minutes, with few and simple ingredients. We are harvesting a lot of eggplants in the countryside, I used some to prepare these eggplant fans that really resemble cutlets, soft inside and crispy outside, they are not fried but baked, or in an air fryer (but of course, you can simply fry them for an even tastier version). The eggplant fans are perfect as a main dish, but also as an appetizer, it’s a great way to get kids to eat vegetables and they are definitely better than meat slices!
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 12 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven, Electric Oven, Air Frying
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer, and Autumn
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup breadcrumbs
- 2/3 cup cornmeal
- 3 eggplants
- 2 eggs
- to taste all-purpose flour
- to taste salt
Steps
Breaded eggplant fans are very simple and quick to prepare, first clean the eggplants, remove the prickly part and peel them, leaving the stem attached, then cut them into slices about 1 inch thick (I got 4 slices from each eggplant) and each slice into strips about 3/4 inch wide, without cutting the top part which must remain intact.
Boil the eggplant fans in salted boiling water for a couple of minutes, this way, they will soften and will need to bake for much less time.
Drain the eggplants and dip them first in flour, then in beaten eggs with a pinch of salt, and finally in breadcrumbs mixed with cornmeal.
Place the breaded eggplant fans on a baking sheet, spray them with oil (if you don’t have a sprayer, pour a little oil over them) and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F for about 20 minutes or in an air fryer, also at 400°F for about 15 minutes.
Tips:
Breaded eggplant fans can be stored at room temperature for a few hours or in the fridge for a couple of days. You can enhance the breading with the ingredients you prefer, adding grated Parmesan, spices, and aromatic herbs. You can, of course, also fry them. You can also use just breadcrumbs or just cornmeal (the one for polenta).
Other eggplant recipes HERE
