This vegan Panko-Crusted Eggplant Fries recipe makes use of floor flax as a substitute of egg. Serve these fried with Curried Cashew Aioli for dipping!
Miraculous Flax Eggs
Can we speak concerning the miracle of flax eggs? You may not be capable to whip them into an omelet or use them in a quiche, however I’ve been experimenting with them rather a lot in vegan baking recently and so they work rather well. Higher than I anticipated, even. I not often have eggs available as a result of we simply don’t eat them fairly often, so now once I bake one thing, I often make it vegan by substituting floor flax and water for the eggs, almond or coconut milk for the dairy milk, and coconut oil for the butter. Not like conventional baking components, which I’d have so as to add to my procuring checklist, these are all issues that I all the time have available practically on a regular basis—which I suppose may be a nasty factor as a result of the truth that I’ve this stuff available on a regular basis is encouraging me to bake extra.
So how does flax work as an egg substitute? It’s magic! Okay, I’m mendacity, it’s not magic. I don’t actually know precisely the way it works. However while you whisk floor flax seeds with water and let the combination sit for a couple of minutes, it gels up and feels a little bit bit eggy. It’s not fairly as robust on the subject of binding components collectively, and it might probably’t be substituted for eggs in each recipe (just like the aforementioned omelets), but it surely’s a pleasant, pure solution to exchange eggs in a number of completely different dishes.
Concerning the Recipe
Having tackled utilizing flax eggs in baking, I wished to see how they’d work to bind panko to baked eggplant fries. I used to be nervous it could be a large failure, however overjoyed when it really labored. It labored! And it labored effectively! These vegan Panko-Crusted Eggplant Fries are crispy and scrumptious on the skin and tender on the within. I used child eggplant as a result of I discover smaller eggplants to be much less bitter, so I can minimize out the step of salting them. Older eggplant will be bitter too, so purchase native for those who can as a result of it’s spent much less time touring to your grocery retailer.
It will be a travesty to serve scrumptious, crispy eggplant fries with out a sauce, so I whipped up a Curried Cashew Aioli for dipping. It’s sort of the identical thought of my Cashew Mayo recipe, besides with a heaping teaspoon of candy curry powder added to it. If you happen to don’t need to trouble with the dipping sauce, jarred marinara sauce works too.
Panko-Crusted Eggplant Fries with Curried Cashew Aioli
Crispy vegan baked eggplant fries served with Curried Cashew Aioli.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook dinner Time: 25 minutes
- Whole Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: four servings
Elements
Panko-Crusted Eggplant Fries
Curried Cashew Aioli
- half cup uncooked cashews, soaked in water for four hours and drained
- 1/four cup water
- 1 tbsp recent lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tsp candy curry powder
- salt and pepper, to style
Directions
Panko-Crusted Eggplant Fries
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a big baking sheet with oil or cooking spray.
- Whisk collectively the nice and cozy water and flax seeds in a shallow bowl; put aside.
- Minimize the ends off of every eggplant, then minimize them into thirds lengthwise. Minimize every third into fries. (Mine are about 1/2-inch thick.)
- Stir a wholesome pinch of salt and cayenne into the flax combination. Place the panko crumbs on a plate, then roll every eggplant fry within the flax combination, adopted by the panko crumbs. Switch the completed fries to the ready baking sheet and spray the tops with extra oil.
- Bake for about 25 minutes, or till the fries are tender and golden brown on the skin.
- Serve with Curried Cashew Aioli.
Curried Cashew Aioli
- Place the cashews, water, lemon juice, garlic, and curry powder in a meals processor or blender. Course of till easy, then season to style with salt and pepper.
Notes
I don’t like losing breadcrumbs, so one cup of panko is the precise quantity I used for this recipe—you may want a little bit bit extra, relying on the scale of your eggplant. If the flax combination dries up, add one other tablespoon of heat water, give it a superb whisking, and let it sit for a minute or two till it gels up once more.
This submit was initially revealed on 22 August 2013.
