Healthy Baked Eggplant
Eggless Eggplant Recipe with Vegetarian and Vegan Variations
Eggplant Parmesan
Eggplants are also known as aubergines, which is also the name of its intense dark purple colour. In many countries, eggplant is best known for its starring role in Eggplant Parmesan, where it is coated in an egg breading, fried until crispy, and topped with tomato sauce and oodles of mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
Because eggplant is so prone to sucking up oil, baking it in a lower-fat coating can make eggplant dishes significantly healthier. In this recipe, the bread coating is "stuck on" using mayonnaise dressing instead of beaten egg.
Using Vegenaise brand or other vegan mayo is an easy way to make this dish dairy-free and egg-free without sacrificing taste. Nutritional yeast can stand in for parmesan, but neither is really necessary to make the final product delicisio!
Selecting an Eggplant
Eggplants should be selected by their shiny, smooth skin and blemish-free exteriors. Eggplants should not be stored in the fridge. Some exotic varieties are extremely bitter, but the common purple variety is much more palatable. When cooked, eggplant collapses internally and its once-firm flesh morphs into a creamy or slightly chewy texture. In this dish, the outside of the eggplant remains pleasantly firm but the interior is smooth and silky.
Preparing Eggplant
It used to be considered necessary to cover eggplant slices in salt before using to "draw out" the bitterness. This step has very little effect when using the less bitter varieties. For this reason, it is excluded in this recipe.
Baked Eggplant Recipe
Serves 3-4 as an accompaniment to a main dish.
Ingredients:
- ½ cup vegan or regular mayonnaise, or Miracle Whip type dressing;
- ½ small onion, minced
- 1 medium/large eggplant, unpeeled
- 1/3 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
- ¼ - ½ cup nutritional yeast (vegan) OR 1/3 cup finely grated parmesan cheese (vegetarian)
- ¼ tsp. dried oregano
- ¼ tsp. (heaping) dried basil leaf
- Vegetable oil cooking spray
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
- In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise and minced onion.
- Slice off the bottom and top of the eggplant and slice into rounds no wider than ½” thick.
- In a shallow bowl or pan, combine the breadcrumbs, nutritional yeast OR parmesan, dried oregano and dried basil.
- Spray a large baking sheet with vegetable oil spray or a light brush of oil.
- Spread, brush, or dip each slice of eggplant into the mayonnaise mixture, then dredge in breadcrumbs mixture.
- Place coated eggplant slices onto baking sheet in a single layer.
- Repeat until all slices are coated.
- Bake eggplant slices at 425 degrees for 12 minutes.
- Flip slices over and bake an additional 12 minutes or until golden.
- Note: if using parmesan cheese, watch closely to prevent burning.
- Serve with pasta and chunky tomato sauce. Top with additional grated cheese, if desired.
Reference: McGee, H. On Food and Cooking. Scribner: New York; 2004.
