Eggplant Parmigiana or Eggplant Parmesan is one of the classic and unique Italian recipes. It is one of the staples in all the Italian restaurants. It is prepared with shallow or deep fried eggplant or aubergine slices and topped up with cheese and tomato sauce. Today I am presenting this eggless eggplant parmigiana and I am serving this along with spaghetti as they serve in restaurants. So here is the restaurant style, eggplant parmigiana but without eggs.
Now you know how I used my Red Sauce, that I posted previously. :-) It’s very hard to resist the delicious, lip-smacking, cheesy Italian food. I have already posted two restaurant-style Italian recipes – Olive Garden Style Salad and Minestrone Soup.
How to Make Eggless Eggplant parmigiana?
Here comes the third – Eggplant parmigiana. Usually, the eggplant slices undergo an egg wash before getting dusted in flour. I was trying to replace that step and I tried a simple baked version (without pan frying) long ago but didn’t post it. When I was researching about Xanthan Gum in minimalist baker blog, I came across this vegan eggplant parmigiana. When I saw almond milk can be used as a replacement for egg wash, I was super elated and I had loads of almond milk after using it for my ice-cream. I also liked her idea of baking and shallow frying for extra crispiness. I tried the same and it came out super awesome. I didn’t make it vegan and also I didn’t use all purpose flour (APF) at all.
Alternatives and Baking Options:
I love nice and brown eggplant slices. So I fried a couple of slices for a longer time to get that nice brown color and left some without browning but I made sure they were crisp enough. Both versions were really good. Just make sure you serve them hot. You can just bake the eggplant slices or deep fry them or shallow fry them or bake and shallow fry. Just try according to your time and preference. As the name suggests, we use Parmesan cheese. But you can use whatever is available and if you want to prepare this as a vegan, you can opt for the vegan cheese. Also, I used Panko Bread Crumbs here which is nothing but Japanese Style bread crumbs, which is prepared from no crusted bread. The texture is slightly different. But if you can’t find them, you can use regular breadcrumbs.
Eggless Eggplant Parmesan | Parmigiana Recipe:
Ingredients:
- Eggplant – 1
- Almond Milk – 1 cup
- Corn starch- 1 tsp
- Grated Parmesan Cheese – 1 cup or as required
- Panko Bread Crumbs – 1.5 cups + more
- Dried Oregano – 2 tsps
- Red sauce – as required.
- Oil – ¼ cup for shallow frying + for greasing
- Salt – 1 tsp
- Black Pepper Powder – 1 tsp
PrepWork:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions and set aside.
- Mix 1 tsp of cornstarch in 1 cup of almond and whisk it and make sure they are blended nicely.
- Grate the cheese and set aside.
- Mix Panko breadcrumbs, oregano, and pepper powder together.
- Slice the eggplant into thin rounds and soak them in water by adding about 1 tsp of salt for 15 to 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, drain the water and pat them dry.
- Take a baking tray and cover it with parchment paper or aluminum foil and grease it with oil.
- Now place them close by in your working area.
Steps:
- Dip the eggplant slice on both sides in almond milk and dust it generously with panko crumbs. (If using APF, after dipping in almond milk, dust it with flour before panko. As I didn’t use APF, I used a generous amount of panko)
- Now place these panko coated bread crumbs on the baking tray. Repeat the procedure for the other slices too.
- Sprinkle about 2 tsps of cheese on each of the slices and bake them for about 15 minutes.
- During the last 5 minutes of baking, heat the pan and add oil for shallow frying. As soon as you pull the eggplant outside the oven, pop those into the pan and shallow fry them on both sides till they are brown and crisp
- As soon you as you take them out of the pan, add more cheese on top.
Arranging:
- This is how I served the eggplant parmigiana,
- I first added the spaghetti and then added a ladle full of red sauce on top.
- Then took 3 to 4 fried slices of eggplant and layered it on top.
Notes:
- Instead of spaghetti, you can use pasta of your choice.
- There are Italian herb-flavored panko bread crumbs available. If you are using that, adjust the oregano accordingly. If you can’t find, panko, regular breadcrumbs are fine too.
- Homemade pasta sauce can be replaced with marinara or other flavored pasta sauces.
- You can skip shallow frying completely and bake for about 30 minutes. If you grease the baking tray generously, flipping the eggplant slices with cheese should be easy enough. (I have tried)
- Adjust the salt, pepper, and cheese according to your preference.
- Also, you can just serve this eggplant parmigiana with red sauce without any kinds of pasta.
📖 Recipe
Eggless Eggplant Parmesan | Parmigiana
Ingredients
- 1 Eggplant
- 1 cup Almond Milk
- 1 tsp Corn starch
- 1 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese as required
- 1.5 cups Panko Bread Crumbs plus more
- 2 tsps Dried Oregano
- 1 cup Red sauce as required.
- ⅓ cup Oil ¼ cup for shallow frying + for greasing
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper Powder
- 2 cups Cooked Spaghetti
Instructions
PrepWork
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions and set aside.
- Mix 1 tsp of cornstarch in 1 cup of almond and whisk it and make sure they are blended nicely.
- Grate the cheese and set aside.
- Mix Panko breadcrumbs, oregano, and pepper powder together.
- Slice the eggplant into thin rounds and soak them in water by adding about 1 tsp of salt for 15 to 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes, drain the water and pat them dry.
- Take a baking tray and cover it with parchment paper or aluminum foil and grease it with oil.
- Now place them close by in your working area.
Steps
- Dip the eggplant slice on both sides in almond milk and dust it generously with panko crumbs. (If using APF, after dipping in almond milk, dust it with flour before panko. As I didn’t use APF, I used a generous amount of panko)
- Now place these panko coated bread crumbs on the baking tray. Repeat the procedure for the other slices too.
- Sprinkle about 2 tsps of cheese on each of the slices and bake them for about 15 minutes.
- During the last 5 minutes of baking, heat the pan and add oil for shallow frying. As soon as you pull the eggplant outside the oven, pop those into the pan and shallow fry them on both sides till they are brown and crisp
- As soon you as you take them out of the pan, add more cheese on top.
Arranging
- This is how I served the eggplant parmigiana,
- I first added the spaghetti and then added a ladle full of red sauce on top.
- Then took 3 to 4 fried slices of eggplant and layered it on top.
Notes
- Instead of spaghetti, you can use pasta of your choice.
- There are Italian herb-flavored panko bread crumbs available. If you are using that, adjust the oregano accordingly. If you can't find, panko, regular breadcrumbs are fine too.
- Homemade pasta sauce can be replaced with marinara or other flavored pasta sauces.
- You can skip shallow frying completely and bake for about 30 minutes. If you grease the baking tray generously, flipping the eggplant slices with cheese should be easy enough. (I have tried)
- Adjust the salt, pepper, and cheese according to your preference.
- Also, you can just serve this eggplant parmigiana with red sauce without any kinds of pasta.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
Kandy says
Hi, I loved the recipe. It came out great with the exception of my breading was not how I wanted it to be. I noticed after I dipped it in the almond milk and dusted it with the panko, it was very hard for it to stick to the eggplant. I don’t know I did something wrong or if I used to much mild and not enough cornstarch. Do you have any suggestions?
Srividhya G says
A little extra cornstarch would have helped for sure. Let me recheck the measurements.
booch221 says
Calling for Corn Flour in the list of ingredients and then calling it cornstarch in the instructions is confusing.
Srividhya G says
sorry about that. I have updated the post. It’s cornstarch.
Serena says
This recipe was perfect — the eggplant turned out amazing! The breadcrumbs and grated parmesan atop the milk/corn flour coating created a divine crunch. Baked then shallow-fried then baked again, to let the additional cheese melt. Thank you so much!
Srividhya G says
Thanks a lot. Glad it worked out well. :-)
Veg Indian Cooking says
This looks fantastic and delicious. This version sounds great to me.. Perfect and looking awesomely delicious.
Srividhya G says
Thanks Deepa.
Veg Indian Cooking says
Wow, eggplant in this form is super yum.. This version sounds great to me.. Perfect and looking awesomely delicious..
Shilpa says
Hi,lovely recipe,just quick qn on the type of eggplant used…are they the big ones used for bharta or the smaller ones….once again thx a ton for this lip smacking dish
Srividhya G says
Thanks a lot Shilpa and I used the big ones used for bharta. Will update the post too. ?
Anu - My Ginger Garlic Kitchen says
Wow! A perfect snack packed full of awesomeness and healthy ingredients! YUM!
Srividhya G says
Thanks Anu.
Freda @ Aromatic essence says
Looks yumm! Love eggplant parm :)
Srividhya G says
Thanks a lot Freda. :-)
CHCooks says
Awesome pictures Sri :) Absolutely love your orange and yellow crockpots too – very cute! :D
Srividhya G says
Thanks a lot CH :-) :-)
jhumuhere says
the platter looks really yummy dear
Srividhya G says
Thanks a lot :-)