Crispy Baked Eggplant Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why isn't my eggplant crispy? ›

The best eggplant is caramelized and crispy on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth tender on the inside. This is achieved by giving the cubes or slices enough room to brown while they cook. If you overcrowd them in the pan or baking sheet, they'll steam instead of brown and you'll never get that caramelization.

Many recipes call for salting and rinsing eggplant before cooking it to draw out its bitterness. Brining can be used instead and has the added advantage of helping the eggplant keep its shape when it's cooked, whether your recipe calls for baking, frying, or grilling.

Dip in a light batter: Dip the eggplant slices in a light batter made of flour and water or egg. This will help create a crispy coating. Fry in hot oil: Heat the oil to about 375°F (190°C) and fry the eggplant slices until golden brown on both sides.

Older recipes call for salting eggplant to draw out the bitter juices, but today's eggplants are less bitter (unless very large), so salting is largely unnecessary. It will, however, help the spongy flesh absorb less oil and crisp up like a dream.

A useful tip to prevent sogginess and greasiness is to salt sliced or diced eggplant and let it sit for an hour. This helps to draw out moisture. Next, rinse and drain any liquid from the sliced eggplant, then pat dry before cooking. This will further soften the eggplant preventing it from soaking up fat while cooking.

You mentioned that once they turned out tough and chewy: then they were not cooked fully through. Vegetables are not like meat, which turn rubbery when overcooked. They turn soft rather. Watch out for the opposite as well: Eggplants when cooked for a long time may turn mushy.

Eggplant is about 80 to 90 percent water, so when you put them in the oven they need space to evaporate all that water and caramelize properly," says Covarrubias. Give them a toss halfway through the cooking process to make sure they're cooked evenly, too.

While the skin of a small young eggplant is edible, the skin becomes bitter on larger or older eggplants and should be peeled. When in doubt, the answer to, "Do you peel eggplant before cooking?" is yes, peel it. Use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to remove the skin.

It helps draw out moisture from the eggplant. You don't have to salt eggplant though, it depends on the texture your looking for. Salting gives it a more creamy texture when cooked and not salting helps the eggplant hold up and be a little firmer after cooked.

Undercooked eggplant is often bitter, especially if you're using a thick-skinned globe eggplant commonly found at most grocery stores. Peel the skin or taste and cook the eggplant for a little longer if that's the case.

Why do you soak eggplant in vinegar? ›

The secret for keeping the purple in eggplants is soaking it in vinegar for 5 minutes. This step is optional as it doesn't affect the taste, but if you are serving guests, soak the eggplant in 6 cups of water and 3 tbsp of vinegar for 5 minutes, and the eggplant will stay nice and purple even after steaming.

Answer. Eggplant flesh will have tan to brown colored spots around the seeds. If this is the color you are referring to, it is edible. If the flesh is more brown than white, the eggplant may be spoiling and should be discarded.

Some people think It gets rid of bitterness, but It doesn't change the flavor at all except of course one had added salt. It only affects texture… It helps draw out moisture from the eggplant. You don't have to salt eggplant though, it depends on the texture your looking for.

Rinse the salt off.

Run the eggplant under water for a minute or two, making sure you get most of the salt off.

Sara Jenkins, chef and owner of Porsena in New York City has cooked many an eggplant in her career and firmly believes salting is unnecessary. "I have rarely found an eggplant that is so bitter that it needs salting. I just cut it up, toss the pieces with olive oil, and start cooking." she says.

"Bruised, wrinkly, or soft eggplants are well past their peak and are likely to be dry and spongy no matter how you prepare them. Some eggplant varieties are also better than others in different meals," says Norton. Choose an eggplant that's heavy for its size, relatively firm, and with little to no imperfections.

Blame the Air Pockets for Eggplant's Sogginess

It's all thanks to the vegetable's cellular structure. Eggplant has soft, spongy flesh loaded with tiny air pockets, which are quick to absorb up hot oil or liquids.

The salted eggplant that had been fried was creamier and more luscious. The unsalted fried eggplant was firmer and slightly fibrous. Despite some claims to the contrary, there was no difference in the amount of oil absorbed between salted and not-salted. Eggplant absorbs a LOT of oil either way.

Mushy veggies are also often the result of overcooking. When the interior is loaded with moisture, you have to cook it for much longer to evaporate all of the water and avoid the interior having the unappealing, spongy, raw texture that eggplant and zucchini are notorious for.