Crispy Aubergine Slices

I’m not sure I would have posted this recipe to Mimi’s Bowl but having made it a number of times on Instagram Stories we were inundated with requests for it, so here it is… Aubergine is quite a difficult sell for my children, but they love these crispy aubergine slices. If you love aubergine and want to try a recipe which works for children then this could be the one. Serve warm, with a squeeze of lemon and Mimi’s Bowl Cherry Tomato Spaghetti. They don’t keep so make them when you want to eat them and I hope there won’t be any leftovers!

My key tip for this recipe is to make sure the aubergine slices aren’t too thick, they won’t cook-through and you want the outer coating to be crispy and the aubergine to be creamy inside. I would recommend 1/2cm thick slices, which is very specific for a recipe of mine but, it will make a huge difference to the finished dish.

I’m using one whole aubergine, which serves our family of 4 well. Roughly 2-3 slices each, alongside some spaghetti. The slices are also delicious served with a raita style yogurt dip, if you want to skip spaghetti and make a picnic style dish from this.

recipe serves 4

ingredients ~

1 large aubergine
3-4 tablespoons plain flour
2 organic eggs, lightly beaten
100-125g coarse breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon dried oregano
olive oil for cooking
15g fresh basil leaves (small handful)
Parmesan (optional)

Prepping the aubergine slices ~

Preheat the oven to 180C fan oven.

Wash and dry, then trim the ends of the aubergine. Slice into 1/2 cm rounds and set aside on a plate. Next prep an assembly line for bread-crumbing the aubergine slices. On plate of dish for each:

plain flour
lightly beaten eggs
breadcrumbs, mixed with the dried oregano

Take each slice of aubergine and coat in the flour, then the beaten egg, then the breadcrumbs. Press the breadcrumbs onto the slices of aubergine and set aside on a plate ready for frying.

Cooking the aubergine slices ~

Next, take a large frying pan and a thin layer of oil; shallow fry the coated aubergine slices on each side. Add the slices to the frying pan in 2-3 batches, you don’t want to over-crowd the pan as the aubergine will crisp up better if cooked in batches. Cook until golden, this should be about 2-3 minutes a side. Remove from the pan to a lined baking sheet. Repeat until all the aubergine are crisp and golden. If breadcrumbs come loose you can carefully pour off the oil and crumbs and start with fresh oil in between batch-cooking.

Place the golden aubergine slices in the oven and cook through for 15 minutes (approx). You want them to be completely cooked through: creamy in the middle and crispy on the outside. Drain on kitchen paper and serve with wedges of fresh lemon and scatter with fresh basil leaves, shredded.