Crispy Eggplant Chips - Healthy Recipes Blog (2024)

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Crispy Eggplant Chips - Healthy Recipes Blog? ›

"No more soggy eggplant! The secret is in the cornstarch.It keeps the eggplant crisp."

"No more soggy eggplant! The secret is in the cornstarch.It keeps the eggplant crisp."

Wash the scarlet eggplants and cut them into very thin slices. Soak them in salted ice water and set aside for 20 minutes. Drain the slices and coat them on flour. Fry in heated oil (180°C) and drain on paper towel.

"When you lay them on the tray to roast, make sure they're in a single layer and give them enough room to roast properly. 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.

Eggplants are a nutrient-rich food that contains fiber, vitamins, and minerals. They may benefit your overall health, including your heart.

If you're not eating raw eggplant, it is worth a try—just avoid those eggplant leaves and flowers as they can be toxic.

Heat 1/4 inch of grapeseed oil in a nonstick skillet over medium until hot enough for frying. The ideal temperature for frying eggplant is about 365-375 degrees F.

I tend to soak the slices in a bowl of water with a couple of tablespoon of salt for about 30-45 minutes. It doesn't have to do with bitterness, but I find that in doing this, the fried eggplant turns out less greasy," Jenkins says.

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.

These eggplant chips are a quick and easy snack to make and enjoy with family and friends. Eggplants are a great source of vitamins and minerals. Raw eggplants contain carbohydrates, fiber, protein, and vitamins, compared to regular potato chips which are very high in fat and have very few health benefits (Link, 2017).

Should I salt eggplant before frying? ›

In most cases, that's just not necessary. After an extended series of experiments, I found you only need to salt eggplant if you're going to be frying it, and even then only sometimes. If you're cooking it in some other way — roasting, grilling, steaming — salting has no effect.

Salting eliminates bitter flavors that come from storing your eggplants too long or using older eggplants. Today's eggplants may be sweeter, but they still have some bitter liquid inside, especially if they are not fresh. Fried eggplant is crispier and more savory when it's been pre-salted.

Milk is said to help draw out the bitterness in eggplant. Our recipe doesn't call for milk, but if you're worried that your eggplant will taste bitter, you can soak the slices in milk for 20 to 30 minutes. Drain and pat them dry before proceeding with the rest of the recipe.

Why do you soak eggplant in water and vinegar? Soaking eggplant in water and vinegar helps remove some of the vegetable's natural bitterness. This step also helps preserve some of the skin's color so it stays a vibrant purple even after cooking.

Wondering whether you can eat eggplant raw? It's OK in small quantities, but it's better if eggplant is cooked.

However, eggplants also contain a substance, solanine, which is used to defend themselves against fungi and insects. It is precisely on this substance that the bitter taste of the eggplants depends. To eliminate it, the most common methods are soaking in water and vinegar and the salt technique.

That's too bad, because the skin of purple eggplants contains its most valuable nutrient, a powerful antioxidant called nasunin, one of a type of flavonoid called anthocyanins present in many fruits and vegetables with red, blue and purple hues (berries, beets and red cabbage, to name a few).

Artichokes, onions, and eggplant fare very well, only losing 5-30% of their antioxidants. The best vegetable to boil? Asparagus. If cooked perfectly, its antioxidant capabilities actually increase, so monitor its time-to-tenderness in hot water.