Who doesn’t love to turn humble vegetables into a delicious, nourishing main dish?
Partner the humble eggplant with humble oats and aromatic herbs and these herbed eggplant schnitzels will be the perfect vegan alternative to your typical roast meat main on Christmas Day.
Vegan (for a GF alternative substitute the oats for coconut flakes and the spelt flour for almond flour or coconut flour).
Ingredients:
- 1 large eggplant
- 1 1/2 cups organic stabilised oats
- 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 4 sprigs of fresh oregano
- 2 garlic cloves
- 3/4 cup milk of your choice
- 4 tablespoons spelt flour
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Sea salt flakes
- Cracked black pepper
- Fresh lemon to serve
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees fan forced. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Stand the eggplant up lengthways and carefully slice lengthways into 4-6 lengths around 1.5 cm in thick.
- Lay the eggplant slices on the baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes or until tender.
- Remove from the oven and allow the eggplant to cool.
- In a blender, add the stabilised oats and blitz for 5 - 10 seconds or until an almost fine crumb is formed.
- Pour the oat crumb into a medium sized bowl.
- Remove the small leaves from the thyme stems and add to the mixing bowl.
- Remove oregano leaves and use a knife to finely chop them. Transfer to the mixing bowl.
- Peel and mince the garlic and add to the mixing bowl.
- Season with salt and pepper.
- In a small bowl whisk the milk and spelt flour together to form a batter.
- Dip eggplant slices into the batter, coating each side, then dip into the oat flour crumb and place onto a large plate.
- Heat a large frying pan or skillet over a medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil. When the pan is hot add an eggplant schnitzel at a time and cook each side for a few minutes. Place onto a paper towel to allow any excess oil to drain off.
- Serve on a medium size platter or large plate with slices of lemon and decorate with any leftover thyme and oregano sprigs.
