Breaded Eggplant With Tzatziki

Breaded eggplant is an easy and tasty recipe you can enjoy as an appetizer, side dish, or as a main dish to go with pasta. It makes for an excellent appetizer with marinara sauce, tzatziki sauce, or chipotle sauce as a dip. The eggplants can be baked in the oven or in an air fryer to make them tender inside and crispy outside,

Tzatziki is a refreshing, healthy labneh (hung curd)-cucumber sauce, flavored with dill and garlic to give the breaded eggplant an extra excellence.

Total time: 30 to 40 minutes
Serving: 5 people

Ingredients:

• 2 medium eggplant

For batter:

• All-purpose flour
• Corn starch
• Salt as per taste
• Water as needed to make a semi-thick batter

For coating:

• 1 cup bread crumbs, or more if needed
• Salt as per taste
• 1 tsp Italian herbs.
• ½ tsp chili flakes
• 1/4 tsp black pepper powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder

For tzatziki sauce:

• 2 cup hung curd
• 1 small cucumber (grated)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp fresh chopped dill
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions:

To make Tzatziki sauce:

• Using a whisk blend the hung curd and olive oil. Add grated cucumbers, lemon juice, garlic, and dill. Mix until combined. Add salt and pepper to taste.

To make breaded eggplant:

• Cut the eggplant into 1/2 inch-thick slices. Sprinkle some salt on both sides of the slices and let them rest on a colander for 10 minutes.
• In a medium bowl, make the batter and set it aside.
• In another bowl, combine bread crumbs, salt, pepper, chili flakes and garlic powder
• Dip each piece of eggplant in the batter and then coat them with bread crumbs Repeat for the rest until all the eggplants are coated.
• Heat a frying pan over medium high heat. Add enough oil to submerge eggplants
• Add the eggplant pieces to the hot oil
• Fry the eggplants for 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown and crisp.
• Flip to cook the other side.
• Once golden brown throughout, remove the eggplant from the oil and place on a cooling rack to drain out excess oil.
• Do not cover the eggplant or they could get soggy
• Serve and enjoy the eggplant with prepared tzatziki sauce.
  

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Indian Chef Chhaya Thakker, who has a huge following online on WhatsApp and YouTube will be sharing her favorite recipes and cooking tips with readers of The Times Kuwait. For feedback, you can write to editortimeskuwait@gmail.com