air-fryer eggplant

These multi sized discs of delight are a hit with almost everyone.  Seriously.  Who knew how many people love eggplant?  My mom is a huge fan repeatedly asking me how I make these and vowing to make.  Stephen and Halley, Sylvie too is in love.  Made for friends last weekend and they too adored.  

These are just as delicious with GF breadcrumbs for Greg.  

I’ve made these in a variety of ways – whole wheat breadcrumbs, plain ones, Italian seasoning, panko, with and with out parmesan cheese – the varieties are endless. You can eat plain which we tend to do or dip in tomato sauce or layer and make an eggplant napoleon layered with fresh mozzarella (and tomato sauce.) 

The recipe is very loose and you can fiddle with it and cook longer or shorter depending on how crispy you like your eggplant. 

Simple works for me best with these.  I prep the eggplant by salting them first (drawing out the excess water), dipping them in egg white and then again in breadcrumbs.  (Add grated cheese if you like!)

Finally throw them in the preheated air fryer – spray with olive oil and sprinkle with Maldon salt (a must) – and voila – a delicious healthy side dish. 

You may have to cook in batches – reheat in air fryer for service or for the next day.  Yum

 

Ingredients

  • 1 or two eggplant  
  • kosher salt
  • breadcrumbs (whole wheat, seasoned or unseasoned, plain breadcrumbs, panko) eyeball it here
  • egg white (you will need 2-3 depending on how much eggplant you decide to make) beat the egg white to break it up a bit.  Also you can use a normal whole egg. 
  • Italian seasoning (optional)
  • parmesan cheese (optional)
  • olive oil spray
  • Maldon sea salt

Directions

Wash and dry your eggplant

Cut into 1 cm (or so) thick slices

Place slices on a paper towel and sprinkle with kosher salt.  Let sit for 15 m

The eggplant will now look wet – as the salt draws out the liquid.

Pat dry with paper towel.

Preheat air fryer to 390 degrees.  Spray the bottom of the air fryer with a little olive oil spray.

Dip the eggplant in the egg white then into the breadcrumbs and place into the air fryer.  Do not overlap.  Spray each slice with olive oil and sprinkle a tad of Maldon salt on top.

Air fry for about 16 m total flipping half way through and spraying the other side with oil after you turn.  

Be careful they are hot on the inside and too easy to burn your tongue since you will want to just gobble them up!

Enjoy-


air fryer artichoke

Sylvie recently sent me a Tik Tok about friends eating the weirdest things – and yes, one of the foods was an artichoke.  I love them. She knows this and seems to find it interesting how much pleasure I get from biting into these tough leaves.  As I gleefully enjoy the heart, she again seems fascinated by this.  She doesn’t get it.  I think she would if it was baked and stuffed with breadcrumbs and cheese like my mom made me when I was young.  That is really something.  But surprisingly I find I like them plain with a bit of olive oil and Malden salt.  I avoided making them for myself all these years because it just seems like a lot of work for little reward.  But the air fryer changed all that.  I’m not saying these are the best artichokes in the world but if you like them, this is a super simple way to enjoy them. 

Enjoy! 

Here is how you do it:

Cut off the stem and peel off the leaves that were closest to the stem

Next, with a serrated knife cut through the top of the artichoke

With scissors, cut all the tiny prickly points off of the remaining stems

Slice artichoke in half.  Then with a small sharp paring knife cut around the choke.  This is the light colored area that is soft to the touch and looks kind of hairy.  This is the only tricky part – just dig in there with your knife – cut the shape of the choke and then kind of dig that out and toss.  There are a ton of videos on how to do this if you Google.

Preheat your air fryer – to 350.  Spray the artichoke with olive oil on both sides – and  salt with some Maldon salt.  Air fry cut side down for 10 min then flip and air fry another 10 or so.  You want the heart to be able to be pierced easily with a knife – so cook more if needed.