Eggplant Fries
Be still my heart. Those aren’t french fries. They’re eggplant fries! As in, eggplant in french-fry form. Are they healthier for you? Probably not. Do they make up for it by being super delicious? Oh, hell yeah.
Now, I have to admit that I’m conflicted about eggplant. It’s definitely not one of my favorite veggies. But I’m always drawn to them at the market for their smooth skin and beautiful color. Especially the baby ones.
Whenever I bring one home, though, I’m always uninspired. That is, I was—until the other day, when my mom mentioned eggplant fries to me. I think the conversation went something like:
“Wait, eggplant fries?”
“Yes, eggplant fries.”
“Are you kidding me? As in eggplant, in french fry form? Whoa.”
Not a new idea, I know, but new enough to me. I knew I had to give them a shot. And all I can say is: Yum!
These eggplant fries are crisp, salty, and deliciously creamy on the inside. Serve hot sprinkled with kosher salt, or with a side of warm marinara sauce or cold ranch dressing.
Eggplant Fries: How to fry eggplant
I did my fries in olive oil. Be sure that your oil is hot (more on this later). Eggplant is fairly absorbent, just like sponge. Frying in oil that’s hot enough—and coating the fries in flour—will help keep the oil from soaking in to your fries.
If you like, you could also do a more traditional fried coating for these. First dip in seasoned flour, then in beaten egg, then in more flour.
Eggplant Fries: A note on eggplant
As a general rule, baby eggplants (a.k.a. Italian eggplants) are sweeter than regular-sized eggplants, which can become bitter with age. The skin and flesh are more delicate, as well.
Eggplant discolors rapidly once it’s peeled, so take the skin off right before you’re going to cook it.
Eggplant Fries
3 baby eggplants
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 Tbls. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
olive oil
Line a sheet pan with paper towels and set aside.
Eggplant Fries: Make the seasoned flour
In a large bowl, combine the flour, garlic powder, oregano, parsley, kosher salt, and black pepper.
Mix with a fork or whisk to combine well. Set it aside while you deal with the eggplant.
Eggplant Fries: Cut up your eggplants
Grab your eggplants. Cut them right before you’re going to flour and fry them (remember, it discolors).
Slice off both ends. Cut off the peel, taking off as little flesh as you can.
Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise.
Slice each half into one or two layers, then cut them into long sticks, like this:
Make your fries as thin or thick as you like. (Thicker fries will need to fry a little longer…thinner ones will be done more quickly.)
Eggplant Fries: Flour the eggplant
When your fries are cut, drop them into your bowl of seasoned flour.
Toss to coat well.
Eggplant Fries: Fry the eggplant
Put about a half an inch of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot. Set it on the stove over medium-high heat.
Heat the oil for a few minutes, then test it. Dip the tip of a piece of eggplant into the oil. When it’s hot enough to fry, bubbles will immediately form around the eggplant. (i.e. It will start to fry right away.)
When the oil is hot enough, add a handful or two of cut eggplant to the oil. Fry them for maybe 2 minutes, pushing them around gently in the oil with a skimmer. Be sure not to overcrowd the pot, which would drop the temperature of the oil.
When they’re nice and golden brown, like this, fish them out of the oil with a skimmer.
Put them on your prepared, paper-towel lined pan.
Sprinkle with kosher salt.
Repeat this process until you’ve fried all your eggplant.
Serve and enjoy!
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50 Comments
yum yum yum! I have had these and love them… but then I love eggplant! And seriously… anything in french fry form is amazing! Yours sure are delicious looking Jessie!
Those look really yummy! I just baked some breaded eggplant tonight for dinner but I wasn’t patient enough with it and it wasn’t fully cooked. I’m like you with eggplant- I’m intrigued and still on the fence about it. Sometimes I make it and it’s amazing; other times….eh, not so much.
yum! I would have never thought of making eggplant fries
Amazing Jessie so yummy never tried in that way like French fries. How adorable your fried eggplant came out!
YUM! I’ve never seen eggplant fries before. What a mastermind!
i would never have thought these up! they’re lovely and so creative!
One of my favorite restaurants has eggplant fries. They serve them with honey and sea salt. I’ll definitely be trying to make these!
This is fantastic!!!!! We use eggplant a lot but I never thought of eggplant fries.Jessie – I just LOVE YOU!!!
I will let you know how they go over- plan to make them tomorrow.
Cheers
I’m so gonna try this!
My mom used to make these when I was growing up! She also made zucchini fries. I love them both!!
Absolutely brilliant idea! Have you tried doing Parsnips? There also really tasty like this!
Cheers,
Donal
http://www.thegoodmoodfoodblog.com
Wow, they even look like real french fries! Fun way to use eggplant – I’ll have to bookmark this for later.
Thanks.
http://oneordinaryday.wordpress.com/
Oh so nice, I love me some eggplant! These really look way too good!
Regards,
CCR =:~)
O wow, I usually see egg plants in my CSA and grown a little, but I’m totally excited to get them this year. I am totally going to fry those guys up!
Ooh, they are most definitely healthier than regular fries! I’m going to try a low carb version coated with oat and almond flours. Lovely. I have an eggplant in the fridge ready to be “fried”! Thanks for sharing.
I just bought an eggplant! I will have to try the fries. Do you think I could do baked fries?
Wow… that’s a wonderful tip of coating the aubergine in flour before frying them! I’d eaten many times in Chinese restaurants, they fried aubergine in lots of oil in high heat. Even though it’s delicious but the plant absorbs the oil too. Do you think the long aubergine can be use for this recipe as well? I bought 2 long aubergine few days ago and keen to try on new method of cooking it.
Thank you for sharing the recipe.
You can do no wrong with the eggplant. He knows his strengths, one of them being versatility. Love this!
Love this! They look great and definitely looked like French fries at first. My two year old nice calls French Fries “potato fries” which is to say she knows about other kinds of fries like this!
This is good! I’m bookmarking it! Thanks for sharing!
I eat these all the time at my favorite local restaurant and have always wanted to make them. Thanks for posting. These look terrific!
Hi,
Can you post a printer-friendly version of the recipe?
Thanks!
For the love of GOD, YUM!!!! These look divine!!! I’m trying this. Thanks!
I LOVE eggplant and those look fantastic. I can’t wait to try them. Great blog!
Heaven!! I absolutely love eggplant, but I’ve never had it in fry form. I’m going to try this very, very soon!
I made these the other week. My parents thought the idea was weird, but after they tasted them their minds were changed. They could not stop commenting how surprised they were that the fries were so tasty. Gonna make them again now.
i made slight adjustments for quantity, used granulated garlic and sea salt, and was completely blown away by how good they were…
Thank you for this…
Oh fabulous! So glad you liked ‘em.
+Jessie
In much leaner days, just before payday, I was looking for something to fill up my two teenagers; had one potato and two eggplant. Don’t know how I thought of it, but did the eggplant fries after the potato french fries but didn’t tell them it was eggplant. Made a big hit and now that they are almost 50 they still fix them for my granchildren, and the one grandchild fixes them for my great grandchildren – talk about GOOD!!
Unfortunately, this recipe seems to rely in some small part on the images which appear to be missing and/or refuse to load.
Oedalis,
You’re right, and I’m SO sorry about that! I’m actually in the process (right now!) of switching hosting companies, so the site is moving around a bit this evening. The content will be 100% tomorrow. Sorry for any inconvenience. Hope you come back then and have a nibble.
Cheers!
+Jessie
Thank you SO much for this delicious recipe! Tried it tonight, and was a huge hit. Very easy to do! <3
So I found your site thru a google search for “eggplant fries” – our CSA has provided us with piles and piles of fresh, local, organic ones and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get my toddler and my wife to eat them. My wife has a long-standing disgust reaction to eggplant and I thought frying and salting them might work (she’d be harder to please than my son).
My first thought when I viewed your recipe is, where the heck is the recipe? I will give some honest constructive feedback that I’m not crazy about the layout of the page (it would be helpful to be able to print up the recipe which I may have missed but didn’t see that option here)…but figured hey they look yummy (positive feedback the pics are great) so let’s give it a try.
And they are(were) awesome!! And so ridiculously easy. Healthy-wise, I’m not sure but who fries something in oil and expects it to be healthy. The fries by themselves are delicious (even before salting them) and after salting and some ketchup, holy moly they are great. My son liked them, and I have to thank you for helping me to conquer my wife’s hatred of eggplant!
In conclusion, my first impression of your site was so-so, but after reading through and creating this recipe, I have bookmarked and will be back. Thanks!
I’m not sure what I did wrong, but the flour tends to separate from the eggplant the moment i put it in the oil, so i ended up coating the eggplant with milk, then rolled it in the flour. It turned out okay, but i’m still wondering how to not get the flour to separate? It messed up my oil big time!
Not sure if anyone put this already, but eggplant fries are amazing with LEMON JUICE. Just cut up some lemons and squeeze on the juice as you eat them. This is my favorite!
oh and like everyone else i too love eggplant but never knew what to do with it. I found an awesome recipe in a book for eggplant parcels that you grill. It has tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella inside. I would suggest trying this as it is a great eggplant side dish.
I love eggplant! I was looking for different ways to cook eggplant and I found this site. I have a eggplant sitting in my fridge right now just waiting to be sliced up and “french fried”. Wow, love this site! The pictures are great.
I went to dinner the other night with a Date and that was the first time I had even heard of Eggplant fries.. Well they were Amazing and could have been my meal.. My date agreed. Your recipe seems very similiar and although I may season my flour with my own “flare” I thank you you for giving such efficient details on how to make these.. It will make a nice “surprise” side to do with my bacon wrapped Pork Chops! Thank You!
you know I have to say I am very happy to have found this recipe. When I was young 11 or 12 I think I use to stay with my gramma (rip) after school and she use to make fried egg plant. At first I saw the veggie and was like eww I am not eating that. I think she came back with something like come on Cyndi egg plant is good for your eyes. So me being the dare devil I am tried one and absolutely loved it. It became a weekly addition to my after school snacks. Well my gramma passed away about 10 years ago and did not leave me the recipe so I am very happy to have found this! I am going to go buy me an egg plant and try this recipe tomorrow. My gramma did not make it in fry form she simply sliced it so it looked kind of like fried tomatoes. This sounds even better!
We spent part of Jan and Feb in Florida. We ate at a place called Dill’s Deli and I had these for the first time. They were yummy. Served in a wire spiral cone, lined with paper.
I am going to try these when the eggplants come in this summer.
Thanks
Best idea I’ve ever heard! I am all over this one! Do you think any restaurants are making these? I haven’t seen them, but I would think they would be extremely popular…at least with the health food crowd.
Love eggplant and can’t wait for the ones in the garden to ripen now!!
I love fried egg plant, and now I’am going to make the fries, glad I seen the idea first on tv
WOW..what can I say..these were phenomenal.
I can’t eat gluten so I made this with white rice flour, so it turned out extra crispy
I love eggplants to begin with, but now I love them even more (if that’s possible)
I put half aside to put in the freezer but now I’m taking them back out because they’re disappearing as we speak lol
Is it wrong that I’m getting a boner from this?
i’ve made these several times already – my husband scarfs them down as I put them on the rack lol
i’m making a similar Japanese dish today- it’s a minced meat mixture sandwiched btwn eggplant slices, and fried. i’m sure it would taste fabulous with any sausage meat. cheers!
I like this recipe so much! Thanks for posting, Ms. Mouse and for always including pictures of each step!
Also, if you haven’t tried drizzling with honey (and a little bit of sea salt) once they’ve finished cooking, please do! They are SOO addictive!