Sep 14, 2011

Baked Eggplant Sticks



Strips of eggplant, breaded and baked until golden and served with a quick marinara sauce. Serve these as a snack, appetizer or side dish.

I can vividly remember the day when my picky daughter, who was in middle school at the time, told me she liked eggplant.  

Eggplant? Really? She was eating dinner at a friend's and they were having breaded eggplant for dinner and she loved it. Kids are always more willing to try new food when they are eating over their friends'. I was delighted she liked a new vegetable and I made breaded eggplant for her at least once a month, only I baked them instead of making them fried.

Eggplant is probably not for everyone, but if you like eggplant, or want to try introducing them to your family and don't know how, this is a good place to start. There are many varieties of eggplant, Japanese eggplant is a bit sweeter and milder. If you have a farmer's market near you, you will find a lot of varieties is season right now.





Baked Eggplant Sticks
Skinnytaste.com
Servings: 4 Serving Size: 1/4 • Old Points: 1 pt Points+: 1 pt
Calories: 86.9 • Fat: 2.9 • Carbs: 0.7 g • Fiber: 2.9 • Protein: 4.3 g • Sugar: 0
Sodium: 202.4


Ingredients:
  • 10 oz eggplant
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper
  • 1/2 cup Italian Seasoned breadcrumbs
  • 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
  • 1 large egg white
  • oil spray 
  • 1 cup quick marinara sauce for dipping (extra points)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and lightly spray with oil.

Cut ends off the eggplant. Slice eggplant in half, then into 1/4 inch thick slices. Lay each slice on the cutting board and cut into 1/4 inch strips. Be sure to cut all the strips the same size so they cook evenly.


Place eggplant strips in a bowl and season with olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.


Combine breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese in a bowl, and egg whites in another.

Dip a few strips of eggplant at a time into the egg whites, then into the breadcrumbs. Using a fork, remove eggplant from crumbs and place on the baking sheets. Spray with more oil and bake 10 minutes in the middle rack.

Turn over and bake an additional 5 minutes, or until golden. Serve hot.

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80 comments:

  1. Looks great! I made something like this with zucchini once. I suspect the eggplant would hold up more effectively though.

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  2. I make zucchini 'chips' and eggplant 'chips' similar to this but use crushed pretzels instead of the bread crumbs. They are hands down one of my favorite snacks!

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  3. Mmm. I love eggplant season.

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  4. Where is the 1 tsp of olive oil used? Thank you for all your recipes!!

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  5. Hi! I'm new to your site, and may I just say? I love it!! This recipe looks so easy and yummy and I can't wait to try it. :)

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  6. Wow, these look delicious! What a good idea. I'm definitely going to have to try these.

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  7. Oops, toss the eggplant with olive oil, salt and pepper. I will adjust that.

    Thanks Amanda!

    I have a recipe here for baked zucchini sticks, we love them!!

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  8. I am crazy about your baked zucchini sticks recipe! I cannot wait to try these too!!

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  9. The baked zucchini sticks were amazing. I can't wait to try the baked eggplant sticks. My one son does not like eggplant for some reason, but I bet he'd like it prepared this way.

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  10. I love eggplant (or aubergine, as we say in England!) and this recipe looks scrummy. Much prefer it baked as well, as frying it tends to drench it in oil, and ruins the delicate flavour. Will definitely be trying this out!

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  11. This looks so yummy, I want it in my tummy NOW!

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  12. My mom has made something similar to this my whole life but I've never seen a recipe posted for it. She makes hers by dipping the eggplant in milk and then a mixture of cornmeal, salt and pepper. It's great, but I will try this one too!

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  13. You could easily alter this recipe for eggplant parmesan!

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  14. eggplant is hit or miss with me, i think it might be the way its cooked. this looks like a great recipe to try

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  15. I'll try this over the weekend! Looks too good!

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  16. Ohhhh fantastic idea! Why the heck didn't I think of this? I adore eggplant. thanks so much!

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  17. Looks delicious and I have an unspoken-for eggplant ready for the job!

    Question -- does the eggplant hold its form being prepared like this, or does it turn to mush as it's wont to do with other prep methods? If time allowed, would it help at all to salt it to draw the moisture out?

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  18. It holds it's form but it's a little soft, nothing that bothers me. I did salt it and set it aside while preparing the crumbs, the extra moisture helped the crumbs stick.

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  19. Gina,
    I am sure I am not going to surprise you by saying I LOVE your site just like the rest of all respectful readers-cooks on this earth.
    Question - is there some trick that you know of (or anybody else does) on resizing your food images when printing your recipe out?
    See... I love visuals and I love keeping my recipes close aka in my personal binder-book. So ideally I would want to print out a recipe that fits in one page and has a picture in it. And that is where the problem comes. In most of the cases the size of the picture is too big and I have overflow onto the 2nd page. I cannot resize the picture in this PDF file that I end up with when clicking the PRINT button. So I end up manually copying the recipe to Word document where I can resize the picture so it all fits on one page....lengthy process.
    So is there a trick on resizing pics in PDF?
    Thanks!!

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  20. This looks very yummy. I'll definitely try it...we have eggplant right now fresh from the garden.

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  21. Hi this looks super delicious and the best part is it is so simple to make yet unique. I m gonna try it. Thank you. Do chk my space if you get time. Keephappybelly.blogspot.com

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  22. I'll make this tonight... but with zucchini. I don't have any eggplant around at the moment, but it should come out alright!

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  23. Is one egg white enough to dip eggplant in? Also one tsp of oil? Seems it wouldnt be enough. thanks for all your delicious recipes..

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  24. I'm really excited to try this to see if the kids like it. If they don't they're totally low on points, so I won't mind eating them up myself.

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  25. The serving size posted is one cup. How many would be considered one cup?

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  26. 1 tsp of oil and one egg was enough for me. The eggplant had a lot of liquid after I added salt which helped the breadcrumbs stick.

    Serving size is 1/4 of the eggplant, sorry.

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  27. LOVED! the Zucchini Sticks recipe. Now I can't wait to try the eggplant!!!

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  28. Still confused by the serving size. Recipe says Servings:6, Serving size 1/4. Also, is the NI based on the 6, or the 1/4?

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  29. Yum! And perfect timing - I just bought 10 eggplants from my Amish neighbors. :)

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  30. This looks great and like something my kids would love too. I can't wait to try it!

    Bree

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  31. Gina, I have the same problem as Maryna with printing out the recipes - it's too many pages. I usually end up trying to copy and paste the recipe into Word, but the pictures still don't show up. It would be so helpful if the pictures could be resized and everything would print to one page. Let us know if there is a way to do that!

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  32. Made this and the zucchini sticks last night, mixed in some panko and fresh parm. SO good, that was all I ate for dinner! Figured it was baked veggies mostly so I was safe! Nice logic huh? Put pics on facebook (I post lots of what I make) and everyone said they looked so good, refered them to your site of course! I love eggplant parm, but hate frying, so this is great!

    Steph

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  33. Made this last night to go with the Survivor premiere, and they were FANTASTIC. I did the same thing @steph did, and mixed in some panko and parm with the breadcrumbs. Ended up salting the final product some more as well.

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  34. Hello Gina,

    Would you be so kind as to clarify the serving size? Does that include the sauce?

    Thanks!

    -Catherine

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  35. I tried this tonight and it was wonderful! I needed more than one egg white as my eggplant was not very wet. It seemed too good to be healthy! I ate this as a main course, it was so good! I used gluten-free corn flake crumbs.

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  36. Oh boy, I have to change the servings, it should be 4, that's a typo.

    The sauce is not included in the n.i., see the sauce recipe for that.

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  37. I've been saving and printing the recipes with the picture, no problem. Just copy and paste the recipe wording into word, and adjust the font, size to your liking. Then right-click on the photo to copy it and paste it into word under the recipe. You can shrink the photo by clicking on a corner and pulling it in. I have done this with a lot of Gina's recipes and sometimes I can fit multiple pictures.

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  38. continued from above...

    You won't always be able to fit all the pictures on one page under the recipe, but you can pick 1 or 2.

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  39. The print widget, printer friendly, is a third party feature. You can email her any issues you may be having, I'm sure she would love your input on how to make it better. support@printfriendly.com

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  40. Gina - I have never worked with eggplant. Can I prep (cut the eggplant into strips) the night before so I have less to do the day I make it?? Love your blog. Have shared it with sooooo many people! You are amazing!!

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  41. I am making this tonight! Can't wait! :)

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  42. I tried this recipe this week. I've been wondering what to do with eggplant. This is an AWESOME recipe!! They were so yummy and very flavorful. My husband loves them too!

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  43. OH WOW...that is all I can say! I absolutely love eggplant and just reading this recipe made my mouth water. I can't wait to try this. THANKS so much Gina for all the time and effort you put into your site to "help" us on WW. Girl YOU ROCK!! I am not going to use the marinara sauce though because I LOVE eggplant and do not want anything in the way of that flavor. :)

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  44. Anonymous, I would cut them right when your ready to cook them or they will turn brown.

    Enjoy Misty!!

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  45. I made these the other night and even my veggie hating husband loved them!

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  46. aprox how many strips can you have in a serving...I know it say 1/4 but about how many is that in a typical batch?

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  47. It really depends on the size of the eggplant and how
    Big you cut them.

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  48. Love that this recipe is just 1 points plus value per serving and that I have a beautiful eggplant in the fridge waiting for me.

    I'm so happy I've found your blog!

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  49. Gina,

    Can these be prepared ahead (dipped, breaded etc) and then frozen for use later? Or will the eggplant or zucchini get mushy?

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  50. Elaine Stone11/11/11, 9:46 AM

    I made these last night and they were awesome! Easy to make and just great tasting. Thanks!

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  51. Just curious- I put this into the recipe builder on ww and it came to 3 points...maybe I missed something, but I just wanted to check

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  52. I can't wait to try these! I am going to make them as a part of my appetizers for Christmas Eve!

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  53. I just stumbled upon this recipe, and tried it tonight. It was so yummy! I make eggplant parmesan all the time, and I think I could definitely use this baking recipe to substitute for frying the eggplant. Super easy and it doesn't take very long from start to finish. Thank you for this recipe! :)

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  54. This was super good, i used crushed up potato chips because I didnt have bread crumbs. It was amazing!!

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  55. This is so good. I just fried eggplant last week and this tastes just as good. Gina when I put this into my WW tracker the recipe comes back at 3 pts per serving. I loved these and will make them again regardless of the points, but want to know why the difference.

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  56. I made these with crushed pretzels. The only problem was that the oven got really smoky. I'm not sure if that was a result of the parchment paper, or me not putting enough olive oil on. They were still delicious, and I will be making them again!

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  57. I love your recipes! But when I entered this recipe into the recipe builder on WW, it actually came out to 3 points per serving. However, if you use whole wheat bread crumbs and reduced fat parmesan cheese its actually only 1 point per serving!

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  58. I just tried this. It was SO good! Looking forward to trying more of your recipes :)

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  59. This is in my oven NOW. :D

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  60. Delish! I added a half cup of marinara sauce for 2 points! Next time I would like to play around and cut the eggplant into circles!

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  61. Wow! Looks amazing and will have to give them a try! Followed you her via a re-pin on Pinterest. Thanks for sharing! I'm your newest follower too. :-)

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  62. We make them into the discs and add marinara sauce and a little mozzarella cheese on top. My 2-year-old thinks it's pizza and gobbles it up!

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  63. Made this again last night, but just sliced into rounds. Topped with some marianara on top of some whole grain pasta, and we had a great dinner! Even my 2 kids ate some! Then both had dessert, because in my house if you don't eat veggies then there's no dessert. They both went "I get dessert because eggplant is a veggie". Hey I'll take it! Haha! Thanks for all the great ideas!

    Steph

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  64. Thanks for this recipe. Have a recipe for eggplant with "vegeburger" that called for frying it. Even even when salting, the eggplant soaked up the oil like a sieve! This time I found your recipe and used it as a guide, also slicing the eggplant into rounds like the last two comments. It turned out great, so thank you. Will look forward to making it into sticks in the future.

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  65. I used this recipe but sliced the eggplant lengthwise with a mandoline. After baking the eggplant, I layered it with marinara (I did eggplant, marinara, eggplant, marinara) and topped it with Italian cheese. I liked it much better than an eggplant parmesan recipe because the eggplant had more substance and wasn't overwhelmed with cheese. Thanks for all the great recipes! I am finding more ways to cook my veggies from the garden!

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  66. My 5 year-old loved this! And so did my husband and I. Thank you Gina!

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  67. Totally yummy! Only question...What is does a 10 0z egg plant look like? probably a dumb question but does that mean the whole thing?

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    Replies
    1. Never mind....I guess I can Just weight it on the produce scale. Wow...I can't believe I even asked that.

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  68. I made this tonight and it was amazing and so easy! I loved it and my kids even ate it! Thank you for the recipe and for the amazing website. I'm trying to diet and only recently came across your site. I am hopeful it helps me on my journey.

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  69. I've made this twice now.... LOVE IT!! Slightly labor intensive, but soooooo worth it!
    I use my Lady Finger eggplant from my garden and it's so tasty ;)

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  70. Can't wait to try these tonight with grilled pesto shrimp from this blog! The pesto I just whipped up is hands down the "BEST" pesto I have ever made and it is healthier and easier than the other recipes I have tried!!! Thank You!!

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  71. O...m...G...!! So glad I stumbled across this recipe! Just this past weekend had great Eggplant fries at a restraunt but felt so guilty eating them since they were clearly deep fried - soooo glad to see you made them skinny!! Can't wait to try this one!!

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  72. AWESOME, as usual Gina!!! I made these today for watching the football games and they were excellent...now to see if I can sneak them past my picky 4 year old and teenage boys!!

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  73. Thank you so much! These were so crunchy and delicious. I can't wait to try more recipes from your blog. The way you have breaded these can be adapted to so many other things too. I'm excited to try this with Okra! Really delicious and easy recipe. Thank you again!

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  74. OMG, this recipe is awesome,I love how the eggplant goes all gooey and soft inside.

    I used polenta instead of breadcrumbs with italian herbs and parmesan cheese.... too yummy to share!

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  75. can you substitue mozzarella for the parmesan? or leave the cheese out all together?

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  76. I make this once a week for my sons' as an after school snack. I also make it as a side to spaghetti and meatballs. They come out so good - I don't even realize they are baked!

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  77. I tried this recipe for the first time today. This is only my 2nd time eating eggplant. I absolutely LOVED this recipe. This is the only way that I will ever eat eggplant from now on.

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  78. Tried these and LOVED them! Your recipes are the absolute best!

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