Not-Fried Crunchy Breaded Eggplant Dipping Sticks

Out of all of our plants, so far the eggplant has proven the most productive. If we wanted to, I’m sure we could pick 6 eggplants at any given time, though we tend to leave them on the plant for a few days after they’re ready until we want them (which doesn’t seem to affect their flavor at all).

So during the summer and warm months of Fall, I’m sure you’ll be seeing eggplant recipes alongside the Zucchini ones.

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Here’s one we tried recently:

Eggplant Dipping Sticks

• 1 large eggplant, or 4 ichiban eggplants (they’re long and skinny)
• 1/2 cup toasted wheat germ
• 1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 3 eggs, beaten

Preheat your broiler and wash your eggplants…

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Cut them into little french-fry like wedges, and then if you want to, you can salt them with Kosher salt to draw out the bitter juices.  The way I did it this time was to put the wedges into a colander over a bowl, sprinkle liberally with kosher salt, and top with a smaller colander weighted with the Kosher salt box, so the eggplant pieces were squished.

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Mix together the wheat germ, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, and garlic salt. I toasted the wheat germ in a pan first and then added everything else in with the pan still on low heat, stirring.

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When your eggplant sticks are ready, rinse or wipe off the salt and pat dry with towels. Then dip each stick into the beaten eggs, and roll in the breadcrumb/wheat germ mixture. Place on a cookie sheet prepared with cooking spray.

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Now broil for about 3 minutes, flip, and broil another 3 minutes or until they’re crispy.

If you’d like, you can serve them with warmed up tomato sauce as a dunker. We ate ours with some pasta salad leftover from a couple days before. Mmm!

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Enjoy!