The new, and final, season of Game of Thrones is airing tonight and I am beyond excited! I am a massive Game of Thrones fan and honestly can’t believe season 1 came out 9 years ago. As such, I was thinking about what I’d be eating whilst I watched the premiere of the final episode and a light bulb went off — cheesy baked eggplant and zucchini fritters! With a twist, of course.
Cheesy Baked Eggplant and Zucchini Fritters
I’ve been thinking a lot about what types of recipes you all want to see and how that could guide my future recipes. I received awesome feedback that more vegetarian meals would be appreciated, in addition to meals that included cheap, simple ingredients that most people already had in their pantries. It’s helped push me out of my comfort zone, for sure, because I don’t often make fully vegetarian meals but I do try and incorporate basic ingredients whenever I can. This feedback inspired me to make these cheesy baked eggplant and zucchini fritters as a result!
Why These Fritters Are Good For you
Your typical vegetable fritter recipes tend to use regular breadcrumbs, flour and call for the fritters to be deep-fried. Well, as delicious as that sounds, it’s a) not healthy to eat day after day and b) deep frying foods is messy and takes a TON of oil. No bueno. For these fritters, I used a sprinkling of corn starch (instead of flour) and I used wheatbran in place of flour. Wheat bran is surprisingly cheap — just $7 for a massive 20 oz bag! I bought a bag of wheat bran months ago and I’ve only used about half of it so far. Wheat bran is also full of fiber. 1/4 cup of wheat bran contains 50 calories, 10 grams of carbs and 6 grams of fiber. For those of you following the F-Factor lifestyle, like I am, that works out to just 4 net carbs!
It’s no secret however that wheat bran is pretty bland, so I added lots of spices and cheese to the wheat bran mix to ensure maximum flavor. As such, I do recommend enjoying these fritters with a dipping sauce such as Rao’s marinara sauce or whatever else strikes your fancy.
Recipe for Cheesy Baked Eggplant and Zucchini Fritters
Cheesy Baked Eggplant and Zucchini Fritters (Vegetarian)
Ingredients
- 1 cup wheat bran
- 1/2 cup Parmesan
- 1 tsp Italian herb seasoning
- 2 tsp salt
- Pepper to taste
- 1 small eggplant thinly sliced
- 1 zucchini thinly sliced
- 2 eggs whisked
- 1/8 cup corn starch
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees farenheit.
- Start slicing the zucchini and eggplant, starting with the eggplant, so that you can salt the eggplant slices and “sweat out” the excess moisture. This takes approximately 10-20 minutes, and be sure to place them on top of a paper towel to catch the moisture.
- Combine the first 5 ingredients in a shallow bowl.
- Then, crack your two eggs into another shallow bowl and whisk them well.
- Place your thinly sliced veggies into a bowl with the corn starch.
- Then, one by one, dip the sliced zucchini and eggplant into the bowl with the egg wash, and then transfer to the bowl with the wheat bran mix. Try and keep one hand for the egg wash, and the other for the wheat bran mixture, or your hands will get all gunky and eggy!
- Once your sliced eggplant and zucchini have been breaded, transfer to two baking sheets, lined with parchment paper, and pop into oven and let them bake for 20 minutes.
- Enjoy hot and serve with marinara, or your favorite dip!
Notes
You can replace the egg with flax seed egg, if vegan.
Feel free to try half breadcrumbs, and half wheat bran, for a crunchier fritter.
As you can see from the recipe card above, this is such an easy meal to make.You can enjoy them as a standalone snack, as a side dish paired with your favorite protein or you can throw them into a tortilla with some guacamole for lunch, like I did today.
Be sure to share them on your Instagram feed or stories if you make them and please tag me so I can see them! I’l be sure to share your recreations because it always makes me SO happy when I see you trying, and enjoying, my recipes 🙂
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