12 January 2013

Vegan Aubergine Schnitzel

[Schnitzel, das (ˈʃnɪtsəl) ~ German: cutlet, from ”schnitzen” to carve, ”schnitzeln” to whittle]

One of my passions is perfecting what I call the Veggie Schnitzel. Those are variations of different vegetarian burgers that can be eaten as veggie burgers or combined with many side dishes such as potato mash. This will be part one of many more Schnitzel entries in the future as the options are endless. The good thing with burgers is that you can make a larger batch once you get going and can then freeze some. What can be better on a lazy day than making a quick burger from the freezer.

I recently tried this new type of burger and found it to be tasty. I haven't been much of a friend of aubergine aka the eggplant but this time I decided to be brave and use it as the main veg for my burgers.

This is how I made them this time: First I started by chopping onions, garlic and slicing the aubergines. I then fried the aubergines in a pan until soft and mashed them with a hand mixer (I use a really cheap £5 hand mixer which does the work perfectly, there's no need for any fancy devices). You can also grate them even when raw but as a paste they stick better together which makes shaping and frying the Schnitzels much easier later.

Mix aubergine mash in a mixing bowl with onions, garlic and seasoning. If your dough is too fluid, add some flour until it is firm and easy to shape burgers with. Depending on your taste you can add other vegetables, cheese or potatoes to the mix.


This time I tired out a new approach to the breading, I avoided eggs which made this variation vegan. After shaping the Schnitzel into burgers I mixed potato flour with water and rolled the burgers there. This made a lovely smooth cover for the burgers and they stuck together without eggs! Then I rolled them in bread crumbs and they were ready to be fried.

Variation tip: Shape dough as balls or small nuggets.

Now, I don't own a deep frier, so I just heat oil in a pan and when hot add the burgers to it. Turn them around when they are fried brown from the one side. If you make a lot of dough, you might be frying for a while but it really is worth it.


A serving suggestion: With olive baguette, cheese and peppers.

As promised there will be more Schnitzel related content later, so this is all for this time.

Stay Schnitzel hungry!


No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading! I would very much appreciate any comments or suggestions from you.