This battered, crispy fritter traditionally is dipped in an egg batter, but this recipe from Chef Reina Montenegro, of the San Francisco Bay Area’s all-vegan Filipinx eatery Chef Reina, uses black salt to give the eggplant dish a subtly eggy (egg-free) flavor.
What you need:
6 Japanese eggplants
1 cup chickpea flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
⅓ cup flour
1 teaspoon black salt
1 to 1½ cups water, as needed
1 tomato, diced
1 small red onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
What you do:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pierce eggplants a couple times with a fork. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes or until soft. Remove from oven.
- Transfer to a bowl and cover tightly with a lid and let cool. Once cooled, peel skin off. Using a fork, press into eggplant until flat.
- In a large bowl, mix chickpea flour, baking powder, flour, black salt, and 1 cup of water. If needed, add additional water until batter consistency is reached.
- In a frying pan over medium heat, warm oil. Dip eggplants in batter one by one and place into pan. Fry, flipping once, until golden brown. Remove from pan.
- To pan, add onion and tomato and cook for three minutes. Plate eggplants and serve warm topped with cooked onion and tomato.
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