Eggplant Parmesan Fries

Eggplant parmesan fries flavored with garlic and seasoned panko. Air frying gets them crispy for a delicious healthy snack or appetizer!

What a great way to cook with eggplant! These fries are so super yummy. I love the crisp outside that the air fryer gives these fries. Then dip them in marinara sauce for more flavor!

It’s that time of year again..garden season is what I like to call it! When everyone’s garden is producing and you have an overabundance of veggies! That’s when everyone starts getting real creative with recipes and how to use up all those extra veggies. This is one of those recipes for me! 

I don’t usually grow eggplant myself, so I don’t cook with it a lot. My friend happened to have some extra eggplant, so I said, “Sure! I’ll take it!” Even though I didn’t really know what I was going to do with it! My friend suggested that I make eggplant fries with it and told me how she makes them. So I made them and added and changed some things to my liking and came out with some pretty amazing eggplant fries!

I made a small batch because I only had one eggplant. If you have more eggplants just double this recipe to make more! I did have to cook in batches because my air fryer is on the smaller side and I wanted to give the fries room to cook and not have them overcrowded. 

Be sure to check out some of my other recipes that help use up those garden vegetables!

Zucchini Pineapple Bread: Moist and fluffy zucchini bread flavored with pineapple!  Easy to make, enough for 2 loaves or makes great muffins!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins: Moist and fluffy chocolate muffins loaded with fresh zucchini and chocolate chips. A perfect treat for the kids to sneak in some veggies!

Romanian Garlic Dill Pickles: Classic Romanian pickles flavored with banana hot peppers, garlic, and dill. Crunchy and delicious with a spicy kick!

Blender Salsa: A delicious blender salsa that is done in 5 minutes. Fresh tomatoes make it taste like it’s from your favorite restaurant! 

Tangy Cucumber Salad: Sweet and tangy cucumber salad in a homemade red wine vinegar dressing. Perfect summer salad to use up your garden vegetables!

Italian Pasta Salad: Easy pasta salad that is bursting with color and flavor! Lots of veggies and tri-color pasta make this a beautiful side dish for a party.

How do you prepare an eggplant for Eggplant Parmesan Fries?

I personally like to peel the skin off the eggplant with a peeler. Some people like to eat them with the skins on but I find them to be a little tough and chewy. Once you peel the eggplant, cut off the top and bottom part, and then slice in half. Then continue to cut into slices to look like fries.

Do I need an Air Fryer to make this recipe?

In order to get them super crispy …yes I like the air fryer. You could possibly bake them in the oven, but they would not be as crispy. You could also try frying them on the stovetop in some oil, but that would not be as healthy as the air fryer, which requires little to no oil to make these.

Ingredients for Eggplant Parmesan Fries

Eggplant: Used for the fry part! Choose a ripe eggplant on the longer side to get nice long slices.

Parmesan Cheese: Mixed in with the panko bread crumbs to make the crispy part of the fries. Any kind of parmesan cheese will work here, but I like the fresh kind that is shredded.

Panko Breadcrumbs: Part of the mixture you dip the eggplant fries in before air frying. I prefer the panko because the flakes are larger which makes it more crispy when you fry it!

Garlic Powder: Added to the panko breadcrumb mixture for flavor.

Onion Powder: Also added to the panko breadcrumb mixture for flavor.

Garlic Salt: Brings a different salt flavor to the breadcrumb mixture.

Salt: Added for flavor. Use a good quality salt like Pink Himalayan Sea Salt.

Oregano: Added for flavor and color! You can use dried oregano.

Eggs: To dip the fries in before dipping in the breadcrumb batter to make it stick.

How to make Eggplant Parmesan Fries

Peel the eggplant and cut off the top and bottom parts.

Next, slice long wise into thin strips to resemble fries.

Grab two bowls, in one bowl crack the eggs, and beat together.

In the other bowl add the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, garlic salt, salt, and oregano. Mix together.

Preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees F. Spray with non stick cooking oil spray right before adding the eggplant.

Dip each eggplant slice into the egg first, then the breadcrumbs, then place in the hot air fryer. Using a fork for this steps helps keep it less messy.

Make sure that the breadcrumbs cover the whole eggplant piece.

Keep repeating these steps until the air fryer is pretty full without any slices touching. You want them to cook nicely all around so keep them spread apart some.

Air fry for 5-8 minutes. If you want to flip them over you can, but the air fryer does a nice job of cooking all around it without having to flip it. What I did instead of flipping them, was about halfway through the cooking time, I removed the basket and gave it a nice shake, and then put it back in to cook the rest of the way.

Keep repeating these steps until all the eggplant strips have been cooked. I had to cook mine in a couple different batches because my air fryer is on the smaller side.

Serve while they are warm! Goes excellent with marinara sauce.

Not super great as left overs so only make what you think you will eat.

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