Eggplant croquettes

Juicy and fragrant eggplant croquettes taste like meat cutlets, none of your household members will even guess that they are vegetable. Croquettes according to this recipe are an easy-to-make dish that will diversify your eggplant menu.

Ingredients

• Eggplant - 300 g (2 small or 1 large)
• Bulgarian pepper - 1 pc.
• Onion - 1 pc.
• Garlic - 1 clove
• Hard cheese - 50 g
• Chicken egg - 1 pc.
• Provence herbs - 1 pinch
• Olive oil - 1 tbsp. the spoon
• Sea salt - 1 teaspoon
• Ground black pepper - 1 pinch
• Breadcrumbs - 3 tbsp. spoons
• Vegetable oil for frying - 150 ml
• Arugula (for serving, optional) - 50 g

Directions

1. Peel the eggplant and cut into strips. Lay the eggplant strips on a baking sheet covered with foil. Drizzle eggplant with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. We send a baking sheet with eggplant slices to an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 20 minutes.
2. While the eggplant is cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients. Onion and bell pepper cut into small cubes. Put the vegetables in a bowl.
3. Add eggs to vegetables.
4. Squeeze out a clove of garlic.
5. Grate the cheese and add it to the rest of the ingredients. Add also a mixture of Provence herbs and ground black pepper.
6. Grind the baked eggplant slices in a blender or simply knead with a fork into small pieces. Add the eggplant pulp to the bowl with the rest of the croquette ingredients. Mix well all the minced ingredients.
7. We form croquettes from vegetables and cheese, the size of a walnut, from the minced meat. Roll the croquettes in breadcrumbs.
8. You can fry vegetable croquettes in a pan in vegetable oil for 3-4 minutes on each side. And you can cook deep-fried croquettes by frying them in oil for 3 minutes.
9. Put ready eggplant croquettes on a plate with herbs and serve with pasta, boiled mashed potatoes. In my family, they are swept off the table with sour cream sauce or ketchup.
10. Bon appetit!