Never Suffer Soggy Fried Eggplant Again With This Seasoning Tip

There are many tips home cooks need to successfully cook eggplant for an array of dishes, but we've got one trick that is essential when it comes to frying the savory and slightly sweet fruit. This tip is for anyone who has bitten into soggy eggplant parmesan, which certainly ruins the entire meal. Eggplant packs moisture, but a single ingredient can help with that watery issue before you fry it for your go-to recipe. All you need is a generous sprinkle of salt.

The reason why fried eggplant turns out soggy is because its water content seeps out when it cooks at such a high temperature. The porous insides can also absorb some of the oil during the frying process. To prevent soggy fried eggplant, cut it accordingly, then sprinkle a generous amount of salt. The salt will draw out any excess moisture, and prevent it from soaking up too much oil, so it has a better chance to get crispy when you go to fry it for your eggplant parmesan and other dishes. It's all in the preparation, which doesn't take long at all for the crispiest eggplant in each bite. Plus, this trick works for any eggplant recipe, even those that don't involve frying.

You'll want to cut, or peel, your eggplant according to the recipe. Then, this is where the salt comes into play. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt on each side of the eggplant pieces, but don't overdo it or you risk overly-salty food. Then, you'll want to set the salted eggplant aside. This process is called sweating, because as the excess moisture comes out, it will also fill in parts of the eggplant that would typically absorb oil. After 30 minutes to an hour, pat the eggplant slices dry with a paper towel to absorb the moisture. Now, it's time to cook the eggplant for your go-to recipe.

If you don't already have a go-to recipe with fried eggplant, we've got you covered with some options. For a traditional use of the ingredient, use this tip to cook our baked eggplant parmesan or fry it up with this eggplant parmesan recipe. To use the salt technique for another fried dish, try this Levantine-inspired fried eggplant recipe. And you can't go wrong with this eggplant tomato gratin recipe where you season both the eggplant and tomatoes with salt to draw out moisture before you cook the rest of the dish.