Vegan Eggplant Parmesan

If you peel the eggplant you will lose a lot of the bitterness. I still salt and drain tho, to get rid of excess liquid. And personally I would just fry the slices, no baking too, it’s just easier! Thanks for the recipe I didnt know what to use instead of egg to bread the slices.

Way too salty.

I followed directions and made sure to rinse all of the salt off of the eggplant but when I tasted the fully cooked product the salt was shocking!

Very disappointing

This is so good and I hate eggplant!

I made the eggplant tonight and it was soooo delicious. Thank you for all your great recipes. This is the best vegan meal I have had since changing my diet two months ago. I’m going to make often!

Thank you for this recipe. I made it for my girlfriends last night. Great with a cab, we finished the bottle and extra crispies on the stove (rare for three petite lightweights to even dream of seconds.)

Do you put water in the sink so the colendar has something to rest in? Or do you put the eggplant in the colendar and put the colendar in an empty sink? How does that draw out the bitterness?

My husband and I loved this recipe! I love eggplant Parmesan. It’s one of my favorite foods. I wanted to make this because it’s lighter and vegan! My husband likes eggplant parm, but he gets kind of sick of it after one day (which sucks when there’s a whole dish of it to eat). He LOVED this recipe. He said he preferred this recipe to traditional eggplant parm. I highly recommend it!

This is incredible! I love all your recipes, but this one warranted my first comment. SO GOOD. Thank you! You have really helped me in becoming and staying vegan since Jan 1st.

after reading your recipe my feeling its making is very easy, so i will try it in next Sunday.

Amazing!!! I have always thought eggplant was too mushy. Not anymore! This was great. Thanks so much.

My breading always falls off :( what am I doing wrong?

Thank you for sharing this recipe! This was the best eggplant recipe I have ever used. My husband doesn’t like eggplant and he said he really liked this one and he would eat it again. My teenage daughter who never has had eggplant had three helpings because she loved it so much. No bitterness at all. Wonderful!!!

i was able to successfully reheat this by putting the eggplant back in the skillet with a little olive oil for two minutes on each side and then sticking them in the oven set to broil on a baking sheet with foil for two minutes on each side as well. just as delicious as last night! keep the delicious recipes coming :)

I decided to give eggplant one more chance with your recipe! Couldn’t believe how good it was!!Guess I’ll still be buying it although these came fom my next door neighbors garden. Thanks so much!!Oh and I didn’t have Panko so I threw whole wheat bread crusts in my blender, perfect!

I decided to give eggplant one more chance with your recipe! Couldn’t believe how good it was!!Guess I’ll still be buying it although these came fom my next door neighbors garden. Thanks so much!!

Hi there! I am making this tonight !
I bought an eggplant and wanted to learn how to integrate it in a dish.

You said to add the eggplant to the oven; but then to heat a skillet and fry eggplant in batches.
How long did you have the eggplant in the oven before frying a batch?
Thank you & Namaste.

This was very delicious! Made for dinner tonight. Thank you for the recipe.

Is it possible to brown all the eggplant discs just before putting them in the oven to bake? I’m not sure at what point during the baking process to do this step. Thanks.

This was super good! Thank you for the recipe. I made 2 small amendments. First, I ran out of bread crumbs so used corn tortilla crumbs to make up the difference, maybe about 1/4 cup. Second I added garlic, because I love garlic. Pretty minor changes from what I see others do.

Other than that I followed the recipe exactly and it is fantastic. Eggplant cooked up perfect, crispy outside with a soft melty inside.

We will be making this again for sure.

THESE WERE DELICIOUS! Thank you for the recipe! After briefly frying, I added the marinara sauce on top with added vegan cheese, then left back into the oven to melt! They turned out great.

We used this recipe to make eggplant parmesan sandwiches with kite hill vegan ricotta and marinara, and it was SO GOOD. This eggplant breading technique came out so well. We are going to see if we can simplify it without compromising the results though, because it was a little time consuming and we are lazy. The flour before the almond milk seems important.

Just finished making this, it was perfect. So crispy without hiding that unique eggplant flavor. It was hardly any work but tasted amazing. I was worried that it would taste funny because I only had sweetened almond milk, but you couldn’t tell at all.

Hi Dana!
Thank you so much for this recipe! Even being vegetarian, I love your vegan adaptations and use them when I’m low on ingredients ( which is all the time) or need a lacto/ovo break. This was delicious; I had to use coconut milk instead of almond, and flax seed flour but it turned out fine. My five year old, carnivore bf and I all loved it. You saved dinner!
Thanks so much,
Page

Dana,
I have used many of your fabulous recipes, and have never been disappointed. I recently went to the Olive Garden and ordered this dish (sans cheese), and decided to make it at home.
My girls (11 & 7) didn’t like OG version, but went back for seconds of yours!
Definitely a hit in our household.
Please keep posting. You are an inspiration to all vegan cooks out there.
Thank you so much,
Darcey

This was a terrific recipe. I make a few substitutions to make the recipe gluten free as well as vegan. I replaced the flour with ground almonds, the bread crumbs with ground flax seed and the noodles with spaghetti squash. It turned out beautifully. I am always looking for good vegan and gluten free recipes and was great. I will definitely do it again.

I loved it

I can’t even say how I came across your site,Dana, but whadda blessing! Oh yeah, I had an eggplant, but not a clue as to what to do with it, so I googled & there you were, to the rescue… All I did was follow your instructions and WOW, your Eggplant Parmesan is fantastic !!! I even smiled as I cleaned up after us… I have subscribed & my next step is to download your beautiful cookbook… As I enter my 8th decade, my newest hobby is cooking and I have elected you, Dana, as my guide… BTW, your fantastic photography is worth the cost of the your cookbook….

I just ran out of milk, I do have some aquafaba (brine from canned chickpeas ) can i use as a egg substitute? I’ve used it in other recipes. Thanks

This was so good, I have to make it again soon. Perfect texture and flavors and I skipped the whole frying thing and just baked the eggplants in the oven. Thank you for all of your versatile recipes! 5 stars!

House sitting in Costa Rica so not having a traditional Thanksgiving this year and instead made oven roasted chicken and served it with this eggplant parmesan! YUM!

I was very excited about trying this recipe, so I’m sorry to give a less-than-glowing review. The eggplant meat came out soggy and greasy—maybe because it wasn’t clear when in the process to fry it—and the skin was tough to cut and impossible to chew. :( Maybe the eggplant? Maybe the cook? Second eggplant recipe that’s been a disappointment this week, so I think I’ll give up on it at this point!

Absolutely LOVE this recipe. Made it last night for the first time…and I made a double batch. Good thing, as I ate more than one of the eggplants myself. Brought the rest to lunch today and popped them on my George Foreman grill. They “toasted” up very nicely and were perfect as leftovers.

Thank you so much for this recipe. Eggplant Parmesan is one of my all time favorites and where I “fail” as vegan as I’ll order it at a restaurant without the cheese (I know they probably use egg) because I love the taste so much. Now I can successfully make it at home (and maybe faster the 2nd time around) and satisfy my craving. Thanks again!

I made this last night and for my first vegan meal preparing myself it turned out FANTASTIC!!, this recipe was very very delicious even my non vegan friends loved it. I made way too much pasta though so today im going to make a vegan alfredo sauce and cook the rest of the leftover eggplant I have. Although I was very nervous cooking with eggplant for the first time it came out perfect. I will definitely be making this again, thank you so much for the recipe!

This was really good! My carnivore brother in law loved it too! Yum!! Making this again!

I made this for lunch today and now I cannot stop thinking about it! I have tried eggplant Parmesan in the past, but didn’t do the salt or pushing the moisture out. Don’t forgot those steps because it helps make the eggplant nice and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. This recipe is dangerous! I might be making this many time a week!

P.S. the vegan parmesan recipe is amazing! That is the one thing I miss the most after going vegan and that vegan parmesan is sooo good it tastes better than the real thing!

I have made this two times already and I LOVE it!! I think I might start eating it every week! I was so scared to use eggplant and I never had it before but now it’s my favorite!

I made this tonight and it was delish! I served it over creamy polenta instead and my family loved it. I have four (vegan) kids and they all liked it. My four year old had seconds. It really turned out well and was a nice way to get the kids to eat and enjoy eggplant. Thanks for the wonderful recipe! I will be making it again for sure.

I was skeptical about anything with eggplant, but this is AMAZING! Super crispy, nice chewy inside, and bonus points for being vegan. Thanks for this!

I made this and loved it! My man had two portions. I did make a few tweaks to make it work with my supplies though. Arrowroot instead of cornstarch, no oil or frying, and I used oats for everything. Made oat milk, blended them for oat flour, and processed them into crumbles. It turned out delish and I think a major part was the coating. I liked it really spiced up; I added fresh basil and other dry Italian spices as well as more nooch! Yum. Thanks for the great recipe!

This was really good! I was looking for an eggplant parmesan recipe without eggs since we were out, and found yours. I had to cook longer at a little lower temp. at my elevation (5,100′) and I cheated and used real parmesan. It was a great way to use an eggplant from our garden. Thanks a bunch!

I am definitely going to try this! I saw the note about getting the coated eggplant in the oven right away so they don’t absorb too much liquid. Why not just coat enough eggplant rounds to fit in the fry pan, then put them in the oven after? This way you won’t have lots of coated eggplants sitting around absorbing all that liquid. If you coat the eggplant in stages then you won’t have to put them in the oven right away and keep taking a few out for frying. I guess this way, you would probably have to wash your hands in-between stages.

This recipe is the Bomb! I made it with Japanese eggplant which worked great. Also the vegan Parmesan is awesome!! I have been a vegetarian for many years and a vegan for almost 2 years and stopped using the store bought vegan Parmesan, I don’t typically care for any of the vegan cheeses I just don’t use them. But this recipe will change that I love it , THANK YOU !
Every recipe I have tried of yours is really yummy :)

THIS… WAS… SO… GOOD!

what about using flax egg to make the coating for the breadcrumb to stick? Instead of the cornstarch/almond milk mixture?

Thank you so much for this recipe. Until now I have found myself averting my eyes in the produce section every time I pass the taunting eggplants. I could never seem to tame the texture and bitterness in the previous recipes I’ve tried and felt like I was the only vegetarian on the planet that despised eggplant. Enter you amazing eggplant parmesan. Delicious & crispy doesn’t even cover it! I loved loved loved this meal! It was filling without being too heavy and pleased even my four year old picky eater. This recipe will officially be in rotation around here :) Thanks again :)

Thank you for this recipe! It was fantastic!!! I used spaghetti squash instead of pasta to lighten it up a bit and it was wonderful. :) Thank you for sharing your recipes!

Wow! Made this today for my recently turned vegan husband. It was a win! So easy! A little time consuming, like any eggplant parmesan recipe, but the taste was awesome. Worth the time! No need to use dairy to make a great tasting eggplant parm. I used my tomato sauce recipe and another vegan parmesan recipe because I’ve been making my own vegan parmesan for a little while now. Thank you for sharing. :)

What a delicious recipe! Even though I had to swopped some of the ingredients for things that were non vegan-like, it all came together in the end. I think I may have to feature this recipe on my blog, as soon as I master great food photography skills like you! My friends would love this healthy meal.

Keep up the excellent tasty work!!

Thank you so much for this recipe – it is SO GOOD! I have been vegan for a little over a month, and am learning new ways to cook meals, so i can keep my former meat-eater hubby happy, or at least accepting of the change. I must say this is one of the best recipes I have had so far – and my husband loved it too! The “cheese” mix works great, and the technique of baking, then sautéing till crispy, then re-baking, works wonders with the eggplant. And the prepping with the salt, rinse, etc., really does take all of the bitterness out. I served it with a handful of slightly wilted fresh spinach on the side to green up the plate, and a few pieces of bruschetta. I wish I could give it 6 stars! YUMMY! Thanks again, for this, and so many other of your recipes!

Just made this recipe and WOW. By far the best meal i’ve ever cooked. This was so tasty we ate it all. I have never been a big fan of eggplant but after this recipe it became one of my favorite.

THANK YOU

I’ve made this recipe about 100 times. It’s one of my favorite meals! I also have made it for non-vegans/vegetarians, and they LOVE it too!

I’m thinking about making “fried” zucchini using a similar process of putting it in the oven and pan-frying. Do you think it could work? Any advice would be welcomed!

I made this last night and it tasted wonderful! I thought I was pretty much done with Italian dishes when I went vegan last year, so I was delighted to enjoy such a rich pasta dish for dinner.

Made this wonderful dish tonight! I am pretty new to the vegan lifestyle and so far it has been a cinch because of wondeful recipes like this. My non vegan family enjoyed it as well. I will definitely check out more of your recipes. Thanks so much!!

Do you think this will work just as well with zucchini? Would the salt step be necessary?

Made this tonight. It was Easy, Delicious, and Fairly quick to make! I used real parm because I didn’t feel like making vegan parm, but I think it would be great with it too!

Giiiiirrrrllll you are a Wonder Woman!! This was ABSOLUTELY the most delicious eggplant parm I have ever had! Who knew almond milk could work with it so well! Anyway I just wanted to say that I admire you so much and you have helped my vegan journey become SO MUCH EASIER! Thank you!!

Hi ,
New Vegan the past 6-7 months and I love your site and all the wonderful recipes I’ve
seen. This is a Favorite for me since I am Sicilian. The Vegan Parm is the Bomb :-) Has anyone tried to freeze this and have it reheat well? love this recipe thank you some much for all the hard work that goes into your recipes, keep them coming!!!!

Regards
Kelly B.

This turned out SO GREAT!!! Two things I changed up that might be helpful to try

1) instead of putting them on a cookie sheet, i put metal cooling racks on the backing sheet and the slices on that…no need to flip and they don’t get soggy! I do this for zucchni fries as well. Nothing worse than losing breading when flipping!

2) We try to keep the oil to a minimum so instead of taking them out and pan frying (which i will do for special occasions no doubt) I just sprayed a little bit of cooking spray on top and turned the broiler on low toward the end. Just keep an eye out so they don’t burn!

Awesome recipe, as usual. Thank you!!

I was a bit skeptical starting this recipe…I wasn’t feeling very motivated, but I had an eggplant on the verge of death that I needed to use up. This recipe did not disappoint! I was amazed at how good it was with so few ingredients, and so similar to a traditional eggplant Parmesan. Very satisfying. I had a pot of Chloe Coscarelli’s simple marinara in the fridge, and it was the perfect complement. This is now my go-to eggplant recipe. Thank you!!!

I am gearing up to make this right now. I’ll tag you on Instagram <3

So never had eggplant parm before in my life – but this was AWESOME! I love your recipes and have made probably over a dozen over the past few months. Thank you for your blog! Love it!

Thank you for sharing this recipe. I can’t wait to give it a try. As a vegan, there’s nothing I miss more than Eggplant Parmesan. I stopped making it/buying it as an Ovo/Lacto vegetarian when I became aware that mozzarella contains rennet from animal corpses. I’ve tried different vegan eggplant recipes but could never get the bread crumbs to adhere to the eggplant slices. I’m hopeful that this will be the recipe that reunites me with crispy fried eggplant.

I made this a few weeks back… About to make it gain on Tuesday. It was so good! I had never made eggplant parmesan before, and this made it so simple! Thank you for being so awesome!

I just made these for lunch and I really liked the taste and texture of the eggplant. I used old whole wheat toast for the breadcrumbs (plain white toast didn’t crumble) and that worked really well. Also subbed oat milk for almond milk and thyme for oregano because I didn’t have any.

I think I’m gonna make these again as a side with hummus and some lentil / Arabic salad. :)

Thanks for the inspiration!

I had this recipe for dinner tonight and all I can say is WOW! Just WOW! Honestly, one of the best dishes I’ve ever had! I made it for dinner for my fiancé and I, and he absolutely loved it!

Frying the eggplant while it’s baking is pure genius! Just loved everything about it!

Thank you so much!!

This was soooo good! We are not big eggplant eaters in our home, but this may have converted us!

Also, we did reheat leftovers for lunch. I just kept the eggplant stored in a single layer, wrapped in the foil I had baked it on. The next after noon, I spread the foil back out and warmed the eggplant in the oven and then threw it on top of my pasta and sauce- and it was still amazing (and crispy!!)

Fabulous. Tried this tonight. Made everything from scratch (inc marinara sauce and cashew Parmesan cheese). It came out great! Thanks! Easy peasy and totally delicious. And, yah, I totally get the step of skillet browning the eggplant. Nice touch!

You can skip all the preparation of eggplant if you use Japanese or Chinese eggplants. Just smaller rounds, but then you don’t need to use salt, weights, paper towels, etc. Just FYI. Great recipe.

I also used to be scared of eggplant but now I love it, I think because I’d never had it cooked well in a dish before and the texture scared me. I love making a pasta with a creamy aubergine-tomato-cashew cheese sauce, but up until now I’ve never made eggplant parmesan! However I just made my favourite vegan parmesan from Artisan Vegan Cheese so I think I’ll try this soon!

i was going to make eggplant parmesan a few nights ago, but all the recipes i came upon looked so complicated… this is such a great find after being deterred ! i love the idea of the “double” cooked eggplant.

Definitely setting some time aside to make this over the weekend! I have such a hate-love-hate relationship with eggplant, and I’m running out of ideas with all these CSA box eggplants!

First, you are my most favorite food blogger ;) Second, I so love this post and can’t wait to try it! I’ve been a vegan for eight months now and you have been extremely helpful with this most amazing lifestyle. Eggplant has always been intimidating and confusing though so I look forward to mastering it :)

Eggplant Parm was on last nights menu and your post was found right before I went grocery shopping! Served it over spaghetti squash! I cooked the eggplant slices on a cooling rack placed atop a baking dish which allowed the air to circulate the the slices got nice and crispy!

Eggplant parm is the only way I like eggplant. Love this vegan version!

This version is so easy!!! Gah! Eggplant parm is a staple in my house, but I feel like I go through a lot of unnecessary steps. Need this!

I’ve been dying to try an eggplant recipe and since my little one is a major spaghetti (or anything involving marinara sauce) lover, this will be my first!

Great timing! We have a ton of eggplant from our garden, and last night I was looking for a way to use it. I scoured Pinterest for a vegan, gluten-free eggplant recipe with little luck. I will give this one a try!

Yum! Perfect recipe for a meatless monday in our house! I’ve never tried cooking with eggplant, but you make it look so approachable!

Hi there! Long time reader, first time commenter. I just wanted to say that I was super happy that this recipe popped up in my inbox a few seconds ago! I was planning on making something eggplant-y for dinner but couldn’t decide on what. Now I know!
If anyone hasn’t signed up for email notifications, they should! :)

Amazing! I don’t buy eggplant too often, but I have to try this recipe, it looks soooooo good!

Ok, I LOVE this post! Eggplant is SO intimidating/ tricky to work with, so I am beyond excited that you fixed that with this awesome looking recipe! Can’t wait to try!

I LOVE eggplant parmesan and having been wanting to find a vegan version. Thanks so much for creating and sharing this!

I am not a fan of egg plant because of that squishy texture. You seemed to fix that, thank you! I will have to give this a go. It looks delicious!

Yes, Dana. YES. Last month I made an eggplant parmesan which was fabulous but not vegan. I was really wondering how to get a good binder without the egg and you are a genius! Your eggplant mac and cheese was absolutely delish and I’m sure this will be too. I’ve got to try that vegan parmesan!

Yum! I used to be intimidated by eggplant to but now love love love it! I find it makes a nice and hearty sub for meat in recipes! I can’t wait to try this recipe – eggplant parm. is one of my favourites! I actually have an eggplant in the oven right now to make your eggplant mac and cheese this evening! :D Will let you know how it turns out :D

I live for eggplant. But I totally get the whole intimidation thing. I think half the problem is that it’s called ‘eggplant’ and not aubergine… doesn’t the latter sound prettier?! This recipe looks fab and I can’t wait to read Izzy’s book! Beautiful Dana! xx

I can’t wait to get my hands on Izzy’s new book, but this looks like a fabulous adaptation!

Can’t believe this recipe is vegan! Wow. Eggplant use to scare me too, although I never tried it I thought I would hate it. Wrong! It’s delicious. Wonderful. The perfect flavor. Grew 3 eggplant in this year in my garden and make egg parm with it but I would love to try your vegan spin. It looks marvelous =)

Ooooh I have always wanted to try this, and I love that you used panko breadcrumbs, which make it nice and crispy! When my runs start increasing to more than an hour, I will start needing that pasta fueling, without eating calorie bombs, this will be a great one to add to the lineup :)