Better Batter Seasoned Flour Mix and Eggplant Parmesan

Of the box full of mixes that the Better Batter folks sent me to try, the one that intrigued me the most was the Seasoned Flour Mix. I’ve been using crushed corn flakes and/or crushed rice cereal as my alternative to traditional breadcrumbs, so I was excited when I saw that this mix was much more than that. The ingredients include rice flour, brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, potato flour, xanthan gum, pectin, salt, and spices. It’s a gluten-free flour blend with pizzazz!

My first project with the mix was to coat some chicken and bake it – “shake-and-bake” style. I let the chicken sit for about an hour after coating it with the mix, and then baked. Quick and easy – and delicious! I didn’t use eggs to coat the chicken before dipping them in the mix.

With a successful chicken project under my belt, I decided to use some eggplant that I picked up at the farm to make eggplant parmesan.

Eggplant Parmesan

1 large eggplant
2 tbsp salt
¾ cup Better Batter seasoned flour mix
1 cup tomato sauce
½ cup mozzarella cheese *
¼ cup parmesan cheese *

*Special note – I used real cheese, as my milk-allergic son is away. If you have a milk allergy, substitute the appropriate non-dairy cheese alternative, such as Daiya.

1. Slice the eggplant (about 3/8” slices). Fill a large bowl with water and stir in the salt. Soak the eggplant in the salted water for at least an hour. This step helps eliminate the bitterness in the eggplant.

2. Spread the seasoned flour mix on a plate. Dip each slice of eggplant into the flour mix, coating both sides. Set the coated slices aside on a plate for at least 30 minutes.

3. Spread half of the tomato sauce in the bottom of a baking dish. Layer eggplant, then mozzarella cheese, then eggplant, then cheese, until all the eggplant is used. Cover with the remaining tomato sauce then the parmesan cheese.

4. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes (until the sauce is bubbling).

Success! Again, in this recipe I didn’t coat the eggplant with eggs or any other liquid prior to coating them with the seasoning mix, and I found that this worked extremely well.

Have you tried Better Batter seasoned flour mix? What do you think?