MY VEGAN BLOG

Vegan Eggplant Parmesan With Sundried Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

I love that you can now get Daiya vegan cheese in block form from Whole Foods.  This past weekend I made vegan eggplant parmesan and happened to have about half a block of Daiya left over.  I’ve been dying to make some dairy free mozzerella sticks ever since Daiya came out.  Here’s what I did:

First you want to cut the cheese into long skinny pieces.  Grab 3 bowls and fill the first with flour and cornstarch.  I never measure so I can’t say how much of each but definitely more flour, probably a ratio of 2:1.  The 2nd bowl fill with egg replacer.  You want enough to fully submerge each stick but don’t be wasteful.  You can always add more.  The last bowl is for breadcrumbs.  Some come already seasoned but feel free to add garlic & onion powder as well as salt and pepper.  Now dip each cheese stick into each bowl starting with the flour & cornstarch mixture, then the egg replacer and last the breadcrumbs.  I redipped each stick to ensure they were fully covered.  If I wasn’t feeling lazy I probably would have dipped a 3rd time to have a nice thick batter and would recommend this, however dipping twice will work fine.  I did this next to the sink with the water running and washed off my fingers after I dipped each stick.  This is a messy process and you will end up with crazy lumpy breadcrumb hands if you don’t wash them.  Makes it a bit difficult to continue the dipping.  Once all your sticks have been coated it’s time to fry.  I used avocado oil but you can use olive oil or whatever else you have on hand.  Fill a frying pan or deep fryer with enough oil so the sticks will be fully submerged.  I turned up my burner to high and heated the oil for about 10 minutes before frying.  Place all the mozzarella sticks in the oil until browned which should only take 1 to 2 minutes. (Don’t be stupid and use your hands… the oil is hot so use tongs!!)  I made two batches of these and for the 2nd batch I didn’t heat the oil enough.  It took probably 3-4 minutes to brown these which over heated the Daiya and made them leak a bit.  You can see this in the picture below.  It won’t happen as long as your oil is hot enough but no big deal if it does.  It didn’t effect the taste and didn’t make a mess.  Serve these amazingly delicious mozzarella sticks with your favorite dipping sauce and enjoy!

Vegan Mozzarella Sticks