Roasted Red Pepper Cutlets

This cutlet is healthier without the breadcrumbs—the combination of oats, cornmeal, and nutritional yeast offers a surprising amount of protein!—and it also works well for “breading” eggplant, zucchini, tofu, or seitan. Serve with marinara sauce over pasta, quinoa, or a vegetable stirfry, and the leftovers make hearty sandwiches with hummus, pesto, or vegan mayo. Or cut the peppers into smaller nugget-sized pieces to serve with a dipping sauce.

1 16-oz. jar roasted red peppers (four peppers)

¾ cup steel-cut oats

¾ cup cornmeal

⅓ cup nutritional yeast

1 tbsp. onion powder

1 tbsp. garlic powder

1 tbsp. dried herbs (any combination of basil, thyme, rosemary, and sage)

1 tsp. salt

black pepper to taste

½ cup flour

3 tbsp. Ener-G egg replacer + ¾ cup warm water (the equivalent of 6 eggs)

½ cup vegetable oil

Drain the water from the pepper jar, carefully pull out the peppers and halve them lengthwise to form cutlet shapes, and remove any stray seeds. To make the cutlets, you’ll dip the pepper first into the flour, then into the egg replacement mixture, and finally in the oat-and-cornmeal coating before frying. Pour out the flour evenly onto a plate, and in a medium-sized bowl whisk the egg replacer with water until fully dissolved and frothy. Put the oats in a food processor and grind for a minute or so, then add the cornmeal and seasonings and pulse until fully mixed. Pour coating mixture into a second bowl.

Heat the vegetable oil in the frying pan as you begin the three-part dipping. Once the pan is heated, cutlets will brown nicely in seven minutes, flipping halfway through.

Yields approximately eight cutlets (though size will vary). 

(I wrote up this recipe for a Bob's Red Mill recipe contest last summer figuring I could blog it regardless, and then naturally I forgot all about it!)