I made a batch of these last week that was my best yet. Then I realized I haven’t formalized the recipe yet, so here goes.
You’ll need:
- Eggplant. One or two, depending on their size and how many sandwiches you want. A medium eggplant for about 3-4 sandwiches.
- Zucchini. Again, one medium for about 3-4 sandwiches. But having extra doesn’t hurt, on either of these.
- Roasted red peppers, cut into 1/2 inch pieces. I buy them in a jar, I like the Mt. Olive brand.
- Sandwich buns. I generally love crusty breads, but they don’t work so well for this. I usually go with kaiser rolls.
- Olive oil.
- Salt and pepper.
- Hummus. Its quality is important to the sandwich, and I haven’t found a prefab brand I like nearly as well as the homemade recipe below. If you want to make that, you’ll need:
- A food processor or immersion blender. Haven’t tried it in a standing blender, but that might work too.
- 2 cups (one large can) of garbanzo beans. Also known as chick peas, of course, but come on, “garbanzo” is so much more fun to say.
- 1/3 cup sesame tahini.
- 3 medium garlic cloves, minced.
- 4 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice.
- 6-8 dashes of hot sauce — although honestly I think I forgot to add this last time and it turned out just fine.
- 1/2 teaspoon salt.
- 2 tablespoons water.
Blend it all up, and voilà.
Broil the eggplant and zucchini:
Peel the eggplant and cut it into discs that are about an inch thick. Cut the zucchini also into discs that are about an inch thick.
Lightly grease a baking sheet with some cooking spray. Pour some olive oil into a shallow bowl, about 1/8 inch deep or so. Pick up two eggplant slices, dip one of them into the olive oil and then quickly rub the other against it to soak up excess. (They really like to drink it up, and it is possible to get too much in there.) Repeat on the other side of each slice. Lay them on the baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the eggplant slices, and then with the zucchini slices too.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over the vegetable slices to taste. Broil them on the middle oven rack, leaving the oven door cracked open, until the eggplant gets nice and brown on top (about five minutes maybe, but ovens vary and you should keep an eye on it). Before they get mushy, flip the eggplant slices over, and brown their other sides. Sometimes the zucchini browns too, other times it’s too wet to get brown. Either way is fine. I usually don’t bother to flip those because they’re small and numerous, and will cook through just fine. But if any of it looks like it’s getting mushy, go ahead and take it off the sheet, transferring to a plate or storage.
You can broil the vegetables ahead of time, but they need to be warm for the sandwich. Heat them gently in the microwave if needed before assembling the sandwiches.
Assemble a sandwich:
Toast the bun lightly (if desired; I always do). Spread hummus on each half. Add one or two eggplant slices, enough to cover the bun without overlapping (you might have to tear one to make this happen). Add 3-4 zucchini slices in a single layer over the eggplant. Sprinkle on a few red pepper pieces, and close the sandwich. Tada!
one thing i like to do with hummus (plain or roasted garlic hummus) is to make wraps or rollups with them:
hummus + lemon juice + alfalfa sprouts + chopped red onion + olive oil + lavash bread.
yum. and quick.
Mmm, sprouts. I need to start stocking those again.
oh and paprika.
The recipe sounds delicious! Might they also work encased in pita bread?
Great recipe. Sounds healthy and scrumptious. Thank you for sharing! I will try it some time.