Grilled Vegetable Sandwich

My garden has really started to come into it's own this week.  Right now I've got fresh lettuce, Japanese eggplant, TONS of giant cucumbers and fresh herbs.  I'm still a couple of weeks away from picking ripe tomatoes and peppers and it looks like we wont be enjoying any fresh watermelon until late August but that's perfectly okay with me. 

I have been eating a lot more vegetables than usual just because they're steps away from my kitchen.  I've been making giant salads for dinner and getting creative with my garden harvest.  

This week I decided to combine my fresh garden vegetables into one delicious grilled vegetable sandwich. 

I used the eggplant and fresh oregano from my garden, threw in some portabella mushrooms, red onion, roma tomatoes and avocado from the grocery store and made THE BEST grilled vegetable sandwich.

My plan was to grill twice as many veggies that I needed for my sandwich and save the other half to put in a vegetable calzone the next day.  That didn't happen.  This sandwich was soooo good that I used all my vegetables to make a second one the next day.  Forget the calzone - this sandwich was too good not to make a second. 

Grilled Vegetable Sandwich
1 eggplant, peeled and sliced
2 portabella mushrooms
1 roma tomato, thickly sliced
1 red bell pepper
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 avocado
1/2 cup black beans, drained and rinsed
juice from 1/2 lime
1/4 teaspoon cumin
2 Tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped
pinch on onion powder
pinch of garlic powder
fresh ground black pepper
1 chiabatta roll

Grill vegetables.
Eggplant

Peppers

Mushrooms

Tomatoes

Onions (I grilled mine in a basket.)

Toast bread on grill.

Combine beans, lime juice, fresh oregano, cumin, onion powder, garlic powder and pepper in food processor and pulse until a coarse mixture forms.

---

To assemble sandwich, spread bean mixture one half of chiabatta roll.  Layer grilled vegetables and avocado on other half.

Assemble sandwich and enjoy!

Ok admittedly, the black bean mixture looks a little unappetizing but the beautiful grilled vegetables more than make up for the unappealing brown color of the beans.  I am loving this fresh garden vegetable sandwich.  It's so good - you'd better make 2 sandwiches because 1 just isn't going to be enough. 

Ciao!

Click here for a printable version of this recipe