Girl’s Weekend was a success! What’s better than enjoying good food along with drinks and plenty of laughs with some great friends?! It is so much fun to get away from the daily grind to enjoy time with some of your closest friends. I love a get together where you can make an entire meal out of finger foods or appetizers. This recipe is great for serving as an appetizer. A version of this recipe was first shared with me several years ago by my sister. I loved it so much I have been making it ever since and serving at parties. I have made different versions of this by adding different veggies to it; I have also made these smaller sandwiches using steak and different types of cheese. The possibilities are endless. It is a simple recipe to make with only a few steps and few ingredients but at the same time it is filled with so much flavor using tasty & healthy veggies. You could also make this as a larger sandwich if don’t want them as appetizers. When serving finger foods at a party, this gives your guests something more substantial to eat. If you don’t have a grill or if it is too cold outside you can also place the veggies on a baking sheet and roast them in your oven.
Give the recipe a try and let me know what you think!
Grilled Veggie Sandwich
Ingredients
1, French Baguette Bread
1, Eggplant, sliced
1, Purple Onion, cut into rings
1, Yellow Squash, sliced
2, Red Peppers
1 Jar, Pesto
1 Ball, Mozzarella Cheese
Olive Oil, to drizzle on veggies
S&P
Instructions
Turn Grill on to high heat.
Prep all your veggies for the grill. Cut the ends off of your Eggplant and then slice it so you have long slices. Do the same with your Yellow Squash. Peel the onion, then slice thickly so you have rings. Leave the peppers whole to grill them.
Season all your veggies with Olive Oil, S&P. Place all your veggies on grill and cook for about 5 minutes per side. You’ll see some nice grill marks and they should be tender to tough. The peppers will take slightly longer; you want them to turn black on all sides.
Remove all veggies from grill and you add a little more oil, S&P to them if needed. Place your peppers into a brown bag and seal until they cool. If you don’t have a bag, place them onto a plate and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Let sit until they are cool to touch. Remove peppers once cooled and the skin will peel right off. The top of my peppers (with the stem) came right out with most of the seeds. But, you’ll want to make sure you remove the seeds and then cut pepper into large pieces. Cut the Mozzarella Cheese into slices, set aside.
Start assembling your sandwich: Cut the bread open, cover both sides with your pesto. Then layer on slices of the Mozzarella Cheese, peppers, squash, onion and eggplant. Press sandwich firmly together and cover with plastic wrap, sealing it in the wrap tightly. Place in fridge. Once you are ready to serve, slice into small sandwiches.
Mangia! Enjoy!
Tips
Try not to slice your veggies to thin otherwise they may fall through your grill.
I like to make this sandwich ahead of time so it has time to sit in fridge. I have made same day as serving but have also made a day ahead. Putting it into the fridge helps it to stay together better and gives it more time for the flavors to marry. The recipe is so simple but has so much flavor from the pesto and the grilled veggies. Pull out of the fridge about 30 minutes-1 hour before serving so it isn’t too cold. It is great at room temp.
I use this recipe for parties where I am looking to make appetizers/finger foods. I slice them into small sandwiches. 1 French loaf goes a long way when making them into appetizer size.
With the amount of veggies in this recipe, you can make more than 1 French Baguette. You could make at least 2 long loaves of bread into sandwiches. You could also use the leftover veggies and turn them into dips or add them to other recipes.
You can also add any of your favorite veggies to this sandwich. I have also used zucchini and mushrooms before. You can also use different types of peppers. Just slice your veggies and grill them and follow the same steps above for other types of peppers. You can also change up the onion; instead of a purple onion you could use a white or yellow onion.