Grilled Vegetables and Smashed Chickpeas Sandwich
A filling and healthy Vegetarian Sandwich. Great for picnic or packing for lunch. (Can be vegan)
Posted By Savita
To keep-up with goal of healthy meatless Mondays, today, I'm sharing a delicious grilled vegetables and spiced smashed chickpeas sandwich. This hearty sandwich will fill you up but will NOT weigh you down. Oh- and you can ready these veggie sandwiches, for four, in just 22 minutes!
Flavors in this sandwich are spot-on that not just for lunch, I even serve this sandwich for meatless dinners, sometimes!
Chickpeas Sandwich is not just a scrumptious combination of 'Mediterranean Veggie Flavors' on plate.... But also has a balanced proportion of lean-veggie protein, whole-wheat carbs, and 2 daily recommended serving of vegetables.
Also, continuing my summer motto of getting outdoor, firing-up the grill and eating healthy. Grilling-Season does not always mean meat-heavy-dinner or lunch. It can very well be a mouthwatering vegetarian dinner.
In my home, even when my family is in mood of all-meat-grilled-dinner, I prefer to slice and season a few hearty vegetables to serve on the side. I'm sure you have seen in my number of recipes by now, that Summer Squash and Zucchini are two of my favorites. And they are always perfect on grill! Say thanks to long life of these vegetables, they stay fresh longer and are few of my favorite buddies in my "veggie quest"!
I have to say, even without chickpeas, this sandwich is self-sufficient. Grilled zucchini, squash, and roasted pepper..... with goat cheese and wheat ciabatta rolls, these alone make a delicious grilled vegetable sandwich. Really, great to pack for picnics, and lunch box friendly.
However, I really wanted "Chickpeas" to be the STAR of this sandwich. So, to enhance the flavor of one-note chickpeas, I flavored them with some bold spices: garlic, oregano, and cumin and then smashed them with brine-y and tender artichoke hearts. This unique combination gave smashed chickpeas, depth of flavor and scrumptious textural contrast.
All elements of this Sandwich are screaming "Mediterranean Flavors". Lately, I'm enjoying a lot of Mediterranean dishes. Thing is, there are lot of spices and vegetables in Mediterranean diet which are also very popular in Indian cuisine. So, it is natural for me to like and also play with these flavors. Like chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans) we use a lot.... I mean, A LOT, in Indian cuisine and so do garlic, cumin, and paprika.
Even after many similar ingredients and flavors, I still won't call this sandwich "Indian". Why? because ingredients like olives, and oregano don't belong in Indian cuisine that much.
The bread used for sandwich is home-baked Ciabatta Rolls. You can also use bread roll of your choice, or Pita Bread or Indian Naan for this sandwich. If you are planning to make any of these breads at home. Here are the recipes:
1. Ciabatta Rolls (This recipe uses all-purpose flour. For the batch of ciabatta seen in Sandwich, I have used Wheat Flour instead. I will share this recipe soon.)
2. Pita Bread
3. Naan Bread
4. Garlic Naan Bread
Wish you all a wonderful week ahead. -Savita
Make an easy side-salad to serve Quick and Healthy Complete Meal!
Ingredients
- Grilled Vegetables Sandwich
- 1 Zucchini (sliced vertical thick slices)
- 5-6 Artichokes (hearts, water packed, drained)
- 4 Ciabatta Bread Rolls (sliced in half and toasted)
- 4 tbsp Goat Cheese (at room temprature, or more as per liking)
- 1 Yellow Squash (sliced vertical thick slices)
- 2 Red Bell Pepper (roasted, canned or roasted at home)
- Oil Spray (for grilling)
- 1/2 tsp Salt and Black Pepper (adjust per taste)
- 8-10 Olives (green or black olives, sliced)
- Smashed Chickpeas
- 1 Cup Chickpeas (cooked)
- 1/4 tsp Salt (adjust per taste)
- 1 Garlic (clove, fine chopped)
- 1/2 tsp Cumin Powder
- 1/2 tsp Oregano
- 1 tbsp Lemon (juice, or little more per taste)
- 1/4 tsp Red Pepper Powder (paprika, adjust per taste)
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
Directions
-
1. Heat one tbsp oil in small saute pan. Add garlic and let it perfume oil for 30 seconds. Don't let it burn. Add cooked chickpeas (drained if using canned) with all the spices (cumin, oregano, paprika). -
2. Saute for 3-5 minutes or until chickpeas are nicely coated with spices and are fork tender. Add lemon juice, mix well. Taste and adjust salt. Remove from heat. -
3. Transfer chickpeas to a bowl, add artichoke hearts. Make sure to remove fibrous outer layers (if any) from artichokes. Using a fork, smash the chickpeas leaving just a few ones whole. Set aside. -
4. Heat an iron griddle. Drizzle oil on squash and zucchini slices or just spray the grill with oil spray. Season with salt and black pepper. Place on hot grill and cook until nice grill marks appear on both sides. And veggies are tender to your liking. (I grill for 2-3 minutes each side) Also, toast/grill the ciabatta rolls if you prefer. -
5. To build the sandwich, spread an even layer of room temperature goat cheese spread (about 1/2 tbsp each side) on both sides of bread. On bottom half of bread, top half of a whole roasted bell pepper, grilled zucchini and yellow squash slices (one to two of each), heaping 2-3 tbsp of smashed chickpeas and some chopped olives. -
6. Serve open face or cover with other slice of bread and toast in panini press. Serve or pack for lunch and enjoy!
Savita's Recipe Notes:
How to make it VEGAN? This veggie sandwich can also be, easily, made vegan. Just skip Goat cheese or replace it with vegan spreads: like Cashew Spread or Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Spread or Hummus.
I have used a very less goat cheese, about 1/2 tbsp on each side of bread. If you like your sandwich more creamy, feel free to use more.
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