Rustic Roasted Veggie Sandwich

One of the many benefits of adding more vegetables to your diet is the showy display they make on your plate. There’s a beautiful sandwich full of colors to inspire your cooking, and this Rustic Roasted Veggie Sandwich is a perfect example of a beautiful and delicious culinary work of art.

Adding vegetarian recipes into your routine is so easy, and it’s particularly nice to have them during the summer months when your body is craving lighter meals. I love making this Simple Green Goddess Sandwich for a quick lunch or using salads like this Green Salad with Strawberries or my Mediterranean Lentil Salad as a main course. This roasted veggie sandwich makes a great light lunch and earns its “epic” name by being colorful, packed with good-for-you veggies, and delicious!

What Makes This Recipe Work?

The simplicity of this recipe and how quickly it goes from start to finish makes this a winner for anyone looking to shave some time off mealtime. You can even roast the vegetables on the weekend and have them ready-to-go in the fridge as soon as you’re ready to start the sandwich-making.

This recipe is also very customizable and a great way to clean out your produce drawer. Wondering what to do with that one extra yellow squash or half an eggplant? Have gardening neighbors who drop off the extra zucchini and tomatoes they don’t know what to do with? This sandwich recipe is the answer. 

Need to pack lunch for work? These sandwiches are also very portable and don’t contain mayo or meats that need to be carefully refrigerated.

Ingredients

• Portabello mushrooms- Full-sized portobello mushrooms work best for layering and actually staying on the sandwich, but you can use baby bellas if they’re not available.
• Zucchini- Choose a firm, small zucchini for this recipe. Larger zucchinis tend to be older and more bitter.
• Bell pepper- I used red bell pepper, but you can use any color.
• Onion- Choose a sweet onion or a red onion for more bite.
• Olive oil- I like to use Greek extra virgin olive oil for this recipe.
• Salt and pepper- Use freshly ground black pepper and kosher salt.
• Artichoke hearts- I like to buy whole artichoke hearts, then quarter them, but you can buy them already quartered.
• Microgreens- I love adding these and sprouts to my sandwiches.
• Cream cheese- Make sure this is softened to room temperature for easy mixing.
• Goat cheese- Choose a plain, fresh goat cheese.
• Basil- This recipe uses fresh basil, which definitely adds the most flavor. If you need to substitute with dried, use 2-3 teaspoons.
• Garlic- I love the smell and bite of fresh garlic in this spread, but roasted garlic works well too.
• Bread- I used ciabatta rolls, but you can slice ciabatta loaves into sandwich-sized pieces too.

How to Make

1. Prep your veggies by cleaning them well, patting them dry, and slicing. You want to make sure each vegetable is cut roughly the same width to keep a similar cooking time. Keep an eye on the veggies once they’re in the oven so they don’t overcook.
2. The spread is super simple to put together. Just be sure your cream cheese is at room temperature. I used fresh basil, but fresh thyme or oregano work well too.
3. If you want, you can lightly toast your bread so it’ll have a little crisp to the edges.
4. Assemble the sandwich with all the care of a child building a Lego tower, then dig in!

Tips for Making This Epic Roasted Veggie Sandwich

• There are so many breads to choose from: ciabatta, sourdough, French baguette, or a hearty-grain bread. Ciabatta is my go-to, but any of them will work. If you’re feeling adventurous and want to make your own, check out my recipes for Einkhorn Sandwich Bread and Whole Wheat Oatmeal Bread.
• When it’s really hot outside, I sometimes dread turning on the oven. You can avoid the oven with another cooking method. Roast veggies in an air fryer at 380 degrees for about 6 minutes, then start checking them for doneness. You might need to work in batches to keep the zucchini slices flat, depending on how thin you slice them, but it’s a great workaround when it’s too hot to work around the kitchen. You can also pan-grilled vegetables on the stovetop if you have a ridged pan.

• My family loves goat cheese, so that’s what I used for the spread on this sandwich, but there are lots of other options to try. Pesto and sundried tomato mayo are also really good or just make your veg sandwich with mayonnaise or aioli. If you want to add this to your vegan recipes, use hummus or a plant-based mayo or cheese spread.
• It’s always a good idea to have leftover oven-roasted vegetables in the fridge, so if I’m roasting already, I’ll make extra. Leftovers are great in this Roasted Veggie and Orzo Salad, mixed into a simple pasta sauce, or used in a Buddha bowl.

How do you roast vegetables that are not soggy?

Roasted veggies can make a soggy mess of a sandwich if they’re not cooked properly. The key is to cook them at a high temperature for a short amount of time. You also want to be sure not to overcook them, particularly things like squash that tend to turn to mush quickly.

Ciabatta bread works great at handling a little veggie juice, but you can always gently pat the vegetables dry before building your sandwich if there’s too much moisture left on the baking sheet.

Getting your recommended servings of vegetables every day doesn’t have to be a chore or require forcing sad salads on your groaning family. This Epic Roasted Veggie Sandwich definitely feels more like a treat than a trick to sneak in more produce. Let everyone build their own sandwiches and create their own colorful, edible, work of art.

• I just posted this awesome Strawberry Pineapple Agua Fresca. It is a favorite in our house!
• Or what about a float? These classic drinks are so much fun! I loved this Blueberry Lemon Float.
• Maybe a non-alcoholic sangria is something you are interested in?
• Classic Lemonade is always in style in our house!
• Rhubarb Lemonade is a fun twist on that classic.

• Dinner