My Favorite Sandwich
I’m not a big fan of sandwiches. I think of them as food on the go or food for children but as a grown ass woman I don’t dine on sandwiches. The only exception I’ll make for that rule is for a burger with a giant pile of french fries next to it because that is not just a sandwich. Otherwise, I’d rather have a real meal. But if I find myself in a situation where sandwiches are happening, my go to favorite is the BLT. For all my efforts to be plant based and avoid meat, bacon is the one thing that is so incredibly hard to let go of. It’s so fucking good. So when I saw this recipe for an eggplant version (I LOVE eggplant, yay!) I thought it might give me a solid alternative to the classic BLT.
Eggplant for the Win
I saw several recipes online for this and decided to base mine on this one from The Kitchn because I liked the idea of the eggplant having a little bit of grease in it. It is trying to replace bacon after all so it needs some fat in it. I also liked that it was relatively quick because a sandwich should be a quick thing.
The key in this recipe is to only coat one side of the eggplant in the seasoning sauce. So make sure you coat it GENEROUSLY.
The Tamari, smokey paprika, garlic powder and smoked salt give the eggplant the smokey, salty and umami flavor that makes bacon so addictive. Add a little bit of crisp and richness from the oil and you have something pretty amazing.
I chose to dress my sandwich with mayo, tomato, lettuce, and avocado because I love avocado and I live in Southern California and we put that shit on everything.
The next time someone says “pack a sandwich” I will be packing this. It’s amazing. Grab and eggplant and see for yourself!
Delightful Recipe
Serves 1-2
Adapted from The Kitchn
INGREDIENTS
- 1 medium eggplant; about 1 lb (long tall ones if you can)
- 1 Tablespoon Tamari
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon of cooking oil
- Bread for two sandwiches, I recommend french bread, ciabatta, focaccia
- Mayonnaise or Veganaise
- 1 avocado
- 1 tomato
- Couple large leaves of romaine or other green lettuce
- In a small bowl mix the Tamari, paprika, smoked salt, garlic powder and oil.
- Slice the eggplant lengthwise very thin but not paper thin. The eggplant will shrink when you cook them and you want them to retain some of their fleshiness.
- Slather one side of each slice of eggplant with the Tamari sauce.
- Heat 1 Tablespoon of oil in a skillet and then add the eggplant slices with the unseasoned side down. This is very important! Let the eggplant cook on the unseasoned side until it is getting nice and charred on the unseasoned side. This will give you some crisp. Then flip the eggplant and finish cooking on the seasoned side. It will be a couple minutes on each side.
- You will probably need to cook the eggplant in batches so once you have it all cooked it’s time to assemble you sandwich. Slice the tomato and avocado. Tear the lettuce into sandwich sized pieces and spread a good amount of mayo/veganaise on one side of the bread. Load all the ingredients, including the eggplant, into the sandwich.
- Enjoy!
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