Ok, I admit it.  I’m a girl who loves her bacon sandwiches.  BLT’s, turkey clubs and, of course, guacamole bacon sandwiches.  Who would have guessed that I would be the one to crave a roasted vegetable sandwich with chipotle mayonnaise?  No bacon.
Vegetable sandwiches have become my obsession this summer. I just had the most delicious tomato sandwich in San Jose.  The tomatoes were sweet and juicy; without a hint of acid.  They must have been picked minutes before becoming a sandwich.  I’ve been craving them ever since.  The only thing that would have made them better was my Chipotle Mayonnaise recipe. So, I decided to update my Roasted Vegetable Sandwich with Chipotle Mayonnaise post for everyone who is buried under a mountain of late summer vegetables.  Who said zucchinni?

They key to a great veggie sandwich is in the spread or pesto.  So, to update my earlier post, I’ve included my recipe for spinach pesto as well as the Chipotle Mayonnaise recipe.  Either one is terrific with the veggies or, you can use them both.  A balsamic reduction drizzled over the vegetables can be nice if you like a little sweetness on your vegetables.  Tomatoes, especially.

This is still the best method for grilling the veggies, just be sure to not to over cook them.  Take advantage of their freshness by keeping them al dente.

Roasted Vegetable Sandwich with Chipotle Mayonnaise

1 tablespoon of chipotles in adobo, finely minced

1/2 cup mayonnaise

4 Ciabatta rolls

2 japanese eggplants

2 zucchini

2 red bell peppers, the bottled type will do just fine

canola oil

1 bunch spinach

8 oz queso panela or fresh mozzarella cheese

1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano

salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste

Directions for Vegetable Sandwich with Chipotle Mayonnaise

Mince chipotle pepper and mix it into the mayonnaise.  Let the chipotle mayonnaise chill in the refrigerator to blend the flavors together while you prepare the rest of the sandwich.

Slice the eggplant and zucchini lengthwise into long, 1/4 inch slices (a mandolin works well for this) .  Cut off the stem of the red pepper, cut into quarters and remove the seeds.

Very lightly oil veggies with canola oil (save on calories by wiping off the excess oil, you will taste the real freshness of the vegetable if it is not covered in oil).

Place veggies on a medium high grill (a grill pan works great and isn’t as messy) and cook long enough for grill marks, but still al dente.  Salt after they are taken off the grill so that they don’t let off too much of their juices.  Remember, you want to keep the fresh crispness of the vegetable.

Dice the eggplant.  Remove the skin of the red pepper if desired.

Cut rolls in half and toast lightly on the grill.

Spread chipotle mayonnaise on the bread and layer the vegetables; zucchini, then diced eggplant, red pepper and cheese.

Warm the cheese quickly on the grill and season with a little Mexican oregano and salt and pepper.

Top it off with fresh spinach and enjoy the summertime while you can!

Wilted Spinach Salad Pesto

2 1/2 cups leftover spinach greens

3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup walnuts, toasted

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly cracked

1/2 to 2/3 cups olive oil

Put spinach, garlic, walnuts, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times.  Drizzle olive oil into food processor while pulsing until you reach the desired consistency.

I love to make pesto with unusual ingredients.  It’s a great way to top sandwiches, pastas or cheesy dips.  I’m inspired by these creative pestos and chipotle mayonnaises:

omemade Chipotle Mayonnaise-Confections of a Foodie Bride

Cowboy Steak w/Chipotle Mayonnaise- Lobel’s Prime Time Grilling-Serious Eats

Chipotle Mayonnaise in a Wrap-Culinary in the Desert Country!

Mexican Hot Dogs w/ Pineapple Salsa and Chipotle Mayonnaise- Homesick Texan

– posted by Sandy

Me?  Grill outside in Arizona… in July?  Are you kidding?  No way!  These Pollo Asado Tacos are one of my brother’s BBQ specialties.  He was nice enough to fight the Arizona heat and  fire up the grill to cook his famous Chicken Tacos and show us how Southwest grilling is really done.  His marinade adds just the right amount of citrus and chile to turn the chicken into a light and summery dish with just a little kick.

He even introduced me to a new chile that I didn’t even know existed.  While making a batch of quacamole, we realized that there was only one jalapeno!  How is that possible?  Not to worry, my sister-in-law pulled out a packet of tiny little chiles from her pantry.  Chile Tepin or Chiltepin. These cute, little chiles have just become my favorite pantry item.  The chiles are dried and easy to keep on hand.  They are tiny so that you can choose just the right amount of heat to add to your dish.  You won’t have half of a chile leftover to liquify in your refrigerator.  And, more importantly, they are one of the official chiles of Yucatan.  These chiles are like keeping a Cancun vacation in your cupboard!  O.K.  Maybe not.  But I can dream, can’t I?

Place garlic, salt, pepper and cilantro in food processor and pulse until it makes a loose paste.

Place chiltepin in a mortar and crush until fine.  Add to paste.

Scrape into a bowl.  Add lime juice, orange juice, vinegar and olive oil.  Stir.

Add the chicken to the mixture and marinade in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Start the charcoal and grill the chicken when the flames have gone down.

Grill until chicken is cooked through.  No rare chicken,  please!

TACOS POLLO ASADO

4 cloves garlic

1 large handful fresh cilantro

kosher salt

fresh black pepper

2 limes, juice only

1 orange, juice only

2 tablespoons white vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons chiltepin

2 pounds chicken breasts

corn tortillas (2 tortillas for each taco)

Garnishes

quacamole

cotija cheese

salsa or pico de gallo

1/2 head cabbage, shredded

Directions

Place garlic, cilantro, salt, pepper and pulse to make a paste.  Scrape paste into a bowl.  Add lime juice, orange juice, vinegar and olive oil. Stir until well mixed. Crush chiltepin with a mortar and pestle then stir into the marinade.  Add chicken and marinate in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.  Not too long or  the citrus will cook the outside of the chicken similar to ceviche.

Start charcoal while chicken is marinating.  Grill chicken until cooked through.  Rest chicken for  about 15 minutes.  Slice chicken into 1/2 inch thick strips.  Heat tortillas to soften.

To make tacos, stack two warm tortillas together.  Add two strips of chicken and garnish with cheese, salsa, guacamole and shredded cabbage on each stack of tortillas.  Serve.

posted by Sandy

I’m always looking for a new mocktail recipe to serve poolside during the summer.  After all, you can only drink so many diet sodas or lemonades . For some reason, I can’t get the lime sherbet punch served at summer weddings out of my mind. You know the punch I’m talking about.  Just about everyone from the local Church Lady to Paula Deen has a recipe for it.  We don’t have a lot of weddings in the summer here in Phoenix (like we always say, “If the wedding can’t wait  until October, it’s not really love.”)   So, it looks like I’m going to have to make it myself.  The only problem is… I forgot to invite  two hundred of my closest friends over to swim today.

The best part of this drink is the little lumps of half frozen sherbet that float on the top of the punch and leave a “got lime?” mustache with every sip.  It’s hard to keep that semi-frozen state for very long, so I decided to prep all of the ingredients separately and mix the drinks in individual servings,  like a bartender might do.

First, I scooped the lime sherbet into small balls with a two ounce ice cream scoop and returned them to the freezer.  Then I set up a “bar” area on the patio with all the shakers, jiggers and glasses we would need.  I put the chilled ginger ale, chilled pineapple-orange juice and sherbet scoops into an ice chest with ice packs and brought them out just as the fun was about to start.

The drinks were a big hit.  Preparing them separately made sure that the last drink was as frozen as the first.  You can let your family and friends try their hand at mixing their own drink.

Lime Sherbet Mocktail

serves 10

20 oz lime sherbet, scooped into 2 oz scoops

20 oz ginger ale or 7up

10 0z pineapple juice or pineapple-orange juice blend

2 limes, sliced

Put 1 scoop of lime sherbet into shaker.  Add 2 oz of ginger ale or 7up (use a jigger to measure).  Add 1 0z of pineapple juice.  Shake until just mixed. The sherbet should still have lumps.  Pour into a chilled 5 to 6 oz glass.  Garnish with a slice of lime.

Here are some other drinks that look good your summer party:

Tropical Pineapple Coconut Banana Smoothie- Baking Bites

Sparkling Ginger and Lime Cooler-Steamy Kitchen

Pomegranate Cooler- ecurry

I know what you’re thinking,  ”Crepe recipes?  On a Southwest food blog?” That’s what I thought.  Until I tasted fajita steak and chipotle chicken wrapped up in a crispy crepe, that is.

We found a great little restaurant in Irvine, California last month called the Crepe Maker. The menu is built around a basic crepe recipe filled with just about anything you can imagine.  Savory, sweet, Southwest, Italian, they have it all.  My husband was skeptical, to say the least.  ”Crepes aren’t really food.  Are they?”

These crepes certainly are!  I have never had a crepe like this.  The crepes I have eaten are usually small and soft… delicate little things.  The crepes at Crepe Maker are large and crispy!  Think pizza sized.  They are folded in half and rolled into a cone shape in order to hold such hearty ingredients as fajita steak, marinated chicken and even Tex-Mex combos with corn and black beans.  My favorite crepe turned out to be the one I tried on a whim.  It has marinated chicken, melted cheddar cheese, tomatoes, spinach, walnuts and… wait for it… raspberry jam!  It was delicious!  The raspberry jam added tartness and just a little sweet to the dish.  The jam melted slightly in the warm crepe and spread itself around on the spinach greens.  I’ve been craving the crepes ever since we returned home.

The cooks at the Crepe Maker shared their tips for making the perfect crepe.  So, get  your filling and your crepe batter ready and cook along.

1.  Consistency.  The batter should be a thin pancake like batter so that it will spread evenly but, it should still have body and not be too runny.

2.  The biggest tip is to spread the crepe batter evenly so that it will brown evenly and crisp up without patches of uncooked batter.  A crepe maker machine is used but, the cooks said they make crepes at home in a regular saute pan and they turn out just as well.  If you don’t have one of these “spreaders,” just roll the batter around the pan and pour off the excess before the crepes brown.

3.  Use an “off set” spatula that is long enough to fit under the entire crepe so the crepe can be flipped without tearing.

4.  Make sure that the crepe browns evenly on both sides so that it will get crispy and be strong enough to hold the  fillings.

5.  Fold the crepe in half while still in the pan so that your warm ingredients will stay warm and cheese will melt to the crepe.

6.  Work quickly when adding the fillings so that the crepe will not over cook or dry out.

7.  Roll the crepe into a cone shape around the filling while the crepe is warm and can still be shaped without cracking.

8.  Don’t forget to make extra crepes to fill with carmel and fresh fruit for a low-fat dessert.

Here is a good basic crepe recipe to experiment with.  You can always add things like chives to the batter.

Basic Crepes

1 cup milk

1/2 cup lukewarm water

4 large eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 stick melted butter

Vegetable oil for pan

Pour milk, water and eggs into a blender.  Pulse a few times.  Add flour and salt.  Cover and pulse a few times again.  Add melted butter and blend for one to two minutes.  Scrape down the sides if necessary and pulse.

Rest batter in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.

Brush the cooking surface with oil.  Follow the directions above.  If you are using a large saute pan, pour a circle of batter into the middle of the pan and swirl the batter around to coat the bottom of the pan and pour excess back into the bowl of batter.  Proceed as above.

Use your favorite fajita or chile marinated steak to fill the crepes or try some of these ideas-

Fillet Asada with Greens and Cranberry, Pecan Salad- Everday Southwest in Southwest Flair Magazine

Succulent Achiote- Orange Carnitas Recipe- Black Girl Chef’s  Whites

Pulled Chicken Tacos- Guilty Kitchen

- posted by Sandy

I have come up with my very own fabulous frugal food tip!  I made a pesto recipe out of a wilted spinach salad.  I think it is a rather brilliant way to stretch the delicious spinach salad recipe with strawberries, goat cheese and candied walnuts into another dish.   Bruschetta!

I was so disappointed when I went to the refrigerator to get some left over salad for lunch and realized that I had dressed all of the spinach the night before and now, it was wilted.  The spinach, goat cheese and strawberry combo from the day before (don’t forget the walnuts) sounded so good to me that I just had to figure out a way to finish them off.  I decided that if pesto is made by just chopping up basil and smothering it in oil anyway, why not start out with spinach that was dressed in olive oil already?

It worked out really well and the little bit of balsamic vinegar from the original vinaigrette gave the pesto a tiny bit of sweetness and just a little tang.  I stretched the remaining goat cheese, strawberries and walnuts by putting them on a sliced baguette and drizzling them with the pesto.

The thing to watch for when using the “all ready been dressed” spinach is, of coarse, the type of dressing used in the first place.  I can’t quite picture pesto made with ranch or thousand island dressing.  Also, taste for salt and garlic levels as you go along; you might want to hold back on some of these ingredients to start out. You can always add more if needed.

Wilted Spinach Salad Pesto

2 1/2 cups leftover spinach greens

3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup walnuts, toasted

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper, freshly cracked

1/2 to 2/3 cups olive oil

1/2 pint strawberries

3 oz creamy goat cheese

1/2 baguette

Put spinach, garlic, walnuts, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times.  Drizzle olive oil into food processor while pulsing until you reach the desired consistency.

Slice baguette into 1/2 inch slices and toast lightly.  Top baguette slices with quartered strawberries and goat cheese.  Drizzle with pesto.

I love to make pesto with unusual ingredients.  It’s a great way to top sandwiches, pastas or cheesy dips.  I’m inspired by these creative pestos:

Artichoke and Hazelnut Pesto Spread- Cookin’ Canuck

Roasted Squash with Coriander Pesto-Fuss Free Cooking

Frugal version of Mario Batali’s Brocoli Rabe Pesto- Fab Frugal Food

Delicious Ramp Pesto-Sarah’s Cucina Bella

posted by Sandy

Ahhhhh – Mexican Chorizo. It is one of those foods that – when it’s good – can be heavenly, but . . . when it’s bad, it can be a greasy and nasty nightmare. So, I thought, how about making it at home so I could control the ingredients?

Mexican style chorizo is made from ground pork, vinegar and spices.  I decided not to bother with trying to put it into casings because I always wind up removing the casings and using it like ground beef in recipes anyway.

First I did some research.

The Homesick Texan posts a fabulous chorizo with pork, vinegar, chiles and spices. Thank goodness HT agrees with me to skip the casings! The Spicie Foodie made a chorizo with less heat. Diane at The Whole Gang adds tequila to her chorizo! Wow! Must try this next time.  Menu in Progress makes an Oaxacan style chorizo with five different chile powders.

And, the King of Mexican Cuisine himself, Rick Bayless, adds pork, pork fat, chiles, spices and garlic to his Chorizo Toluqueño in his book Authentic Mexican. He recommends refrigerating for 2 days before using.

Many of the recipes call for using a meat grinder, but, seriously, who has a meat grinder these days?  I found that pulsing the pork in my food processor works just as well.

Chorizo is surprisingly easy to make and is very lean, depending on the cut of pork you use. I had to add oil to my pan to cook it because it was so very lean. And, I loved the flavor of my homemade version. So delicious. I have some stashed in my freezer right now for our next leisurely breakfast with chorizo and eggs!

EVERYDAY SOUTHWEST CHORIZO

1 pound pork, visible fat removed (I used center cut loin chops), cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons chile powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon each: sugar, ground oregano, salt
1 tablespoon cumin
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tablespoon olive oil

Pulse all ingredients in food processor until very fine chunks, similar to ground beef. Refrigerate mixture for at least 2 days before using. Use as you would ground beef.

–posted by Donna

Apparently, I didn’t do that great of a job shopping before I went into the hospital for knee surgery.  I found a strange collection of ingredients in the fridge when I got home: left over pizza, dried out chicken nuggets and really smelly chinese food.  All signs that my family survived any way they could… by eating take-out.  The big bag of salad greens I purchased is still sitting there, looking a little sad.  I must have been under the influence of pre-surgery medication when I bought it.   I had these images of my  husband sitting around, munching on salad and marveling at its crisp, summery, freshness while I was in the hospital eating reconstituted beef bullion and rubberized pork chops.

However, there is a big patch of really fresh strawberries in the fridge that wasn’t there before.  He probably picked them up at the grocery store on one of his “emergency runs” for ice cream (the evidence is in the trash can).  So, I mixed the strawberries and bag of greens with creamy goat cheese from the fridge (every Southwest cook has goat cheese in the fridge) and candied walnuts from the pantry for a fresh summery salad that made me feel so happy to be home.

Strawberry and Goat Cheese Salad with Candied Walnuts

Serves 4

4 to 6 cups fresh spinach leaves

1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette

1 pint fresh strawberries

8 oz goat cheese (I like Laura Chenel, but you can use your favorite)

1 cup candied walnuts (recipe follows)

Method-

Rinse spinach and spin or pat dry.  Remove stems from strawberries and cut into quarters.  Toss spinach and strawberries with vinaigrette a tablespoon or two at a time so that it doesn’t become “over dressed”.

Plate the spinach and strawberries.  Crumble the goat cheese evenly over the salad and sprinkle with the candied walnuts.

Candied Walnuts

This is the recipe I used to candy the walnuts.  I like it because the walnuts turn out crunchy with a lightly sweet taste, but not too sticky like many of the recipes that caramelize the nuts.  It is also a good way to use left over egg whites.

2 1/2 cups walnuts

1 large egg white, beaten by hand

1/4 cup granulated sugar or super fine sugar (not powdered sugar)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Method-

Toss the walnuts in the beaten egg white.

Add the salt to the sugar and mix well with a fork.  Sprinkle sugar mixture over the walnuts and stir until evenly coated.

Spread walnuts onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  Separate the nuts as well as you can.

Bake for about 30 minutes.  Every oven is different, so be sure to check them sooner.  Nuts burn easily.

Remove from oven and lift the parchment paper off the baking sheet and onto a cooling rack to allow the nuts to cool.

I’ve been searching the web for other things to do with goat cheese and have put these recipes on my “wish list.”

David Lebowitz’s Goat Cheese Custard Recipe with Strawberries in Red Wine Syrup

Love and Olive Oil’s Fried Goat Cheese and Strawberry Salad

Good Bite’s Goat Cheese Tart by Kat Odell

                                                                                                                                                                                  -posted by Sandy

The next time you are headed to the hospital, be sure to sneak some salsa in with you. It’s the perfect cure for those hospital meal blues.  After fasting for a day before my surgery and only  drinking beef broth the night after, I had a hard time looking at the grey turkey roll-ups for dinner and the french toast that was the same color as the sausage the next morning.  Luckily, my husband smuggled some salsa into my room.  Two kinds!  And a big bag of chips, no less.  What can I say?  The man knows the way to my heart.  

Seriously, the salsa made everything taste much better and turned it into something you might even want to eat.  I put the Goldwater’s Brand Sedona Red Hot Salsa on the turkey and the Goldwater’s Mojave Mango Salsa on the french toast.  No, I’m not kidding.  I actually put it on the french toast.  The mango salsa is not sweet.  It’s more like a chutney so it turns the french toast into a savory dish that save you the calories and fat of syrup and butter.  It was even good on the sausage patty.  I thought it was sort of brilliant even if I do say so myself.  I do have to admit that it would taste much better if the mangos were fresh.  

So, if your aren’t checking in to the hospital soon (I certainly hope you’re not!) try these recipes for unusual things to do with mango salsa/chutney.

Simply Recipes: Pork Mango Picadillo

Vintage Victuals: Rice with Mango Chutney

Cookin’ Canuck: Savory Mango Chutney & Cheddar Cheese Palmiers Recipe

Jimmy Dean Sausage: Jamaican Jerk Pinwheels

We have always said that Southwest food can be light and healthy.  Now, we have proof.  Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill just opened restaurant number 200! The restaurants feature Baja style “beach food” that is packed with fresh ingredients and authentic flavor.

We were invited to join Ralph Rubio (the man behind the fish tacos and founder of Rubio’s) and a group of fellow bloggers for a free lunch at one of the new locations in Utah.  Rubio showed off the food he fell in love with as a college student while vacationing on the beaches of Baja, Mexico. That’s when, at a little taco shop in San Felipe, he met his first love, the fish taco. Rubio brought the concept of the fish taco back to California and, after perfecting his own recipe, opened his first restaurant in San Diego in 1983.

Before sitting down for lunch, Rubio took us on a tour of the kitchen where we saw chiles and fresh vegetables cooking on an open flame grill and stuffed into the healthy, Baja style food that Rubio’s is famous for. The lunch featured some of the greatest hits from the menu as well as some of Rubio’s newer dishes.  The fish taco is still the star, but other items have been added to the menu along the way to keep up with customers’ tastes and current trends.  With each course, Rubio gave us tips on how he to keeps the authentic flavor in his fresh and healthy food.

Tip # 1-The Fish Taco: Rubio uses flaky white fish with a very thin batter for his fish tacos.  He serves them “street taco” style on a fresh corn tortilla. There is no need to fry the tortilla, just warm them to make them soft. You’ll love the fresh corn taste.  Rubio wraps the tortilla around the crunchy fish and tops it off with thinly shredded cabbage instead of lettuce.  It adds extra nutrients as well as extra crunch.  What a great way to sneak cabbage into your family’s meals!

Tip #2-The Salsa Bar: Not everyone in the family loves spicy food.  Rubio uses a trick we use with our own families.  He uses the mildest salsa in the taco or burrito itself then offers a fresh salsa bar for guests to customize food to their own tastes.  The salsa bar offers four styles of  salsa made with fresh ingredients including a mild, a spicy, a salsa verde and a roasted tomato with chipotle salsa (our favorite).

(NOTE by DONNA: That Chipotle salsa is one of the best salsas I have ever tasted – I could have just eaten it with a spoon! Make sure you try this when you go!)

Tip #3-Don’t add fat when you don’t have  to:  There’s no need to add extra fat to rice and beans.  We were amazed at how flavorful the refried beans were.  Rubio only uses beans, garlic and salt to make them.  No lard! We didn’t even miss the fat or its “mouth feel” that coats your tongue with a sort of greasy feeling.  The beans had such a “clean” flavor.  The same is true for his rice. It’s light and fluffy without all of the added butter.  If you wrap rice and black beans together with some grilled chicken in a flour tortilla, you’ll have the Big Burrito Especial, one of the biggest hits of the day.

Tip #4-Grill the meat for your tacos and burritos: Grilling is a much lighter way to prepare your food.  There is no need for extra oil to saute and the natural fat melts away from the meat instead of staying in the braising liquid.  We tasted some of Rubio’s new gourmet grilled tacos.  They have added grilled chicken, grilled shrimp, grilled steak and even a grilled portobello and poblano taco for meatless meals.

Tip #5-Use Southwest flavors for your salads: Southwest flavors are perfect when you are watching your weight.  Anything you can put in a tortilla, you can put on a salad or lettuce wrap.  The spicy flavors can kick up your diet food and add a little variety.  Rubio’s Balsamic and Roasted Veggie Salad  has grilled chicken and is large enough for a entre.  We never would have guessed that it only has 340 calories!

If you are close to a Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill, go ahead and give them a try to see what fresh and healthy Southwest cooking should be.  In fact, if you are in Utah, mark June 4th on your calendar.  It’s Rubio’s second annual “Go Fish Day.”  Fish tacos are free (no purchase necessary) to promote Utah’s free fishing day though out the state on June 5th.  If you aren’t close by, you can use Rubio’s tips to lighten up your own recipes.  Don’t forget to watch our blog, we”ll have plenty of light and healthy Southwest cooking tips. We’re even working on some Rubio’s inspired dishes of our own that will be perfect for summertime grilling.

– Written by Sandy

I’m always looking for recipes to use grilled fresh vegetables in.  My friend, Lisa, has a fresh supply of vegetables right in her own garden! She makes me so jealous.  Lisa uses environment friendly techniques to maintain her garden.  Right now, she has an incredible harvest of fresh spinach, tomatoes and even japanese eggplant that are just waiting to be picked.  That inspired me to dust off the grill and test it out for the spring barbecuing season.  Spring goes by pretty quickly around here so, you have to move fast before it gets too hot!

To my  mind, just about any veggie is better on the grill.  I happened to use japanese eggplant, zucchini, and red bell pepper.  For the fresh greens, I used spinach.  Try it on your sandwiches it adds a lot of flavor and more nutrition than just  plain  lettuce. Maybe you can sneak it  by your kids, no one said you have to tell them it is spinach.

To add a little protein, I added some fresh Queso Panela , fresh mozzarella is a good substitute if you can’t find it.

I used this method to grill the eggplant and zucchini.  They came out perfectly!

Here’s what you’ll need to put together a garden fresh sandwich that will turn your veggies into a meal.

Roasted Vegetable Sandwich with Chipotle Mayonnaise

1 tablespoon of chipotles in adobo, finely minced

1/2 cup mayonnaise

4 Ciabatta rolls

2 japanese eggplants

2 zucchini

2 red bell peppers, the bottled type will do just fine

1 bunch spinach

8 oz queso panela or fresh mozzarella cheese

1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano

salt and pepper to taste

canola oil

Mince chipotle pepper and mix it into the mayonnaise.  Let it chill in the refrigerator to blend the flavors while you prepare the rest of the sandwich.

Slice the eggplant and zucchini lengthwise into long, 1/4 inch slices.  Cut off the stem of the red pepper, cut into quarters and remove the seeds.

Very lightly oil veggies with canola oil (save on calories by wiping off the excess oil, you will taste the real freshness of the vegetable if it is not covered in oil).

Place veggies on a medium high grill (a grill pan works great and isn’t as messy) and cook until soft, but still al dente.  Salt after they are taken off the grill so that they don’t let off too much of their juices.  Remember, you want to keep the fresh crispness of the vegetable.

Dice the eggplant.  Remove the skin of the red pepper if desired.

Warm the cheese quickly on the grill and season with Mexican oregano.

Cut rolls in half and toast lightly on the grill.

Spread chipotle mayonnaise on the bread and layer the vegetables; zucchini, then diced eggplant, red pepper and cheese.

Season the cheese with a little Mexican oregano and salt and pepper.

Top it off with fresh spinach and enjoy the springtime while you can!

posted by Sandy

My chipotle mayonnaise is quick and easy, but if you really want to spice it up try some of these recipes.

Homemade Chipotle Mayonnaise-Confections of a Foodie Bride

Cowboy Steak w/Chipotle Mayonnaise- Lobel’s Prime Time Grilling-Serious Eats

Chipotle Mayonnaise in a Wrap-Culinary in the Desert Country!

Mexican Hot Dogs w/ Pineapple Salsa and Chipotle Mayonnaise- Homesick Texan