A Vegetarian Dish A Month – August 2024: Simple Veggie Sandwich
Yes, I’m not kidding. For this month, I may have tried to do the most lazy vegetarian meal possible (short of just eating a stalk of raw broccoli and an apple or something…). What’s one quick and easy way to get lots of flavor and lots of nutrition in your face all at once? The sandwich. I wanted to see how good a sandwich could be without meat, and to be honest, it was easy.
August 2024: Simple Veggie Sandwich
I want to start with one thing this challenge has really helped me realize: you don’t need meat to get flavor. It’s one of the most common arguments I hear against vegetarians/vegans: how do you get any flavor without meat??
First of all, have you ever tried to just eat a steak or a pork chop with NO seasoning at all (not even salt)? It doesn’t taste good at all. It has little taste on it’s own. Guess where the flavor is coming from? The SEASONING (which, may I add, is almost always plant-based).
There were so many ways I could go with this challenge, and I ended up making like 4-5 totally different sandwiches this month (only photographed two…Should’ve done more). So let’s just get into a discussion of what I put in these things in general.
The Recipe
Let’s start with the elephant in the room: What did I do instead of meat?? Easy-peasy. Instead of meat I tried tofu, Impossible burger patties, seitan, grilled eggplant, breaded “chicken” patties, and even just sandwiches with no meat at all. All of them tasted just as good (or better) than sandwiches I had with meat in them.
To be honest, the best textures in a sandwich to me come from having a good bread and crisp veggies. And while I did try a fully raw veggie sandwich at one point, I think my favorites are the ones that had a cooked component. Sometimes that was the tofu, pan-seared with some sesame oil or BBQ sauce. Other times it was grilled onions and mushrooms in olive oil with some Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.
Veggies in my sandwiches included: eggplants, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, spinach, diced carrots, sprouts (OMG SO GOOD), and broccoli stalks, just to name a few! There’s literally an infinite number of combinations here, which makes this such a good “use whatever you have in your fridge” recipe.
Finally, I found sauces to be pretty critical: mustard, mayonnaise, garlic sauce, BBQ sauce, teriyaki sauce, Dijon mustard, ranch dressing, sesame dressing, or just plain salt and pepper…Some vegan, some not, I tried to experiment with as much as possible. Sauces are just another way to just add more layers of mouth-punching flavor to your sandwiches. And there were certainly times when I just couldn’t help it and tried adding cheeses too, even if it disqualified the sandwich from being vegan (still vegetarian)!
The Verdict
Go make a sandwich.
Not for me. For you. (though you can make one for me too if you want)
Right now. Challenge yourself to do it without meat.
Go ahead, I’ll wait.
There wasn’t one single sandwich I ate where I thought “Man I really wish I had some pastrami in this right now.”
Not. One.
Veggie sandwiches are delicious, and stupidly easy to make. As I mentioned before, I’m a firm believer that flavor does NOT come from meat. You can make delicious food with just plants.
Ditch meat. Experiment. Enjoy. Have fun, and eat delicious vegetarian sandwiches. And if you find any combinations that are out of this world, comment them down below.
OH, and if you find any vegan/vegetarian sauces you like, put those down below too because I’m always looking for more.
Thanks for reading!
BONUS SANDWICH:
Here’s one more sandwich I did actually remember to photograph before stuffing my face. Plated next to a delicious bowl of Josh Spodek’s famous No Packaging Vegetable Stew. This sandwich had tofu, grilled mushrooms and onions, sprouts, and pesto + garlic sauce.
