Try a tasty, healthful eggplant sandwich
By Elaine Magee
| |||
 |
|
||
Q. We try to eat vegetarian as often as possible and I enjoyed the grilled eggplant sandwich at Cheesecake Factory the other day. I would like to make this at home but in a healthy form. Can you work on this for us?
A. That's my favorite restaurant chain! They call it the Incredible Grilled Eggplant Sandwich, and it comes with roasted red peppers, red onion, melted mozzarella and garlic aioli on a toasted white flour bun. All the ingredients work nicely in a light home version except the garlic aioli and the white bun.
Our updated version will be made with a light mayonnaise (there are a couple brands now that use olive oil, too) and some minced garlic and served on a toasted whole-wheat hamburger bun. This adds about 6 grams of fiber and assorted helpful nutrients and phytochemicals. Whole grains are more likely to be more satisfying and filling as well. I'm also using less of the mayo mixture than the restaurant does.
Our new sandwich has almost half the total fat and saturated fat but twice the fiber. Original sandwich may contain around 500 calories, 25 grams fat, 7.5 grams saturated fat, and only 6 grams of fiber.
INCREDIBLE GRILLED EGGPLANT SANDWICH
Begin heating an indoor grill (like a George Foreman) or a nonstick skillet if you don't have an indoor grill, on medium high. When hot, lightly brush both sides of both slices of red onion with olive oil and place on grill or skillet. Remove when both sides are nicely brown (about 4-5 minutes) and set aside.
Lightly brush flesh side of 4 eggplant slices with olive oil and place on indoor grill or skillet. Remove when both sides are nicely brown and eggplant is cooked through and tender (6-8 minutes). If you are grilling your red pepper instead of using bottled, you can grill the bell pepper at the same time as your eggplant if your indoor grill is big enough. Immediately place two of the eggplant slices on the bottom half of each toasted whole-wheat bun and top with mozzarella. Pop under a broiler or in microwave for a minute or less to melt the mozzarella.
Lay two strips of roasted red pepper on top of each bottom half of the sandwich.
In small cup, combine the light mayonnaise and minced garlic. On the top half of each of the toasted buns, spread half of the garlic mayonnaise mixture. Top each with a grilled onion slice and a sprinkling of crumbled blue or goat cheese if desired. Put the two halves of the sandwich together and serve.
Makes 2 servings.
