Despite my love for healthy food, I try not to eat food that does not taste good. I don’t substitute ingredients I love for those that make eating a chore, and I certainly wouldn’t preach it to anyone else. But I do think vegetables are naturally great and look for ways to enjoy them with or without meat protein. By scooping out the inside of the baguette before toasting, you get to bite into a big flavor with crunch.
You can add chicken to this, but it only detracts from the wow factor.
For the Dressing:
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt or mayo
4 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons nonfat cottage cheese
1/8 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
2 tablespoons minced shallot (1 small)
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
Juice of freshly squeezed lemon
For the Sandwich:
1 small eggplant, trimmed sliced ¼”
1 medium yellow squash, sliced ¼“
1 medium zucchini, sliced ¼“
3 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Light veg. Oil cooking spray
2 roasted red bell peppers
2 baguettes
1 large tomato, cored & sliced
½ chopped Serrano pepper
16 fresh basil leaves
16 spinach leaves
Preheat the broiler. Put all dressing ingredients in a blender and mix at low speed until smooth. Set aside.
Arrange the eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini and onion in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle the Italian seasoning and cayenne pepper over all of the rounds. Spray the vegetable oil over to coat lightly. Broil the vegetables for about 5 minutes, until brown, turn the rounds over, and brown the other side. Remove the cookie sheet, leaving the broiler on.
Quarter the roasted bell peppers. Cut each of the baguettes in half lengthwise and scoop out the soft inner dough. Place them on the broiler rack and toast for about 2 minutes per side.
Place 4 basil leaves, 4 spinach leaves, and 4 pieces of roasted pepper on each baguette. Put a few slices of tomato into the well in the bottom of each baguette. Dust with black pepper and Serrano pepper. Layer on slices of eggplant, squashes, and onion. Coat the inside of the remaining half of each baguette with the dressing and place it on top of the vegetables. Cut each baguette into 3 sandwiches.