Roasted Eggplant Pesto Sandwich with avocado, pesto sauce, and cheese is a marvelously flavorful vegetarian sandwich recipe that is loaded with rustic flair and so satisfying!
The eggplant may sit aloof, high up on the produce shelf, distanced from the more popular veggies, but this diamond in the rough plant is one of the most versatile and fun vegetables to use in the kitchen.
Underneath the thick purple skin, there is a party animal.
Eggplants can be roasted, sautéed, grilled, used for veggie burger patties, pureed into soup, made into curry and so much more.
In this application, we’re slicing then roasting eggplant in the oven until it’s nice and golden-brown and soft.
We’re then using said sliced eggplant rounds to create the most amazing rustic vegetarian sandwiches!
Is this veggie chockablock full to the brim with nutrition, like the beet?
Negative.
It is, however, a blank canvas beckoning your cooking creativity.
Ingredients for Roasted Eggplant Pesto Sandwich:
This recipe makes enough for two sandwiches. We need one small eggplant, two ciabatta rolls (or 4 slices of bread), havarti cheese (or your favorite cheese for sandwiches), pesto sauce, and avocado.
This combination makes for a rustic, toasty, creamy, herb-infused delicious experience!
Have you tried my Kale Pesto recipe yet?
I made that pesto specifically for this sandwich.
You can use homemade pesto sauce or store-bought! Check out my Basil Pesto Sauce and my Roasted Beet Pesto.
The roasted eggplant, melty cheese, creamy avocado all smitten on a toasty roll smeared with kale pesto is just the ticket for a delicious lunch.
Show the forgotten vegetable some lovin’.
Roasted Eggplant Pesto Sandwich
Ingredients
- 1 small eggplant sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
- 2 Tbsp avocado oil
- 4 slices Havarti Cheese*
- 6 Tbsp pesto sauce
- 2 ciabatta rolls sliced in half**
- 1 large ripe avocado sliced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° Fahrenheit.
- Slice half of the eggplant into ¼” rounds, leaving the skin on, and coat both sides of each slice with avocado oil
- Place eggplant slices on a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake the eggplant in the oven for 20 minutes, flipping the slices half-way through. If the eggplant isn't golden-brown and very soft by now, flip the slices again and bake for another 3 to 5 minutes.
- While eggplant is roasting, slice the rolls in half and toast in a toasted until they reach your desired level of crisp.
- Smear all slices of bread with pesto sauce, then place the a slice of cheese on each slice of bread so that all slices of bread contain both pesto sauce and cheese. Stack your desired amount of avocado and roasted eggplant to create your sandwich, and enjoy!
- Note: If you want to heat up the whole sandwich until the cheese is melted, place the sandwiches on a baking sheet and stick them in the oven at 375 for 5 or so minutes, until the cheese is melted.
This sandwich has potential. Great combo of ingredients except next time I would use a sharper cheese for
more flavor. The ciabatta roll is kind of thick and buried the flavors of almost everything. Will use a thinner
roll next time. I used the grocery store sun dried tomato pesto because that’s what I had on hand. Perfect
complement. We grilled the eggplant on the outside grill which made them kind of dry so next time will
use the original recipe instructions of oven cooking them.
All in all, this was a good sandwich. We’ll make it again.
Thanks for the recipe!
Julia,
Thanks for this recipe! I’ve added it to the Farm Fresh Feasts Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me who love to eat from the farm share.
I appreciate your help in making this index better!
Just thought I might drop a line to let you know that I’ve made these sandwiches a number of times. Think they’re delicious and a great way to use eggplant. I used regular basil pesto and had no white cheddar so just used mozzerella though the white cheddar would be very good with this. Still excellent
Thanks so much for letting me know, Michael!! I love roasted eggplant, and don’t make it often enough, so your comment is inspiration to do some more eggplant roasting. The mozarella sounds genius! Thanks again for the kind words 😀
i love my eggplant fried, sliced and fried – with the skin on… and i like to eat it with hummus on a sandwich – grilled – hot. that’s my favorite way to eat it. i shall try this next time 🙂
I think you forgot to add the word “Avocado” in your sandwich.. HUGE SELLING POINT! This looks delectable.. you can really see those avocado slices.. and eggplant. What a combo. Nice job!
Funny you mentioned the avocado thing – I kinda felt the same way after posting the sandwich 😉 The textures are seriously incredible in this sandwich and the avocado is a big part of that! Glad you like the sando! 🙂
Those big chunks of avocado are killin’ me! I just want to chomp right into my computer screen!
Hahaha! I’ll teleport one to you riiiiiight now! 🙂
you know I have a soft spot for eggplant 🙂 this sandwich sounds amazing! And heck yeah, eggplant is a party animal for sure!!!
Yup, this sandwich had Andrea written allllll over it! Definitely thought of you while I was making it, eating it and posting it! Hope you have a fun weekend, missy!
god i just love pesto so much it hurts.
hahaha! I’m a pretty big fan, myself. I’m pretty amazed at how well the kale pesto turned out. I love keeping it thick to smear on sandwiches – it really dolls up a good lunch! 🙂 Have a great weekend, Claire!
I love eggplant!! Totally going to make this, thank you!
That kale pesto+avocado+eggplant blend sounds amazing!
Have you ever watched Love Actually? Because any time I hear the phrase “chockerblock full” I think of that movie and the weird guy who goes to Wisconsin…if you’ve seen the movie you’ll know the one I’m talking about. If not…Um…yay sandwich!
I LOVE that movie! I’ve seen it a few times and I know the guy you’re talking about (the English one)! You’re making me want to watch it again. Love!
What an incredibly delicious looking sandwich. I can only imagine how good this must taste. I love eggplant, and kale pesto sounds lovely!
Oh man that is one awesome looking sandwich!!
Ah, eggplant. We love it! Not only in casseroles but also sandwiches. Yours looks like a real winner! Thank you so much for sharing…and whetting my appetite for that purple vegetable. I hope you have a beautiful day!
I started to type “yum” about 80 times… until I realized it was getting ridiculous. This sounds like the perfect sandwich for me! And like something I might pay $12 for at a sandwich shop. Need!
errrmerrgerrd. This sounds so good! So after we go hiking can we sit and eat these? 🙂 Sounds like a fun day to me!
You got it, sister! And then we’ll dive in to some of your pecan toffee bars! MM!