Recipe of the Month: Roasted Eggplant and Pepper Sandwich

October's Recipe of the Month came about more or less by accident. Brian had made Pasta Romesco for dinner the week before, but the roasted red peppers he used in the dish had come from Ocean State Job Lot, which sells them in a larger jar than Trader Joe's. Consequently, he had about a third of the jar left over and was wondering how to use it up. So I started searching through our cookbook collection for recipes that use roasted red peppers as an ingredient, and I came across one in a tiny booklet from Better Homes and Gardens called Easy Vegetarian Dinners. 

The dish was called "Grilled Eggplant & Sweet Pepper Sandwiches," and that was almost a complete description in itself. Basically, all it involved was grilling slices of eggplant and quartered bell peppers, then serving them on thick slices of French bread spread with soft goat cheese and Dijon mustard. We didn't have any goat cheese and didn't feel inclined to buy any, since neither of us cares for it much, but the recipe sounded like it would work just fine without it, so we decided to give it a go. 

We already had an eggplant, and Brian made a loaf of no-knead bread to use in lieu of the French bread. He usually bakes it in our big Dutch oven, which produces a rather flat loaf that makes short, wide slices that he thought wouldn't be ideal for this recipe. So instead, he baked it in our smaller cast-iron pot, creating a boule that was more ball-shaped and made nice wide slices. 

Then, since the peppers were already roasted, all he had to do was grill the eggplant. He cut it into slices between a quarter-inch and a half-inch thick, brushed them with olive oil, and grilled them on our outdoor charcoal grill for about 15 minutes, until they were tender and looked well browned. Since the peppers hadn't been grilled along with the eggplant, I put them on a plate and warmed them up for about 20 seconds in the microwave so everything would be warm when it went onto the bread.

As I expected, this combo was very tasty. The smoky flavor of the grilled vegetables went well with the vinegary Dijon mustard, and the tender veggies balanced well against the chewiness of the bread. But I did find, as I chewed, that the sandwich seemed like it could use a bit more body, a bit more substance. I had to admit that some cheese would probably have improved both the texture and the flavor, as well as giving it a bit of much-needed protein. 

However, I didn't think the goat cheese we'd omitted from the recipe was really what it was crying out for. To my taste buds, a smoked mozzarella with a firmer texture would really have been the ideal thing to complement the veggies, bread, and mustard. And it was really the smokiness, not the cheesiness, that I thought would contribute most to the dish. In my judgment, thin slices of smoked tofu would probably serve just as well to round out the dish in terms of both flavor and texture.

Not having any of that on hand, I must confess that I opened up a tin of smoked herring out of the pantry and added a bit to my sandwich, thereby de-veganizing it, just as a proof of concept. And sure enough, the smoky fish went very nicely with the veggies and gave the sandwich the extra substance it was lacking.

We've checked the tofu aisle at our local H-Mart and determined that it does carry smoked tofu, but it ain't cheap. I think it was something like five bucks for a half-pound package, or ten bucks a pound. Adding that to this dish would make it a lot more expensive, but it would also make it a much heartier and more satisfying dish while still keeping it vegan. 

Alternatively, we could just go ahead and include the smoked herring in the sandwich along with the veggies. It's still a bit expensive (about two bucks for 4.4 ounces, which works out to $7.27 per pound), but it's something we keep on hand all the time, which means we could make this sandwich pretty much any time in the summer without having to make a special trip to H-Mart. And if it's no longer vegan, well, we're not trying to be 100 percent vegan anyway. As long as it's low-carbon and doesn't come from an inhumane factory farm, that's good enough for us.