Eggplant, Lettuce, and Avocado Sandwich
Marinated eggplant slices dehydrated until crisp and stacked with cashew cheese, red pepper pesto, smashed avocado, lettuce and tomato — a sandwich with no bread in it.
Ingredients
Crispy Eggplant
- 2½ eggplant, large
- 5 tablespoon olive oil, cold-pressed extra virgin
- 2½ tablespoon agave nectar
- 2½ tablespoon coconut aminos
- 5 teaspoon red chile, minced, mild
- ⅚ teaspoon sea salt
Cashew Cheese
- 1¼ cup cashews, soaked 1 hour, drained, and rinsed
- 5 clove garlic
- 2½ tablespoon lemon juice
- 5 teaspoon coconut aminos
- ⅚ teaspoon sea salt
Red Pepper Pesto
- 2½ red bell pepper, small, coarsely chopped
- 5 piece sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 10 minutes, drained, and rinsed
- ⅝ cup pine nuts
- ⅝ teaspoon sea salt
- ⅝ teaspoon black pepper
Smashed Avocado
- 2½ avocado, ripe, pitted and peeled
- 2½ scallions, chopped
- 2½ tablespoon lime juice, from about 1 1/4 limes
- ⅝ teaspoon sea salt
- ⅝ teaspoon black pepper
- 2½ tablespoon cilantro, chopped, leaves only
To Serve
- 10 leaf butter lettuce, Boston or small butter lettuce
- 2½ tomatoes, sliced
Method
- You will need a dehydrator for this recipe. If you don't have one, an electric oven may have a setting low enough — the defrost setting or slightly higher, or a designated dehydrate setting. Check the temperature with an oven thermometer before dehydrating in a standard oven.
- Slice each eggplant into eight long slices about 1/4 inch thick, and discard the two skin sides. Combine the rest of the crispy eggplant ingredients in a small bowl and brush each eggplant slice with the mixture.
- Put the eggplant in a nonmetallic dish and cover. Let marinate for 2 hours, then drain and layer on a dehydrator tray. (If using the oven, use a nonstick oven pan.) Dehydrate on low (115°F) for 8 hours, turning the slices halfway.
- Meanwhile, make the cashew cheese. Blend the soaked nuts in a food processor with the remaining cashew cheese ingredients until you have a smooth paste. Thin with a little water if necessary, and blend again. Remove the cheese from the processor and set aside in a bowl.
- Make the red pepper pesto. Add the red bell pepper, soaked tomatoes, pine nuts, and salt and pepper to a processor and pulse until you have a thick paste with small visible pieces in it.
- Before you assemble your sandwiches, make the smashed avocado. In a small bowl, mash the avocado flesh with the rest of the ingredients until you have a textured puree.
- Prepare your sandwiches on your serving plates. For each sandwich, start with two slices of eggplant side by side. Top with a fifth of the cashew cheese and two lettuce leaves. Smooth on a fifth of the red pepper pesto and arrange a fifth of the tomato slices on top. Add a fifth of the avocado mixture and smooth down, then finish with two more eggplant slices. Serve immediately.
Notes
Needs a dehydrator, 2 hours of marinating and 8 hours of drying, so start the day before. The eggplant, cashew cheese and pesto all keep — build the sandwiches only when you are ready to eat.Adapted from The Eat Raw Kitchen (Love Food). Ingredients and method only — the description and any notes above were written for VegBatch.