Bethany's Vegan Kitchen

Roasted aubergine, courgette, peppers and onions, with deliciously melted cheese. This was inspired by the first food picture I took. The picture was a very low quality picture of a roasted vegetable and cheese panini that I ordered from a cafe. I was vegetarian at the time, so this is my veganised version, using a frying pan rather than a panini press. The combination of roasted vegetables and dairy free cheese is delicious, and would make for a lovely lunch

Start by roasting the vegetables

You’ll need;

1. One tablespoon of oil
2. One small aubergine, sliced
3. One courgette, sliced
4. One pepper, deseeded and sliced
5. One onion, peeled and sliced
6. Salt & pepper to taste

Method;

• Start by preparing the vegetables, you’ll also need a couple of baking trays to lay them on
  
• Pop the sliced vegetables on the baking trays, drizzle over the oil and season with salt and pepper
• Bake at 200°C/180°C fan assisted/400°F for between 15-25 minutes. I baked the aubergine and courgette on one tray, they took 25 minutes to roast. I found the pepper and onion required less cooking, and were done in 15 minutes. Flip the vegetables half way through, just so they roast evenly. Once they’re done, set them aside
  

Now you can move on to making the sandwiches

Yield; Four sandwiches Cook time; 10 minutes per sandwich

You’ll need;

1. Eight slices of thick bread
2. 40g dairy free spread, I used vitalite
3. The vegetables you roasted earlier
4. 200g of dairy free cheese, I used vegan smoked cheddar by Applewood

Method;

• Start by adding some spread to the outsides of the bread (the sides that will directly be in contact with the frying pan)
  
• Now you can assemble the sandwich. On a breadboard place the first piece of bread spread side up, then the second on top, spread side down. It’s just less messy to assemble them this way. Lay down the cheese and a quarter of the vegetables
  
• Top this with a little more cheese (this will ensure the bread sticks to the filling). Now they’re ready to cook
  
• Add the sandwich into a frying pan over a medium heat, watch your fingers though!
  
• Now you can top this with the piece of bread that was spread side up, doing it this way means you won’t get spread smeared everywhere. Anyway, let it cook until the spread on the top piece melts into the bread. At this point the bottom piece of bread should be nicely toasted, and should release from the pan once you try to move it. Now you can gently flip the sandwich to toast the other side
  
• Give it another five minutes or so for the bread to toast and the cheese to melt. Once the cheese is melted it’s ready to serve. Repeat this process to make the other three sandwiches