Grilled Vegetable Sandwich

Toasted ciabatta bread is piled high with healthy vegetables, mushrooms and onions then topped with creamy feta cheese and tangy garlic-lemon aioli sauce. These open-faced sandwiches are easy to make. Ready in just 20 minutes.

These delicious, open-faced grilled vegetable sandwich will quickly become a favorite dinner to make during grill season. They are so tasty, filling completely vegetarian and easy to make.

★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★

These grilled veggie sandwiches make an easy and light weeknight meal or a hearty appetizer. Try them for your next barbecue— something other than burgers and dogs! Or just something different for dinner.

The blend of grilled veggies along with feta cheese and a light aoili sauce produces really great flavor without a ton of ingredients!

More reasons to love these open-faced grilled veggie sandwiches:

1. The lemon-garlic marinade and aioli sauce adds a punch of flavor and a touch of creaminess.
2. It's a hearty vegetarian appetizer or meal.
3. You can grill or cook the veggies in a skillet on the stove top.
4. They look as good as they taste making them an impressive dish to serve guests.

★ Ingredients You'll Need ★

You'll need an assortment of vegetables, bread, cheese and a a few ingredients to make the sauce.

Here's a look at everything you'll need:

Vegetables

You can use any veggies you'd like but here is my favorite combination:

• Bell peppers. Any color or mix of colors.
• Yellow squash. Peel-on, thinly sliced.
• Zucchini. Peel-on, thinly sliced.
• Portobello mushrooms. You can also use white mushrooms. Both are delicious!
• Red onion. You can also use white or yellow onion.

Bread

Ciabatte bread offers a chewy, sturdy base for these open-faced sandwiches. You could use another type of bread if you prefer.

Aioli Sauce & Feta

• Mayo, lemon juice, and garlic combine to make a delicious sauce.
• Feta cheese. Adds tang and creaminess.

You'll need a bit of oil to cook the vegetables. Olive oil, grape seed oil or avocado oil are my top choices.

★ How to Make this Recipe ★

These sandwich come together in 3 main steps.

Here's a look:

• Combine ingredients for aioli sauce.
• Toast the bread.
• Grill the veggies.

Then just assemble the sandwiches, sprinkle with feta cheese and drizzle with the aioli.

Super simple. So good!

★ Tips & FAQs ★

If you'd like you can swap out mayo with plain Greek yogurt in your aoili sauce. My mom is not a fan of mayonnaise. Even though I've tried to convince her there is really only just a little bit in the aioli sauce, she still just isn't a fan. So for her, and when I want to lighten up this dish, I make that swap.

Your choice if you want to do this too. Both produce great results but the Greek yogurt is a bit more nutritious too and adds some extra tang. You can also lighten up the aioli by using light mayo.

What veggies are used in this sandwich?

Truly, you could use any veggies but here are the ones I love: yellow summer squash, zucchini, mushrooms, bell peppers and red onion.

During grill season, many stores have prepackaged veggies, already cut and ready to be grilled. This particular combination of veggies — squash, zucchini, bell peppers, mushrooms and red onion is one I see often already all sliced and packaged together. I really prefer fresh-sliced veggies but if you don't have time, this is a great next-best option.

The Bread

You can usually find ciabatta bread at your local bakery. Toast them lightly so they're nice and crunchy. If you can't find ciabatta bread, any dry, crusty bread would work well.

The Aioli Sauce

This homemade sauce adds an extra layer of flavor and also helps the veggies and feta all stick together and stay put as you bite into these sandwiches. The sauce is very easy to whip up, however to save time, you can search your grocery store for pre-made aioli sauces. Keep in mind though, they're usually made with mayonnaise. So if you want a lighter version, make your own and use Greek yogurt in place of mayo.

Tips for Grilling

If you try to grill veggies directly on the grill, most likely you're going to loose them down the cracks. That makes a big mess and your dinner lighter—but not in a good way!

If you're determined to have your vegetables look "grilled," complete with pretty grill marks, then your best bet is to use a cast iron griddle with ridges. Place the griddle on top of your grill and heat it up along with your grill. The griddle transfers the heat of the grill. A perk of using a griddle with ridges is that any juices the veggies produce when cooking, will drain off, leaving just a light coating of oil which will make your veggies crispier and tastier!

I'd recommend a cast iron griddle that has an edge to it. It's really hard to stir and flip the veggies without them fall off the sides if you don't have somewhat of an edge.

However, if you don't have a griddle, that's okay. You can still get really good results with other tools.

You can use a veggie basket, a standard cast iron skillet, or even just a baking sheet. I recommend using a heavy duty baking sheet that's thick, otherwise the high cook temperature can warp your pan. I use a baking sheet when I'm making a big batch since it holds a lot of veggies and has a lip so it keeps things contained pretty well.

Keep an eye on the grill.

You're going to want to stir the veggies a few times during the cooking process so they cook evenly and get some tasty charred marks without completely burning.

I recommend standing watch and stirring or flipping as needed. The amount of water that will cook out of your vegetables can vary greatly, so you may need to stir more or less. Just keep an eye on the color. If the vegetables start to darken or get stuck to the pan, it's time to flip or stir them.

Serve these sandwiches, open-faced.

"Open-faced" is just a fancy way of saying these sandwiches only use one piece of bread. This helps cut down carbs and also looks pretty when served. Win-win!

★ More Recipes You'll Love ★

Looking for more vegetable-packed recipes?

Browse all my vegetarian recipes and be sure to Pin your favorites for later.

This open-faced grilled vegetable sandwich recipe was featured on South Your Mouth!