ROASTED BELL PEPPERS AND PESTO SANDWICH

I love wholesome sandwiches, it's simple to prepare and filling too. Ever since I had a yummy sandwich stuffed with bell peppers and loads of mozzarella at a near by cafe, I wanted to re create the same at home. It was delicious and I gobbled all of it without the tomato ketchup (I usually need tomato ketchup for every bite I take) so you can imagine how good it was!

So here's the recipe for the yummy, hearty and healthy sandwich! I've been getting a lot of requests for vegan recipes, so here you go! This is Vegan too! Please feel free to use cheese if you're not a vegan! To add some flavour I wanted to use some quick pesto sauce (my recipe). You can omit this if you don't like pesto.

INGREDIENTS

Bread - 6 slices (to make 3 sets)

Vegan Pesto sauce - 3 tbsp (recipe below)

Red bell pepper - 1 (thinly sliced)

Green bell pepper - (thinly sliced)

Onion - 2 (finely sliced)

Egg-less Mayonnaise - 3 tbsp 

Olive oil - 1 tbsp 

Salt 

Freshly ground pepper for seasoning

METHOD

To prepare the pesto sauce:

Pesto sauce is a combination of crushed garlic, fresh basil, pine nuts, cheese and olive oil. It originates from Italy. The traditional way of preparing, is by pounding the ingredients using a wooden mortar and pestle. Since it's vegan I haven't added cheese in my recipe. Also, instead of pine nuts I've used walnuts. I've also added a few fresh thyme leaves along with basil. 

In a mixer coarsely powder 4 whole walnuts, then add 2 garlic cloves roasted in olive oil or use it raw, 2 handful of fresh basil, a sprig or 2 of fresh thyme, 4 tbsp of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Using the pulse mode blend to coarse mixture. 

Bell pepper stuffing:

Heat olive oil in a pan, when hot, add the onion with a pinch of salt and saute till light brown, add the bell peppers and saute till they're soft, add required salt and a pinch or two of pepper. 

Assemble & Toast

Take a slice of bread and, apply the pesto sauce, add some filling and 1 tbsp of mayonnaise to another slice and close with it.  Follow the same for other slices. If you like it with cheese, add some grated cheese. I would suggest mozzarella  or cheddar or a combination of both for the filling and some butter to toast. 

Toast the sandwich in a pan with olive oil or use a sandwich maker. Enjoy the yummy goodness!