Friday, September 23, 2016

Posted by Mala at 1:30:00 AM 3 comments
I have always been a big fan of Panera restaurant here in the US. I just love their soups and sandwiches and Paninis. My daughter , specially for me, wanted to make the Panera style vegetable Paninis, and they were par excellence!!!! Panini means a grilled sandwich, with sourdough or ciabatta breads, sliced, with various fillings....
Theses kinds of breads may not be available in India, but we can always make them with the broad sliced breads, available in some special bakeries.Many a times, we feel bored to eat our usual sambar, rasam, koottu etc, but at the same time, do not want to compromise on the intake of vegetables....at such times, this Vegetable Panini is ideal, since a lot of  healthy vegetables are stuffed inside.


                                                                      Ingredients
                                                   Sourdough bread  - 1 loaf (around 24 slices)
                                                          Basil pesto - 1 small bowl
                                                           Cream cheese spread - as required
                                                                 Zucchini - 4, sliced and grilled
                                                        Red bell peppers - 2, sliced lengthwise
                                                                 Onions - 2, sliced lengthwise
                                                                        Spinach - few leaves
                                                                      Pitted and sliced olives
                                                     Garlic - 6-8 pods, finely chopped (optional)
                                                            Cheese slices - 1 for each panini
                                                      Any hot, spicy sauce to sprinkle on top, as required

                                           Recipe Cuisine: Continental / Italian; Category: lunch / dinner
                                           Prep time: 20 mts; Cooking time: roughly 5-7 minutes for each panini

                                                                             Yields 12 paninis

                                                                       all arranged

grilled zucchini slices . we can grill them on a tava, but it will not give these marks on the slices. If you have a grill pan, you can do on that. Or on an electric sandwich maker too, we can have them pressed and make. These slices were made in a panini press.


below picture shows slices being grilled in a panini press

Keep 2 bread slices on a clean plate, apply basil pesto on one side.

apply cream cheese or mayo on the other side. Nowadays, vegan mayonnaise is easily available.


arrange the zucchini slices on one side

layer spinach leaves


keep the sliced red bell peppers, and then.....


the onion slices


keep some olives on top


Keep a cheese slice, sprinkle some hot sauce on top, close the paninis, and place carefully into the panini press.


close the panini press, and grill till done




This post first appeared in www.malpatskitchen.com

Notes
*Garlic is optional. We added some chopped garlic to some paninis, although we all agreed, garlic did not add any extra flavor. .
*If you do not have a panini press, you can make the paninis on a tava or grill pan, but make sure to keep another heavy pan on the bread slices, so that they will get sealed well.



















                                                    


3 comments:

  1. Heaven decended on earth!! Wow!! What a treat to the eyes and tongue. I am a big fan of panini too!! And LO ! I got the right recipe! Chip of the old block! I am referring to your offspring! Fantastic!! yum!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Terrific clicks!! Keep up the good work. I am going to try this recipe this weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Vidya and Alexandra, thanks a lot for your lovely comments.

    ReplyDelete

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