Veggie Delights: Mushroom-Veggie Sloppy Sandwiches

Well, my friends.  Rachael Ray wins again.  I am honestly in awe of how amazingly delicious every. single. one. of her recipes is!  And I love how many Vegetarian meals she has in her cookbooks!  I’m almost to the point where it doesn’t matter what the recipe looks like ahead of time – I will make it if it’s Rachael Ray.  Somehow, no matter how weird it sounds, her concoctions always taste out-of-this-world!!!

I got this recipe from page 280 of her 365: No Repeats cookbook (another one that I checked out from the library a couple weeks ago).  The weird thing about this recipe is that all of the separate parts of the recipe sounded great by themselves, but I would have never in a million years thought to put them together!  I’ve had mushroom sandwiches, Vegetarian sloppy joe sandwiches, and avocado sandwiches…but never all of these together in one sandwich.  But oh my – it was a BURST of flavor in my mouth!  It was wonderful.  My husband took one bite and said, “This is a keeper for sure.”

I will admit this isn’t the quickest, but it’s not too bad.  A lot of it is just prep and wait time.  I did make a few changes.  The recipe is written for 4 servings, and it calls for 4 portobello mushrooms.  It also calls for English muffins.  Since I had tons of Arnold sandwich thins on hand, that’s what I wanted to use.  So to avoid the large mushroom making the thin bread too soggy, I just used 2 portobello mushrooms and cut each into 2 thin pieces, which stretched to make 4 sandwiches.  It also called for Vegetarian Spicy Refried Beans.  I left those out, since it was only for thickening purposes, and I thought there were plenty of beans and spicy flavor already.  So the recipe below is how I made it, yielding 4 sandwiches.

Mushroom-Veggie Sloppy Sandwiches:

Ingredients:

• 2 portobello mushrooms, stems removed
• 1 lime
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 5 garlic cloves
• 3 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 medium onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 jalapeno pepper
• 1 small zucchini
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 15 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 14 oz can of dark red kidney beans, drained & rinsed
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 4 sandwich buns of some sort (English muffins, buns, or sandwich thins)
• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 cups Monterey Jack or Cheddar Cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Chop onion, red bell pepper, jalapeno, and zucchini.  Everything can be chopped pretty small, except the zucchini.  Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise, then slice it into little “half-moon” pieces.  Zucchini just tends to get soggy quicker, so it’s best to make these a little bigger than the rest.
3. Take the stems off of the portobello mushrooms.  Season them with salt, pepper, juice of half the lime, 1 Tbsp of oil, half of the minced garlic, and 1 Tbsp of the chili powder.  Toss the mushrooms around in it to make sure they’re coated in the seasoning.
4. Place mushrooms gill side up on a cookie sheet, and roast in the oven for 12 minutes.  When they are done, remove them from the oven and cover with tin foil to keep them warm.
5. While the mushrooms are cooking in the oven:  Cook all of your chopped vegetables in a big pot on the stove, with a sufficient amount of olive oil (about 2 to 3 Tbsp) and the other half of your minced garlic.  Add cumin, the remainder of the chili powder (2 Tbsp), and some salt to taste.  Saute the vegetables for about 5 minutes, until softened.
6. Add the tomatoes and red kidney beans.  Stir to combine.  Cook for about 10 minutes on low heat.
7. While the mixture is finishing up cooking, peel your avocado and slice it into long thin pieces.  Squeeze the other half of the lime over the sliced avocado to add flavor and prevent browning.  I also sprinkled a bit of salt over it.
8. Toast your sandwich buns.
9. When the mixture is finished cooking, remove from heat, and add chopped cilantro.
10. Slice the mushrooms in half, so that you have 4 pieces.
11. To make your sandwich:  Put a mushroom half on a bun.  Add desired amount of chili mixture on top of that.  Sprinkle with some cheese.  Then add a few avocado slices on top of that.  Ta Da!

Enjoy!  And I’m warning you ahead of time – It is VERY sloppy!

What About You: Let me know what you think.