Oregon Transplant: Greek Salad Sandwiches with Hummus

Happy Friday!

Looking back at this month's post, I've just realized how light my July offerings have been. Almost every recipe involves minimal cooking and work. That's because it's the middle of freakin' July! Who wants to be sweating over the stove, stuffing their head in an oven when it's 90+ degrees out? Who wants to put heavy, complicated food in their bellies when they are (most likely) already hot, sweaty, and uncomfortable? Not this girl, and certainly not her cantankerous hubby. We live on sandwiches, light pastas, summer soups, and grilled chicken in the summer. And fresh vegetables. LOTS of fresh vegetables.

And speaking of fresh vegetables, these sandwiches take advantage of numerous summer bounties. I used tomato and cucumber from my garden, but if you grow lettuce and onions, you can grab those from your own private stash as well. I was really surprised at how much I liked this vegetarian sandwich. Vegetarian sandwiches are always tricky. To me, sandwiches always seemed to be the perfect vehicle for succulent meat paired with melty cheese. Like a cheesesteak. Mmmmmm. Great. Now I want a cheesesteak, and it's 7:00 in the morning. Sheesh. But, like I was saying, veggie sandwiches are hard to pull off. This sandwich, I'm happy to report, works. Between the marinated onions and olives, paired with hummus, you get plenty of flavor and moistness. Pile it high with lettuce, tomato, and cucumber and you've got plenty of filling. And it all works together. I've actually gone back and made these for lunch at the hubby's request since first serving them.

What I love about this sandwich is the possibility to play with it. Start with the bread and the hummus, and you could fill the sandwich with anything else that goes good with hummus. And what doesn't go good with hummus?

Not a whole lot, friends. Not a whole lot.

One idea that's particularly enticing to me would be to fill the sandwiches with roasted veggies like zucchinis, eggplant, yellow squash, and/or carrots. Yum! Grilled chicken would be fantastic as well. And of course, a sprinkle of feta never hurts.

Straight from my garden. Oh yeah! Aren't they beautiful? Garden-fresh produce tastes so amazing compared to the mealy mush you get from the grocery store.

When I'm not making hummus to photograph for the blog, I put it straight into tupperware. That's how I roll :)

Now for some exciting news! Shortly after the hubby and I got engaged, he was laid off and we started our marriage in a serious budget crisis. Needless to say, we sacrificed our honeymoon in order to save that money for when we needed it. Well, we've decided to really celebrate our 5-year anniversary, and take our honeymoon to Cancun! I'm so excited! We booked our trip yesterday for the end of October. Now, all we have to do is cross our fingers our passports are ready in time (we mailed them off on Monday to be renewed) and pray there's not a hurricane in October. I have a feeling this trip is really going to motivate my workouts! 7 days in a bikini? Gym time required.

It's going to be awesome sauce. Yep, that's right. Awesome sauce.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ingredients (makes 2 sandwiches):

1/3 cup red onion, thinly sliced

10-11 Kalamata olives, minced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 Ciabatta rolls

1/2 cup Hummus

1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced

1 small tomato, thinly sliced

1 cup romaine lettuce, chopped

2 tbsp feta, crumbled

Directions:

1. Combine onion, olives, oil, and vinegar in a small bowl. Whisk to thoroughly mix. Set aside and allow to marinate while preparing the rest of the sandwiches.

2. Slice Ciabatta rolls in half. Place facing up in oven under broiler. Broil for 1-2 minutes, or until bread is lightly toasted. Remove from heat.

3. Spread about 1/4 cup hummus on each Ciabatta roll. On top half, spread onion and olive mixture. On bottom half, layer with lettuce, tomato, and cucumber. Top cucumber with 1 tbsp of feta. Sandwich halves together, and serve immediately.

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