Vegetarian Sandwiches

With this sandwich, chef Todd Ginsberg proves that vegetarian versions of classic meat dishes can sometimes be just as delicious. Here, in place of the pastrami, Ginsberg sprinkles roasted beet slices with smoked salt, then serves them on buttered rye toast with all the traditional condiments, like sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese and homemade Russian dressing.

Chef Richard Landau skips the creepy packaged vegan bacon in favor of king oyster mushrooms, also known as king trumpets or royal trumpets. These have a firm, meaty texture and flavor that can mimic bacon on a BLT. While the texture of king oysters is unique, other thinly sliced wild mushrooms, like shiitake, would also be tasty on this sandwich.

For these terrific sandwiches, Julianne Jones uses asparagus both raw (shaved into long, thin strips) and roasted. What also makes these sandwiches distinct is aged goat cheese (not fresh), which adds a richer flavor.

Tyler Kord smokes the French dressing for his asparagus sandwiches over wood chips. This simplified version gets its smokiness from chipotles and smoked salt.

This is Greek salad perfection: Michael Psilakis tops warm bread with garlicky red-pepper tzatziki (cucumber-yogurt spread) and a piquant combo of cucumbers, olives, peperoncini, tomatoes, radishes, greens and feta. It's stellar with homemade ladopsomo bread and yogurt, but equally good with store-bought.

Michael Shemtov and Stuart Tracy prepare this messy, incredibly tasty vegetarian sandwich, called a sabich, with vegetables, hummus, house-baked pita and herbs from a garden right behind the restaurant. “The sabich is Iraqi-Israeli, just like me,” Shemtov says. “It’s a personal dish.”

Tofu makes a surprise appearance in this totally delicious riff on a classic banh mi from Food & Wine's Kay Chun. A combination of ham, liverwurst and thinly sliced firm tofu is sandwiched with supercrunchy pickled fresh vegetables, cilantro and spicy chiles.

This summery sandwich benefits from a generous topping of olivada made with tangy green olives, lemon and oil. It’s great with the creamy mozzarella and the lightly smoky grilled-zucchini slices here; it’s also wonderful with grilled fish and shellfish and roasted meat and chicken.

There’s plenty of room for experimentation here. We’ve used grilled eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, and onion sandwiched in crusty rolls with a little pesto. Fennel, endive, or mushrooms would make fine vegetable substitutes; sun-dried tomatoes or white-bean puree can replace the pesto; or omit the condiment altogether and top the sandwich with whole fresh basil or mint leaves. You can even change the cooking equipment, using the broiler or a grill pan in lieu of an outdoor grill.

Cookbook author Martha Hall Foose says that in the early 1960s, The Time Life Picture Cook Book inspired Mississippi ladies to “go exotic” by adding ingredients like curry powder and orange zest to egg-salad tea sandwiches.

Eating vegan for a month led Richard Blais to examine his pantry more closely. He discovered that ground porcini mushrooms add a meaty flavor to dishes like his veggie burger.

Seamus Mullen’s gooey Spanish version of a grilled cheese contains Mahón, Manchego and Idiazábal, as well as tomatoes that are roasted slowly overnight.

To simplify the recipe, opt for more accessible cheeses and quick-cook the tomatoes in high heat.

This vegetarian sandwich is terrific warm, but for a shortcut, use jarred olive tapenade instead of homemade and serve the sandwich cold.

Little slices of party rye are a Southern favorite for tea sandwiches: “You don’t see regular rye down here every day,” Martha Hall Foose says. If party rye isn’t available, use a cookie cutter to create rounds from regular bread slices.

Matt Neal took this ratatouille recipe from his father, the legendary Southern chef Bill Neal, and used it as the basis for his own version. Neal cooks the key ingredients—eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers and onion—separately. “That way, I can make sure each vegetable cooks exactly how I want it; plus they won’t steam in a big group all together,” he says. “Customers request this sandwich all summer long, but we wait until the ingredients are available at the farmers’ market before we serve it.”

In this riff on a classic egg-salad sandwich, Melissa Rubel Jacobson stirs finely chopped silken tofu with mayonnaise, mustard, chives and crunchy celery, then spreads it on whole wheat toast. To mimic the yellowish color of egg salad, she sometimes adds a little turmeric, but it’s not necessary.

Stacked high with slices of tomato, onion, cucumber, avocado, and provolone cheese, this is a vegetable sandwich that even confirmed carnivores will love. You can add or substitute other fresh vegetables; radishes, spinach, or grated carrot go particularly well here. When you can’t get good tomatoes, don’t buy lousy, cotttony ones; use twice the amount of lettuce instead.

The usual version of this Provençal sandwich is basically a salade niçoise on a roll. We’ve omitted the tuna and added fennel and chickpeas. Stuff the filling into hollowed-out rolls and let the delicious juices soak into the bread.

Spicy vegetables plus dill pickles and melted cheese make the perfect panini.

The grilled cheese sandwich grows up in our sophisticated version that starts with nutty, smooth-melting fontina cheese and adds a layer of sage-accented sautéed mushrooms.