Vegetable Melts on Garlic Toast

Katie asked about Eggplant. Good choice. Melinda's eggplant parmesan sounded good! Thanks for sharing. Here's another eggplant recipe that we had last week for the first time and liked. It has a lot of steps, but it's not hard at all. I roasted the eggplant and tomatoes the day before because I was already roasting butternut squash and wanted to cut down on oven usage. I kept the roasted eggplant and tomato slices in the fridge and it was so easy the next day when I assembled. The whole sandwich can be made ahead and placed in the broiler right before you serve them. A thick whole grain bread will make all the difference in these toasts. Regular sandwich bread will not be able to heft the weight of all the veggies. I sliced up some whole wheat homemade bread for it and it worked great. I wish I had a picture. If you make this, take a pic and send it to me.

Vegetable Melts on Garlic Toast - high in protein, high in fiber

1 eggplant, peeled and cut crosswise into 1/3" thick slices

4 large (Roma) tomatoes, sliced

4 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 c. thin sliced sweet onion

4 c. loosely packed spinach leaves

1 tsp. minced garlic, plus 1 clove halved

4 thick slices whole-grain coarse country bread (3/4" thick or so)

4 large basil leaves, cut into a chiffonade (very thinly sliced)

1/4 lb. low-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded

-salt and pepper

-Preheat oven to 425 degrees

-Place eggplant and tomato slices on baking dish. Brush 1 T. olive oil on both sides of eggplant and drizzle 1 T. olive oil on tomatoes. Sprinkle both lightly with salt. Roast eggplant for 15 minutes, turn and roast about 10 minutes more, until lightly browned and soft. Remove eggplant, but continue roasting tomatoes until skins shrivel and carmelize, about 35-45 minutes total baking time. Remove and reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. (you could also grill the eggplant in a panini press or George Foreman type grill)

-In a large frying pan on medium heat add 1 T. olive oil and the onion. Add 2 T. water, cover, reduce heat to low and cook until onion is wilted and tender. Uncover pan, stir in garlic. Add spinach, re-cover and cook till spinach wilts, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add salt and pepper to taste.

-Rub 1 side of bread lightly with cut side of garlic half. Arrange slices on baking sheet. Brush with remaining 1 T. olive oil. Bake until lightly toasted, remove from oven and turn on the broiler.

-Arrange the toasts by adding veggies in this order: spinach, eggplant, tomato, basil, cheese. Broil until cheese is bubbly. Serve at once.