Grilled Veggie Pitas

Everything is better grilled!

I’m always brainstorming for new lunch ideas for the work week. I can usually stick to one idea for about 3-4 weeks until I get burnt out and need something different. This week I am attempting Grilled Veggie Pitas. The recipe below will make about 6 pitas.

Grilled Veggie Pitas

(print the recipe)

Ingredients:

- 1 medium eggplant

- 2 medium Portobello mushrooms

- 1 large zucchini

- 1 roasted red bell pepper

- ¼ cup kalamata olives

- 6 pitas, white or whole wheat

- ¾ cup of speadable garlic and herb cheese, such as Boursin or Rondele

- ½ cup of EVOO

- S&P

Procedure:

1. Take the eggplant, Portobello, and zucchini and rinse and pat dry. Slice the eggplant and zucchini into ¼ slices. Leave the Portobello whole for now.

2. Brush all veggies with EVOO and season with S&P.

3. Heat grill to medium heat and grill veggies until al dente. Mine took between 10 and 20 minutes. Eggplant was done first and zucchini last.

4. While the grilled veggies are cooling, rough chop roasted red bell pepper and kalamata olives. Then chop grilled veggies into bite-sized cubes.

5. Add all veggies to a large bowl and toss together.

6. Take each pita and slice in half. Open the pita to create a pocket and smear 1-2 tablespoons on the inside.

7. Fill each pita 2/3 the way full with veggies and serve.

Grilled Veggie Pitas

My thoughts: BD and I had a little bit of a disagreement on whether or not to add garlic to the veggies prior to grilling. I left it off because I knew the cheese would give the sandwich plenty of garlic flavor for me. Plus, with this sandwich as my lunch for the week, I didn’t want REALLY bad garlic breath all day. This was a new venture for me and I really, really liked the end result. It was exactly what I was hoping for. The veggies were cooked so that the flavors developed in each of them but they weren’t mushy, and the garlic-herb cheese melts a little once you place the warm veggies in the pita. I was concerned about the veggie mixture being too wet and tearing the pita, but that was not the case at all. The pita bread held up nicely. I used white this time but will go for wheat when I make them again.

Last night’s taste test made me very hungry for lunch today.