I’ve been thinking about this idea for a buffalo eggplant sandwich for several weeks now. I recently reshot the photos for one of my most popular recipes, crispy baked eggplant. Fun fact, I just learned that recipe has been pinned 2,000 times on Pinterest! And it’s popular for a reason: it’s easy, relatively healthy, and is endlessly adaptable. Plus, you won’t believe how crispy and crunchy this eggplant gets even without frying it!
♥ Related: Crispy Baked Eggplant
And maybe I’ve been craving buffalo chicken wings or something, but it seemed like that crispy baked eggplant would make a really awesome vegetarian version of a buffalo chicken sandwich. I was right, the eggplant works so well in this sandwich.
The crispy oven-fried eggplant stacks so nicely in the sandwich making it easy to eat. The buffalo sauce coats the crispy eggplant well. The shredded carrots give the sandwich a fresh crunch and the blue cheese recipe is fantastic (double it and use the leftovers for a cobb salad after you make these sandwiches!)
This is a sandwich that will satiate any buffalo chicken craving you have—and you won’t miss the meat!
Video: Watch Me Make Crispy Baked Eggplant
Buffalo Eggplant Sandwich
Ingredients
Blue Cheese Dressing
- 1 clove garlic minced fine or grated on a microplane grater
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- 2 oz blue cheese crumbled
Buffalo Eggplant
- 1 recipe crispy baked eggplant see link for recipe in notes below
- 5 tbsp butter melted
- 5 tbsp Frank's Red Hot sauce
Sandwich Ingredients
- 2 medium carrots cut into matchsticks or shredded with a julienne peeler
- 4 slices American cheese
- 8 slices white sandwich bread
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine garlic, onion powder, apple cider vinegar, salt, black pepper, sour cream, and mayonnaise. Whisk until well combined. Fold in the crumbled blue cheese.
- Whisk the melted butter and Frank's Red Hot sauce together until well combined. Place eggplant in a large bowl and pour sauce over eggplant and toss to coat the eggplant thoroughly.
- To make each sandwich, spread 1-2 tablespoons of blue cheese dressing on a slice of bread. Top with 1/4 of the carrots and 1/4 of the eggplant. Place the cheese on the second slice of bread and pop under the broiler or into a warm oven just until the cheese is melted. Top the sandwich with the cheesy bread. Cut sandwich in half and eat.
Notes
- You can find the recipe for the crispy baked eggplant here.
- While the eggplant is baking, make and gather the rest of the ingredients so that you can toss the eggplant in the buffalo sauce as soon as it comes out of the oven.
Things You Might Want For This Recipe
Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
Julienne Peeler
Microplane Grater
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Lemon Almond Zucchini Bread
I *love* buffalo chicken – wings, sandwiches, pizza, dip, you name it. This hit all the right notes of the flavors, plus the crunchy eggplant mirrored what you get from fried chicken on the sandwich. I’m hoping this is lunch again today!