Cooking for a Vegan? Try These Vegan Panini Ideas

jennquilter | Feb 21, 2011 |

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If you are trying to cook for a vegan friend or family member, and you're not exactly sure what to feed them, try these vegan panini ideas. It's pretty easy to come up with some fun sandwich ideas, and grilling them with a panini maker takes it that next step up to make it an impressive meal.

The thing to keep in mind here is that you are free to experiment. Take a look around the produce aisle. Like with an omnivores panini that would typically be meat and cheese, you want both something creamy or moist in some way, and something of substance, to make a great pressed sandwich.

Also, as a side note, make sure that the bread you're using is vegan. Look for ingredients like whey, milk, and butter in the ingredients list as these are all not vegan. For a safe bet, ask your friend what brand is their favorite, or look for ones that say “vegan” on them, usually somewhere underneath the ingredients list.

Zucchini, roasted red pepper, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and pesto is a sandwich that is definitely packed full of awesome. You have to make sure that your pesto is vegan, as many of them have cheese in them. Pesto is one of those spreads that often gets overlooked, but can really make a sandwich exquisite. Roasted the red pepper strips and maybe frying up the zucchini and mushrooms before putting them on the sandwich can also take this up a step.

For a simple sandwich try frying up some mushrooms and onions, and putting on some tomato slices. There are vegan condiments out there, like Veganaise and many mustards, that can also be used here.

You can use your panini maker before you put the sandwiches together, too. For this next sandwich, try grilling the tomatoes and eggplant on your press before putting the sandwich together. So, used grilled tomatoes and eggplant, along with thinly sliced zucchini, black olives, thinly sliced garlic cloves, and vegan Italian dressing or seasonings like oregano and basil (or pesto if you're shying away from the Italian dressing) for a real Italian treat!

A simple sandwich that requires a special product is a grilled cheese. You can get a vegan cheese that melts, like Daiya, for this. Mixing in some avocado slices, and maybe some crumbled vegan bacon, can really take this up a notch without a lot of effort.

While any of these great panini ideas should work well for you, keep in mind that you don't have to stick to any of these ingredients strictly. If you're looking at this list and thinking “I really don't want to deal with artichoke hearts, but that sandwich sounds great otherwise...” then don't deal with artichoke hearts, substitute olives or asparagus or just use the other ingredients listed and omit it altogether. Cooking is an art, make it the way you want to.