eggplant tomato bialy sandwich

I came across a Bialy for the first time a few weeks ago at my local farmers market, they instantly caught my eye; I am a sucker for all things bread. The Bread Peddler on a typical week has on display beautiful loaves of bread. These were different- little round bread circles filled with onions and poppy seeds, I totally needed these in my life, like yesterday. My first thought when I popped the brown bag of Bialy's into my basket was- Sandwiches! I headed home with the intent on making a sandwich, but of course got sidetracked with the garden and ended up bringing the Bialy's to my Dad's BBQ in place of traditional buns. My step mom and sisters knew right off what a Bialey was, apparently they are a popular treat on Cape Cod.

After reading up on the Bialy, I learned that they are a traditional Polish bread filled with a combination of garlic, onions, poppy seeds & bread crumbs. If you are interested, additional information on the Bialy can be found here. 

When I made this sandwich my garden was bursting with fresh tomatoes, by the time you read this post the tomatoes in my garden will be hanging by a thread, luckily though the farmers at the market are still growing beautiful tomatoes, hopefully your tomato season lasts a little longer too! The only time I really enjoy eggplant is during the months of August and September, by the end of September I have eaten my weights worth in eggplant and need a bit if break from it until the following round of CSA eggplant next August & September. I really do believe sometimes too much of a good thing is not always good.

You can easily replace the red lettuce with any fall green you fancy; basil would also be amazing, looking back at my notes that is what I had originally intended on using, somehow red leaf lettuce made its way onto the sandwich and into the photo shoot! I'll let it slide, it really is quite pretty.

Alongside the Baily sandwich I ate my all time favorite soup; Avocado Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup. I kid you not, this is one of the easiest and most comforting soups I make, it is on heavy rotation in my kitchen year round - I have been known to eat an entire batch over the course of a couple hours- yes it is that good.

 A little effort goes a long way for a quick and comforting weekend lunch or light weekday dinner. The entire meal took only about 20 minutes from start to finish. Nothing tastes better than a meal made with wholesome ingredients, homemade in your kitchen and comforting. If you haven't noticed, comfort has been a common theme in my posts, this is the time of year I simply want to wrap you all up in cozy sweaters and cuddle for a while.

What are your comfort foods this time of year?

Eggplant Tomato Bialy Sandwich

makes 2 sandwiches
 {recipe for creamy avocado chipotle sweet potato soup here!}

you will need: 
1 small eggplant sliced into rounds, salted 

1 Heirloom Tomato - sliced

hand full red lettuce

2 Bialy's

whole grain mustard

assembly:
pre heat oven to 425*

Slice and salt your eggplant - place on a rimmed baking sheet lightly sprayed with olive oil. Place the eggplant on the baking sheet and spray the eggplant rounds with olive oil. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until eggplant it golden and soft. Remove from oven.

While eggplant is baking, slice your tomatoes, prep your lettuce and cut your buns. During the last 2 minutes of baking the eggplant, place the bialy rolls, cut side down in the oven to warm.

Remove baily's & eggplant from oven. Spread while grain mustard on each side of the bialy roll. Layer 3-4 slices of roasted eggplant, 3 slices of tomato and lettuce onto the bottom half of of the bialy, top with the other half of the roll. Repeat the process for the second Bialy.

Enjoy!