9 Unexpected Ways To Boost Your Sandwich Using Vegetables

Vegetables are a crucial part of many beloved sandwiches. But when it comes to adding vegetables to a sandwich, we tend to think of the basics in their raw form — a slice of tomato here, a bit of shredded lettuce there. These are key sandwich components, no doubt, but they're also familiar and, after awhile can make even your favorite sandwich feel a little boring. Fortunately, sandwiches are the ultimate customizable food, and vegetables are a great way to explore your culinary creativity.

With different preparations and a little imagination, veggies from roasted sweet potatoes to pickled cucumbers have the ability to transform a sandwich. Choosing the right ones can amplify and alter flavors, add surprising texture to on an old favorite, or lead you to experience — and possibly fall in love with– something you've never tasted before. All you need to do is think a little outside the box. With that in mind, here are some unexpected ways to use vegetables and take your sandwich from ho-hum to hall of fame.

Going with grilled or marinated vegetables on your favorite sandwich is an easy upgrade, especially if you're tired of raw veggies. When it comes to marinating, in many cases it's best to let vegetables soak overnight for optimal flavor and absorption. But if you're too hungry to wait that long, not to worry — many recipes call for far shorter marinating times, even as little as 10 minutes. Vinaigrettes are a popular choice for marinades, adding a lovely vinegary tang, and you can even add pickle juice to your homemade vinaigrette to take it a step further. For sweet, smoky vegetables, opt for a marinade that includes barbecue sauce.

Marinated or not, grilling vegetables is another way to give them a different and delicious flavor. You can grill a wide range of vegetables, including onions, bell peppers, and zucchini. Techniques and seasonings abound, but an easy go-to in most cases is to lightly coat them in olive oil, then add seasonings like salt, pepper, and anything else that tickles your fancy. (or matches the flavor profile of the sandwich you're making). Marinated and grilled veggies are great as a sandwich topping, but they can also work as the star of the show — serve them on a crunchy baguette for maximum flavor absorption and an excellent textural contrast.

Pickle fans know that cucumbers that have been pickled, that is, soaked in a vinegar solution known as brine, add a fun crunch and appealing sour note to sandwiches. But you can go well beyond the traditional dill or bread and butter pickles to achieve unique flavor.

Of course, nearly any vegetable can be pickled;  some popular cucumber alternatives include carrots, celery, and onions, all of which bring texture and zing to the party. Traditional pickle vegetables from around the world can work on sandwiches, too — take Korean kimchi, Turkish turşu, or French cornichons, among countless others. Each add a unique profile, be it spice, sharpness, or even a bit of sweetness that can accentuate a sandwich's fillings and condiments. Spicy Italian pickled peppers, for example, can make plain old ham a cheese sandwich pop with some additional heat and acidity. Pickled foods work particularly well on cold cut sandwiches and others filled with heartier meats like steak or fried chicken.

Making a sandwich almost always involves putting ingredients inside of bread — unless you replace the bread with another ingredient entirely! While this is a good way to reduce carb intake, using vegetables to encase your sandwich actually makes sense its own right. For one, it can make for a refreshing taste experience, especially on hot days. Imagine, for instance, the lightness of a lettuce wrap filled with grilled chicken and even more of your favorite vegetables. Or, for a sweet, cool taste, why not hollow out bell peppers and put your favorite sandwich fillings inside?

Swapping out vegetables for bread doesn't just work for full-sized sandwiches. You can also do it with smaller portions — for instance, vegetable tea sandwiches. Cucumber rounds are great for this. You can add things like tuna salad or cream cheese and salmon between those cool slices. As with bread, the combos are virtually endless as long as you use veg that will stand up to the weight of the sandwich's contents. Any crispy, fairly firm vegetable will do the trick.

Arguably the most direct way to incorporate more veggies into your sandwich is to smash them together and form literal patties. You can make vegetable patties using bases like corn or potatoes, or even using a flour base as a binding agent, as in the case with many versions of pakoras, fried vegetable patties popular in India. If you love sweet corn, opt for a fried corn fritter that includes additional vegetables like squash and onions. And while many veggie patties are fried, they can just as easily be baked. 

For the ultimate — and in our opinion, tastiest — veggie patty, you'll want to incorporate paneer. This soft, fresh (rather than aged) cheese is commonly used in Indian cuisine, as well as in nearby countries' cuisines as well, including dishes from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nepal. Often compared to cottage cheese, paneer's mild taste and malleability make it perfect for mixing veggies and seasonings into. Potatoes are commonly used as a base, and you can toss in additions like corn kernels, chopped red onion, peppers, and more. The result is a creamy patty that's perfect between two slices of bread, and you can in turn top that with even more vegetables.

We've seen what regular potatoes can do when mixed with other ingredients, but sweet potatoes are just as versatile as their starchy cousins. Almost every sweet potato preparation — fried, boiled, roasted, or mashed — can be added to a sandwich. Roasted sweet potato slices have enough flavor and heft to carry a sandwich on their own, even serving as a replacement for salami and other meats in a veggie-forward Italian combo dupe. 

Sweet potatoes also work well with meats like pork, chicken and beef, creating a delightful sweet contrast with those savory bases. Consider, for instance, a steak strip sandwich topped with slices of boiled sweet potatoes. We also love combining sweet potato and avocado on a sandwich for a soft, flavorful blend of sweet and creamy. If that's a little too much mush for you, top it with some lettuce, red onion, or radish slices to work some crunch into the mix. 

When it comes to adding veggies to sandwiches like hamburgers that include ground or minced meat, you have more options than you might think. Instead of (or in addition to) using vegetables as toppings, you can cook them with your mince. 

Beef and onions is a simple and common combination, but just about any vegetable that can be cooked can be added to chopped meat. For instance, beef Lindström is a traditional Swedish dish that consists of chopped beef patties mixed with pickled beets, as well as seasonings and additional veggies. In many Asian cultures, pork and vegetable patties are common – Vietnamese pork patties, for example, include veggies like onions, shallots, garlic, and carrots. The more you look into chopped meat and veggie combinations, the more you'll also come across some surprising suggestions, including recipes that add fruit as well as vegetables to chopped meat patties, for complex and unusual taste combinations.

You can almost never go wrong with a good vegetable dip. Whether it's classics like spinach dip, hummus, or even store-bought guacamole, it's hard not to grab a chip or piece of pita and dig in. But before you do, you might want to consider turning that dip into a sandwich spread. The dips then take on a dual role as both the sandwich's vegetable component and its sauce. For instance, you can top your grilled chicken sandwich with guacamole or slather your roast beef in spinach dip. Another option is to combine peanut butter and hummus for a delicious dose of umami, and you can even throw some carrots into the mix for more sweet, crunchy contrast (more on that in a bit). 

Another thing that makes vegetable spreads an excellent sandwich option is that you can buy them ready-made, cutting down significantly on prep time and ingredients. Of course, you may prefer to make them yourself, especially since this allows you to add your favorite spices and seasonings. Luckily, vegetable spreads are usually easy to whip up. Either way, they're a perfect, simple way to upgrade your sandwich. And if you still love to dip, you can save some as a snack for later.

Stir-fry is a technique that involves cooking seasoned vegetables and pieces of meat in very hot oil while moving or stirring them constantly. Typical vegetables you'll find in stir-fries include carrots, peppers, squash, and onions, but there are few, if any, hard and fast rules. You can find all kinds of stir-fry recipes, with a wide range of ingredients and flavor profiles.  The dish's mix of tastes and textures makes for an excellent meal on its own, but you might be surprised to learn that it's also a great sandwich filling.

Stir-fry sandwiches are the perfect way to use leftovers you might have brought home from your favorite restaurant, but you can just as easily make them from scratch. Since it's so malleable, you can create combinations perfectly suited to your tastes, from teriyaki chicken or beef with peppers and broccoli to an all-vegetable medley that includes baby corn, water chestnuts, and sugar snap peas (among others). Bread is also a major factor with stir-fry sandwiches — you may want to contrast the warm, soft ingredients a firm bread that can absorb its sauce, juices, and flavors. If that's the case, a baguette is what you need. On the other hand, if you want to make your stir-fry sandwich a soft, flavorful pocket of goodness, pita will be just perfect and prevent messes (unless you overstuff it, of course!).

A perfect BLT sandwich is one of the many classics that rely on vegetables as a fundamental component. Many other seminal sammies don't include them, but that doesn't meant you can't get a little creative and add veggies that may bring out the best of your old favorites — or, at the very least, make things interesting!

As we mentioned before, you can elevate your peanut butter sandwich by adding carrot slices. It might seem like an unorthodox addition, but you might be taken back when you notice the sweetness of the carrots highlighting the rich, fatty nuttiness of the peanut butter. Adding tomato to grilled cheese is an easy way to upgrade a stalwart, essentially condensing the sandwich's pairing with tomato soup. There's no rule against adding vegetables to sandwiches that already include them, either. Throw some jalapeños into the sauerkraut of a Reuben sandwich for an extra kick, or take your turkey club up a notch by adding marinated mushrooms or roasted red peppers for some tangy, umami depth. Heck, even the iconic BLT can be transformed with additional veggies — go soft with avocado slices to make it extra creamy, or maybe pickle chips for more crunch. Don't let the parameters of the common classics box you in.