Vegan Antipasto Sandwich with Marinated White Beans

This vegan antipasto sandwich is piled high with creamy marinated white beans, sun dried tomatoes, a fresh sunflower pesto, tender artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers. Smoosh that together between a crusty baguette and you’ve got one pretty awesome vegan sandwich!

I know it’s the middle of winter and sandwiches are technically a “summer food” but honestly, thats a whole like 4 months of wasted opportunity. This vegan antipasto sandwich would definitely make for a delicious picnic—so if you have the means to do so, go for it. However, if you’ve got about two feet of snow outside like I do, fear not! This recipe calls for lots of pantry ingredients and doesn’t rely on any specific seasonal produce to make it super nutrient packed and delicious!

What’s in a Vegan Antipasto Sandwich?

So “Antipasto” technically means “before pasta” in Italian and while this sandwich may not be the best choice to serve as an appetizer before your big pasta dinner, it’s got a lot of the same elements. A traditional antipasto spread has lots of meat and cheese, but since were trying to be vegan here, there’s going to be a lot more veggie action going on. Here’s everything that goes into this Vegan Antipasto Sandwich:

Marinated White Beans:

My favorite part about these white beans is the sun-dried tomatoes. Right from the jar, they add a really nice subtle sweetness. As for the beans, I like to use cannellini beans, but any other type of white bean such as navy, great northern or butter beans would also work. These marinated white beans are delicious after 20 minutes on the counter, and they’re even better the next day.

Sunflower Pesto:

This is my favorite vegan pesto recipe made from sunflower seeds, basil, nutritional yeast and a handful of arugula just to give it some body. I’ve found that the food processor works best for this, but a high speed blender will also do the job.

Artichoke hearts:

I absolutely LOVE artichoke hearts. I like to just eat them straight out the jar as a snack. For this sandwich, I recommend using a jar of Italian artichoke hearts marinated in olive oil but the canned water packed ones will also work as a cheaper, lower fat option.

Roasted red peppers:

While I do enjoy some nice homemade roasted red peppers, the jarred kind will work just fine here. To balance out all that heaviness from the other ingredients, I recommend red peppers packed in water. My favorite brand is Divinia Organic Fire Roasted Sweet Peppers.

Bread:

To soak up all that that wonderful marinade from the white beans, you want a fairly sturdy bread that won’t get soggy, like a baguette or ciabatta roll. In order to make room for all the fillings, I like to carve a shallow well in each half. This way, you don’t have to worry about any of the ingredients falling out the sides.

Tips for serving

If you haven’t figured it out, this sandwich is pretty loaded. So that means you’ve got to be smart about the way you slice it to avoid and spillage. I like to assemble the two halves separately, spreading pesto, white beans and red pepper on one half and another layer of pesto and the artichoke hearts on the other half. Then I bring the two halves real close together and close them up like a book. Transfer the sandwich to a large sheet of parchment and roll it up really tight.

To cut it, I actually put a rubber band on either side to keep the parchment in place then sliced it down the middle. but keep in mind I was also manhandling it pretty hard to get a good photo so I needed the extra stability. If you’re just serving this sandwich right away, you probably don’t need to go through all of this, just the parchment will be fine. Happy sandwiching!

Want more healthy lunch recipes? Try these:

• Vegan Sweet potato Breakfast Burrito
• Vegan Spinach Artichoke Grilled Cheese
• Avocado Chickpea “Tuna” Salad

Made this recipe? Tag @wandering_chickpea on Instagram!