Ultimate Veggie Hoagie

I created my Ultimate Veggie Hoagie this year and even unveiled it on TV!

It's full of flavor and can be made for a crowd.

Veggie lovers this one is for you!

Spring has arrived and with Summer right after I'm always trying to invent "new" sandwiches this time of year. Because let's face it - plain turkey and cheese can get boring.

I first made this sandwich while working with one of my favorite Midwest companies Bushel Boy. They grow tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries year around right here in Iowa and Minnesota so that we can eat them all year long.

I featured their tomatoes on this sandwich last month while taping this segment for Hello Iowa. 

First I wanted to make a "slaw" to put on the veggies and let that sit while I assembled the rest of the sandwich, because honestly leaf lettuce or just plain iceberg can be very boring and very tasteless.

So I mixed shredded leaf lettuce with a bit of mayo, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.  A little bit goes a long way, but it's just enough to dress the greens and give them a ton of flavor.

Underneath that slaw is MORE magic.

One of the tricks to this sandwich is buying a large baguette (homemade from a bakery is best!) and then hollowing out most of the inner soft bread. This allows all the ingredients to nestle in like a boat.

Once you've removed some of the bread you spread a very generous amount of chive & onion cream cheese on both sides. Then layer on the sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, sprinkling the whole sandwich with flaky sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

And of course add all that lettuce slaw!

Press down on this monster of a sandwich and using a serrated knife cut into four pieces. Yep, this sandwich can feed four people. Or I guess two really, really hungry folks.

This hoagie sandwich is creamy, fresh and full of flavor. I'm fairly certain it will be becoming a Summer staple in my house. 

Look at that bite!

Everything goes together perfectly - the cream cheese layer, the juicy tomatoes, the crisp cucumbers, the tangy lettuce slaw and the soft bread.

I hope you guys love this veggie hoagie as much as I did.