Veggie Stuffed Pita Pocket Sandwiches

This sandwich is chock full of lots of vegetables, both cooked and raw. It’s got a great healthy version of Thousand Island dressing as a sauce and is tasty and lots of fun to eat-a little messy though so make sure you have lots of napkins before you dig in!!!

4 cups mushrooms, sliced
3 cups onions, sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon granulated onion
5 cups small broccoli florets
2 tomatoes, sliced
3 avocados, sliced
1 cup clover sprouts, or sprouts of choice
6 pita pockets, cut in half

Sauce:
1 cup Vegenaise*
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon horseradish, fresh, grated or jarred
4 tablespoons palm sugar* (add more to taste)
¼ cup water

Sauté onions in 1½ tablespoon olive oil until tender and caramelized. Season with ¼ teaspoon each of salt and granulated onion. Remove from pan.
Follow the same procedure for the mushrooms. Mix onions and mushrooms together and cool to room temperature.
Blanch broccoli by bringing a pot of water to a boil. Add broccoli and cook for 3 minutes. Drain and cool to room temperature.
Make dressing by mixing ingredients in bowl with whisk.
Cut avocado and tomatoes.
Open each pita half and place in broccoli, onion and mushroom mixture and two slices each of avocado and tomato, and a serving of sprouts.
Drizzle desired amount of dressing on top, or spread inside the pita half if you would like more dressing.
Repeat with remaining pita halves.

Serves – 6

Cooking time – 20 minutes

*Vegenaise is a vegan mayonnaise made by the Follow Your Heart company. It tastes almost exactly like mayonnaise, especially in salads like that above. We use it in all our “mayo” type dressings too and just love it. There are a variety of types of Vegenaise, we use the one made with grapeseed oil. Not only is it eggless but it also doesn’t have the over-refined sweeteners, fillers, gums or colorings that regular mayonnaise sometimes has.

** Palm sugar is made from the sap of a sugar palm tree (also called date palm). Coconut sugar comes from the buds of coconut tree flowers. They are two different types of sugars, but sometimes you can find a combination of both. Both are natural sweeteners that come from trees and are collected as sap — like North American maple syrup. The sap is then boiled in enormous vats to create either a sugar paste (sold in jars or tins) or rock-like chunks of sugar also known as “jaggery.” (Jaggery can be made from cane sugar as well – it just means the solid, rock-like form of sugar.) I have both palm and coconut sugar in my kitchen. It came in bags and looks like brown sugar.

Replies to Readers Comments:

Rather than a vegan mayo, is there such thing along the line of salad dressing such as miracle whip? I prefer the zip.-I don’t know of any but you can also add more zip if you want with adding a little vinegar of choice to the vegennaise

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Duane B.

4:31PM PDT on May 6, 2013

Thank you for sharing.

May 6
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Patricia H.

10:26PM PST on Jan 21, 2013

thanks for sharing

January 21
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Trudy K.

5:23PM PDT on Jul 2, 2012

Sounds good, but why sugar & certainly not Palm Sugar. Being on Care 2 are we not aware of how this destroys rainforests & affects our wildlife. Bad choice there.

July 2
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Terry V.

5:44PM PDT on Jun 24, 2012

Thanks

June 24
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Lika S.

1:37AM PDT on Apr 20, 2012

Rather than a vegan mayo, is there such thing along the line of salad dressing such as miracle whip? I prefer the zip.

April 20
send a green star

Anastasia J.

5:10PM PDT on Apr 16, 2012

Looks pretty good.

April 16
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Terri S.

9:26AM PDT on Apr 16, 2012

I agree with Sarah M - Regarding coconut palm sugar, please read this:

http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/coconut_palm_sugar.htm

Karen F.

1:15PM PDT on Apr 14, 2012

Not sure why you would even need sugar in the sandwich at all.

April 14
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Sarah M.

1:00PM PDT on Apr 13, 2012

Yum yum, and vegan! I'm disappointed however that they have palm sugar in the recipe. The production of palm sugar is destroying rainforests! Please stop this destructive fad! It's shameful that here on Care2 I repeatedly see recipes including palm sugar--it's not cool! These writers should know better!