This was inspired by a butternut squash panini that was made for the Bull City Vegan Challenge. Toast is the restaurant that made the original sandwich, make sure to visit them if you are ever in Durham, NC, they always have a vegan soup.
Ingredients
- 1 medium butternut squash
- 3 to 4 fresh sage leaves
- 4 rosemary leaves
- 1 sprig thyme leaves
- ½ cup (56 g) walnuts
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
- ¼ cup (24 g) nutritional yeast
- Bread, for serving
How to Make It
-
The Night Before
- Get a whole butternut squash that will fit into your slow cooker. Poke holes and put it in the slow cooker on low overnight 7 to 9 hours. In the Morning
- Put whole squash in the fridge after letting it cool for about 30 minutes. Before Panini Making
- Take the squash out of the fridge and cut it in half. Scrape out the seeds. Take 1½ to 2 cups of the flesh to use for this recipe, store or freeze the rest for another dish or to remake this one at a later date.
- Purée the squash.
- Make the pesto by combining the herbs, walnuts, and olive oil in a food processor and pulse until it’s grainy but not puréed. Mix the pesto and the nutritional yeast into the squash purée. Use this spread in between 2 slices of bread and cook on the stove top. Use a panini pan if you have one. As an alternative, you can use a pan and a heavy skillet that will fit inside it to press the sandwich or you could use a grill and heavy object of your choice.
