Name: Stoplight Baguettes - Healthy Vegan Sourdough Baguette Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 5
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 5 slices of sourdough bread - 1 inch thick; 1 tbsp of olive oil; 3 heirloom tomatoes (I used red, yellow and green); 3 sprigs of fresh basil; 1/2 avocado

These stoplight baguettes are a healthy combination of heirloom tomatoes, crusty baguette slices, avocado and fresh basil. Your light will always be on go when you taste this sourdough baguette recipe!

I recently moved into a new place in LA and wanted to cook something fun for my house mates for dinner. I had no idea what I wanted to make, so I went to our local Trader Joes for inspiration!

Luckily, before I even walked in the door, I saw a GORGEOUS basil plant just begging me to bring it home. It was only $2.99 for the whole plant, which was a steal because it had at least 20 different plants in the pot.

I’ve used it a lot, but even still, there is so much left! Once I saw this basil, I knew I wanted to do an Italian themed meal. I decided to make Stoplight Baguettes using a sourdough bread loaf.

Making the sourdough baguette recipe

These vegan baguettes are very simple, and extremely delicious! My house mates made sure we didn’t have any leftovers. 🙂 They are great for a meal, a side dish or even as an appetizer.

To begin, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and slice the sourdough round into slices about 1″ thick. I love using the sourdough bread, because it has more flavor than plain or wheat bread. It gives a nicely shaped slice as well, that will hold the toppings.

Then, brush the sourdough bread with a little bit of extra virgin olive oil. It works best if you use an actual brush, but I didn’t have one, so I improvised and used a spatula.

Sometimes you’ve just gotta work with what you have!

Now it’s time to slice your fresh basil into thin strips. It’s better to slice it than leave the leaves whole because it’s easier to bite into when it’s cooked.

You don’t end up with big bites of basil this way. Also, NEVER substitute dried basil for the real leaves in this recipe. It would give it a completely different taste. Fresh basil is just that, it adds a fresh taste to the entire recipe that a dried herb just won’t deliver.

After this, you get to my favorite part! Slice your heirloom tomatoes! You could really use any tomatoes, but in order to make the ‘stoplight’ you’ll need one green, one yellow, and one red.

I love using heirloom tomatoes. Check out my tomato mozzarella salad plate for a wonderfully colorful use of them.

Heirloom tomatoes are those that are grown from the seeds of plants that have been passed down through several generations by seed saving.

Many people consider them to be much more flavorful. Check your local Farmer’s Market to see if they have them for sale. It will make the finished sourdough baguette recipe so much more flavorful. Find out more about heirloom vegetable seeds here.

Once you’ve done that you can begin laying the tomatoes on the sourdough baguette slices. I like mine to be straight, and sometimes it takes a minute to figure out which slices to put on which baguette pieces, but just be warned, since the tomatoes are freshly sliced they will stick to the basil if you pick them back up.

Just make sure you’ve got even basil on all your sourdough baguette slices.

Now, at this point, you could pop the baguette slices into the oven, but I also like to add a garnish of chopped avocado because it’s creamy flavor complements the tomatoes and fresh basil so well. (Be sure to check out my ultimate avocado grilled cheese sandwich recipe here.)

Not sure about how to use avocados? See my list of avoca-do’s and avoca-don’ts.

Heating the stoplight baguettes

Now you’re ready to put the vegan baguettes in the oven for about 15 minutes. You’ll know when they’re ready because the sides of the sourdough will start to get a golden brown tint, the tomatoes will blister slightly, and the basil will turn a darker green.

Once the sourdough baguette recipe is done you can use them as a side dish along side your favorite pasta recipe, for a lovely dinner that’s never resulted in leftovers! They also make fabulous healthy appetizers.

Bon Appetite! These stoplight baguettes are low in calories, vegan and so easy to make. Your friends will love them!

Pin this Sourdough Baguette Recipe for later

Would you like a reminder of this recipe for stoplight baguettes? Just pin this image to one of your cooking boards on Pinterest.

Yield: 5 slices