Cheese & Roasted Vegetable Picnic Loaf

Hands up who knew that it's National Picnic Week from 17th to 23rd June? I didn't until Unilever contacted me with a challenge to come up with a recipe that will jazz up my picnic. Picnics are often uninspiring with just sandwiches, crisps and pre packed cakes or biscuits but they don't have to be.

I remember watching an episode of the Naked Chef once where Jamie Oliver made a picnic to have on Southend Pier that consisted of roast chicken, flatbreads and cous cous, which he wrapped up in tinfoil reinforced with a cardboard base and they ate off paper plates with plastic cutlery. Once everything was eaten they disposed of their foil & utensils and didn't have anything left to carry, such a genius idea.

This recipe has a similar concept - an all in one picnic meal that doesn't really need anything else to go with it. A big slice of this is a meal in itself, bread, cheese and veggies all in one bite. You could add salami or ham as well but I chose to make a meat free one this time. You can use any size loaf you like and adjust the ingredients accordingly - I used a 800g (approx) homemade Bloomer for this one.

Cheese & Roasted Vegetable Picnic Loaf

1 large Bloomer
1 Aubergine
1 200g block of Apetina (Greek cheese)
1 red onion, sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced
2 x 125g Mozzarella balls
Chestnut mushrooms
Pitted Olives
Fresh basil leaves
1 jar of roasted red peppers
Colman's Garlic & Chilli Sauce
Colman's Sweet Chilli & Mango Sauce
Hellmann's Chilli mayonnaise
Olive oil
black pepper

• Slice the Aubergine lengthways and brush sides with olive oil
• Slice the mushrooms and brush with a little olive oil
• Cook the aubergine & mushrooms on a griddle pan in batches until softened & set aside
• Slice the top off the bloomer and scoop out the inside leaving approx 2cm around the edge
• Spread the inside of the loaf with Garlic & Chilli sauce
• Layer up the loaf with the ingredients (I layered mine as shown below, with a squirt of chilli and mango sauce on top of the Greek cheese and a few scatterings of basil & a twist of black pepper here & there)

• Once the loaf has been filled spread some chilli mayonnaise over the cut side of the lid and place on top
• Wrap tightly in clingfilm and place in the fridge with a weight on top (I used bottles of milk)
• Leave overnight

Very enjoyable with a big squeeze of Hellmann's Chilli Mayonnaise....

I was sent a hamper of goodies to use in my picnic recipe

I have also entered this into a new challenge on Délicieux and Chez Foti which for June is Picnic Food & Outdoor Nibbles 

Four Seasons Food hosted by Delicieux and Chezfoti