Saltram's Cheese & Other Vegetarian Sandwiches
Economical and Nutritious British Veggie Food: Banana Nut Sandwich
Aug 22, 2008 Laura Harrison McBride
If you visit Saltram House outside Plymouth, England, and have lunch in the restaurant run by the National Trust for visitors to the site, you can order a cheese salad sandwich. It's delicious, simple, and good for vegetarians. And there are lots of accompaniments you can serve with it besides potato chips, or crisps as they are called there.
While cheese sandwiches are certainly known on this side of the Atlantic, there is one difference between ours (gluey, unpopular) and theirs (savory, tender): they grate cheese from blocks rather than using pre-sliced cheese.
Saltram's Cheese Sandwich, Stateside Version
Ingredients:
- Yellow cheddar in a block, about one ounce per sandwich
- White cheddar in a block, about one ounce per sandwich
- Shredded lettuce, about two tablespoons per sandwich
- Whole grain sprouted bread, two slices for each sandwich
- Mayonnaise
- Prepared mustard (or hot sauce or pickle relish)
Directions:
- Grate enough cheese for each sandwich you plan to make
- Mix a tiny bit of prepared mustard (your favorite kind, yellow, brown or whole-grain) with mayonnaise--Or experiment with mixing in small amounts of hot sauce or pickle relish
- Spread they mayonnaise mixture onto two slices of whole grain sprouted bread per sandwich
- Add the cheese and a few bits of lettuce (or as the Brits say, salad), and you've got a simple, delicious meal or vegetarian snack.
Baked Beans on Toast, revised
Another British standard is baked beans on toast with tomato. To most Americans, this sounds, well, not good. However, its appeal this side of the Atlantic depends on the quality of the beans. If you pour them straight out of a supermarket can, it won't be very good, and it will be very runny, and almost impossible to eat as a pick-it-up sandwich. Better, then, to prepare beans you'd want to eat with or without bread around them. This recipes works well:
Ingredients:
- 1 very large can of vegetarian baked beans from the supermarket or health food store
- 3 or 4 tablespoons dark brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce (or substitute A-1 or soy sauce, preferably supermarket Chinese soy sauce and not Japanese soya sauce)
- A few good dashes of Tabasco (or Bermudian sherry-pepper sauce, if you have it, in even larger quantities, to taste)
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 clove chopped garlic
- 2 or 3 tablespoons of fake bacon bits (or three slices cooked bacon if you are not a vegetarian)
- 2 slices hearty bread (whole grain oat, for example) per sandwich
- Sliced tomato, two or three slices per sandwich
Directions:
- Mix all ingredients except bread and tomato together in a large bowl and taste, adding more sugar if you like.
- Spray a flat casserole pan with cooking spray and add bean mixture.
- Bake at 450-500 F. for one-half hour or until thickened and crusty at the edges.
- Allow to cool.
- Spread thickly on hearty bread and add sliced tomato to each sandwich.
- Add second piece of bread and serve.
Other Simple British Favorites
It isn't surprising that, since the sandwich was invented in England by John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (some say so that he could eat and play cards at the same time), there are abundant versions of the sandwich, even for vegetarians. Following are a few of the combinations you will find in teashops all over Britain.
Banana Nut Sandwich
Ingredients:
- Two slices Saffron bread (a favorite in southwest England)
- Several tablespoons premium nut butter (cashew or almond)
- Sliced banana
- Golden raisins
Directions:
- Spread the bread with the nut butter.
- Add a layer of sliced banana, as much as you like.
- Sprinkle with raisins, pressing them into the nut butter where it shows through the banana layer.
- Close the sandwich, cut and serve.
Bleu Cheese Sandwich
Ingredients:
- Rye bread, two slices per sandwich
- Bleu cheese
- Creme fraiche or sour cream
- Chopped walnuts, plain, spiced or candied, to taste
Directions:
- Crumble the bleu cheese and mix with enough creme fraiche or sour cream to make a spread, 3 or 4 tablespoons per sandwich.
- Spread the cheese mixture on one slice of rye bread.
- Sprinkle with your favorite chopped walnuts.
- Close sandwich, cut and serve.
A Danish Sandwich
Ingredients:
- Two slices pumpernickel or other dark bread per sandwich
- Butter
- Sliced Gouda cheese, two or three slices per sandwich
- Two tablespoons sauerkraut per sandwich
- Several sliced black olives per sandwich
Directions:
- Spread each slice of bread with butter.
- Place sliced Gouda on one slice.
- Place sauerkraut on the other and sprinkle with olives.
- Close sandwich, cut and serve.
Simple Egg Sandwich
Ingredients:
- One or two slices whole grain white bread
- Mayonnaise
- One hard-boiled egg per sandwich
- Fresh herbs to taste, chopped, 1 teaspoon per sandwich
Directions:
- Decide whether you want a closed or open sandwich.
- If closed, spread each slice of break with mayonnaise and sprinkle with a teaspoon or so of chopped herbs.
- If open, spread one slice of bread with mayonnaise and sprinkle with half the herbs
- In either case, slice egg and place on bread.
- If closed, add second slice of bread, cut and serve.
- If open, sprinkle with the remaining herbs, and serve with a knife and fork.
Cucumber Sandwich
Not to be forgotten, there's the famous British teatime favorite, the cucumber sandwich.
Ingredients:
- Very thin white bread, two slices per sandwich
- Butter
- Sliced English cucumber, three to five slices (Depending on diameter of cucumber), about 1/4-inch thick.
Directions:
- Remove crusts from bread.
- Spread with butter.
- Add cucumber slices and close sandwich.
- Cut into four, rather than two, triangles and serve, preferably with a cup of aromatic Earl Grey tea.
Baked Beans on Toast, the Old Way
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Egg Sandwich, a British Favorite
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