OK, full disclosure: this is more like “the perfect sandwich using tomatoes, if you know you’re going to be eating out for a few days and want to empty out your refrigerator so don’t buy anything too fancy” than the actual perfect tomato sandwich. I go through phases where I eat in most of the time and where I eat out most of the time, and near the end I try to make sure that I use up everything that I have.
Tomato sandwiches are perfect for this: I almost always have bread or or buns or croissants at the house, but will often be left with a few extra tomatoes and some lettuce if I have previously made tabbouleh. But, by themselves, tomato sandwiches can be a little boring. So I started looking up recipes, and found one which involved sautéing a bunch of herbs as a garnish – but which I can simulate pretty effectively with a bit of veganaise, dill, salt, pepper, and onion powder.
Leftover tomato can be turned into a mini-salad (upper right, above) with a little salt and pepper and any remaining veggies or lettuce you have. Personally, I like toasting the thick “Nature’s Own Perfectly Crafted Multigrain” bread better than the hamburger buns you see above, as you can spread the lettuce and tomatoes out to create a wider sandwich that’s easy to eat. It also seems to go better with a nice peaty Scotch like Ardbeg than it does with a margarita, but on all of that, your mileage may vary.
Regardless, I was again cleaning out the freezer of frozen stuff, mostly breakfast items, and found some vegan bacon, which I thought, “hey, that will add savory, I am a genius”! Only when I was done with it did I realize I had simply re-invented the good old bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich that my finicky tastebuds had steered me away from as a youth. Well, they’re not steering me away from it now.
Oh, the recipe. Makes two sandwiches:
- 4 slices Nature’s Own Perfectly Crafted Thick-Sliced Multigrain, or bread of your choice
- 1 beefsteak tomato, or tomato of your choice
- 4 leaves of Bibb or Butter lettuce, or lettuce of your choice
- Veganaise, or spread of your choice
- Salt
- Pepper
- Dill Weed
- Onion Powder
- Optionally, 4 slices of vegan bacon, or, just bacon
Wash and clean the lettuce leaves. Slice the tomato to create four thick slices from the middle. Chop up the ends, salt and pepper them, and add to a small bowl as a mini salad with any other veggies you have, such as leftover lettuce. Toast the bottom slices of bread and spread on the veganaise, then season the veganaise with salt, pepper, dill weed and onion powder. Layer on the tomatoes, two slices per bread, and salt and pepper them as well. Then add the lettuce. (Note: if using wide bread, line the tomato slices up, then add the lettuce, but if using hamburger buns, you can stack tomato-lettuce-tomato-lettuce). Optionally add tomatoes and close off the sandwich. Serve with your beverage of choice.
-the Centaur
Pictured: a lot of tomato sandwiches.
