Three Cooking Spoons and some Sandwichlove

,How about ‘Stullen’ aka sandwiches, thus what comes on top of them?’ Veronika asked, as we settled the new ‘Kochlöffel aka wooden spoon’ topic.

And that preached to the choir to us. Whether for the lunchbox, a quick slice in between or, as my American friends would say, classy ‘German Abendbrot ‘- our hearts beat for bread and toppings. That can sometimes be just good butter.

But we like a small change on the kitchen table, too. So Homemade sandwich love, or ‘Stullen-Love’ as we say, is our topic for the first meeting this year.

This time it was my honor to provide the local framework for our action – even repeated references to the spatial challenges of my miniature kitchen could not keep away my favorite activists Julietta and Veronika, who armed with ingredients, cameras and champagne came to invade me. The result is many fine ‘Stullen’ from a wide range of good ingredients. Let´s say ‘Goodbye expensive spreads from the health food store’ – here come the fine and homemade ones’!

While Julietta brought along some ‘Nutbutter’ made of hemp seeds, a delicious hearty cream cheese spread and some avocado bread with a twist, Veronika conjured a wonderful spread made from beetroot and goat cheese. AND a vegan option. What a flashy color, no?

As always, Julietta´s recipes can be found on Julietta Seasons, and Veronika´s on Carrots for Claire. Try google translate if you don´t understand German, their blogs are pretty aesome!

For a bottom, we used the ‘Life Changing Bread’ from my last post as well as ‘Swiss Bürli’ from a thermomix recipe – my super sunday quickie discovery I’m going to introduce to you coming up on this blog.

My recipes come in bright green and orange. An incredibly fast Sweet Potato Spread which is perfect for days on which there is little time but great hunger, and would actually deserve the name, ‘healthy PBJ sandwich’. (Now okay, I know you Americans are super special about your PBJ Sandwich. Of course its not the same, since it doens´t contain any jam, but to me the aroma of peanut and something sweet just always resembles that US classic somehow). I’ve been told that children also find it´s pretty good.

I recommend using crunchy nut butter, which actually contains only peanuts and salt, and neither palm oil nor any other additives or fats. If you dont like the crunch, just use fine nut butter, then only add a little more salt in the end.

The second recipe is a parsnip almond cream with thyme, which marked the end of two parsnips, which were still in our foodsharing box at the end of the week. So if you might have some laying around, why not bringing it out onto some bread!

Both spreads are vegan btw, playing with a naturally slightly sweet touch and can be refined with everything you have at home like fresh green, but also sliced vegetables (cucumber, celery, beetroot) or boiled egg makes a great combination, too.
The parsnip almond cream goes well with anything spicy (think aged cheeses, pickles etc) or, as here, the (sensational!) combo with fresh persimmon and feshly grind pepper.

Where the pepper pictured is not just some pepper, but my recent discovery of the local SlowFood-Fair ‘: an Indonesian lemon pepper by Spice for Life. But I will tell you more on that soon.

Sweet Potato and Peanut Spread (vegan)
Recipe for 2 glasses

_ 500g sweet potato, boiled and mashed
_ 1-2 tbsp Organic Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter
_ Splash of lemon juice
_ Good salt

on top of it:
_ Celery
_ A handful of peanuts, unroasted, unsalted
_ Cress

here we go:
_ Peel the sweet potatoes with a vegetable peeler, cut into large cubes and simmer in a little water until soft.
_ Drain well (you want them as dry as possible).
_ Puree or mash sweet potatoes, then set aside to cool.
_ Stir in Peanut Butter with a spoon / spatula, season to taste with lemon juice and salt.
_ Chop the peanuts coarsely and roast (without adding oil) in a pan, cut the celery greens into slices.
_ Top sandwich with Sweet Potato Spread and Toppings.

Voilà!

Parsnips and almond créme (vegan)
Recipe for 2 glasses

_ 300g parsnips, peeled and finely diced
_ Mild coconut oil or olive oil
_ 1 bunch thyme plucked
_ 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
_ 150ml Noilly Prat or any other dry vermouth (or Apple Juice)
_ 100g almonds, dry roasted
_ 100g sunflower seeds, dry roasted
_ 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
_ 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
_ Green Pepper, ground
_ Good salt

on top of it:
_ 1 persimmon, sliced
_ Lemon pepper, e.g. this one
_ Slivered cucumber

_ Fry Parsnip cubes in a little coconut or olive oil, add the garlic.
_ add fresh thyme leaves (only the leaves).
_ In the meantime, in a separate pan dry roast the almonds and seperately the seeds.
_ Deglaze Parsnip with Noilly Prat (or apple juice), continue cooking, if needed add some water – the cubes must not burn.
_ Pulverize almonds and seeds in a blender / chopper.
_ When the parsnip are cooked, add to the almonds, mix and season with lemon juice, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. If the paste is too solid add a little water or apple juice, season to taste.
_ Spread slice of bread with cream and top with cucumber sticks or Persimmon slices. Grind lemon pepper freshly and sprinkle on top.

Voilà!
Have fun with your homemade Stullen-Love!

And please drop as a note: We´d love to know, what is your favorite spread recipe?!