11.23.2010

Sandwich Mashup

I have a problem when it comes to making sandwiches. I just want to add it all: turkey, hummus, tomato, mushrooms, lettuce, apple slices, avocado, cucumber, the list goes on. I mix it up, play with variations, yet I always manage to have at least 6 ingredients layered between two pieces of bread. Which makes for a helluva mouthful and much undesired jaw-popping. So, how to solve this dilemma and keep my tower of layers from exploding out of the bread? The answer: a food processor. Grind my sandwich fixings into a pulp that I can drink or at least eat with a spoon. Okay, not exactly, but this trusty gadget does allow room to condense ingredients to save space on the sandwich. Take spinach for example. A few cups of those leafy greens can seriously bulk up a sandwich. But chopped up in the food processor, the same amount takes up a fraction of the space.

I tried the technique using a combination of carrots, spinach & arugula, and white beans. Once pulsed in the food processor, these ingredients (which would normally fall out of a sandwich) stuck together as a thick paste. I've had success pairing white beans with canned tuna, so I folded in some of the fish into the bean mixture. Five ingredients in one -- not bad. I topped the tuna salad-esque mixture with sliced tomato, spread avocado onto a toasted ciabatta, and chowed down on my new creation:

TUNA WITH WHITE BEAN, SPINACH-ARUGULA AND CARROT MASHUP ON TOASTED CIABATTA

Ingredients:
1 can cannellini beans
1 cup spinach
1 cup arugula
1/2 cup carrots
lemon juice
olive oil
parsley
1 can tuna, packed in water
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tomato, sliced
avocado
multigrain ciabatta

Directions:
1. In a food processor, combine 1/2 can cannellini beans, spinach, arugula, and carrots; blend into paste. Add about 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 tsp olive oil and parsley to taste. Fold in can of tuna.
2. Toast multigrain ciabatta; spread avocado onto one half of the bread. Top with tuna and bean mixture and 2 slices of tomato.

The food processor is perfect for my habitual sandwich overload: I can fit in all the ingredients I like without having to sacrifice flavors for physical limitations. Perhaps this will be handy for my exploding wraps as well...

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