Wilted kale. Silken tofu. Garbanzo bean.
The culinary world I entered this week bears this sort of strange language at its borders. But I fought back my fear and headed into the land of veganism anyway, prepared to place leaves and beans between slices, to grit my teeth and consume the result with an open mind and open mouth.
I was totally out of my comfort zone. I could not use meat, cheese or butter. Not having cheese at my disposal particularly irked me; I sometimes take breaks from meat at least meat that is not bacon, which I make sure to eat at least once a week for sanity but I am always down for a grilled cheese with slices of tomato, or a goat cheese and pesto panini.
Making a vegan sandwich is a difficult proposition, but I know that there are people out there who both love sandwiches and do not eat animal products. I consider myself an experienced eater, but Im still relatively clueless in the kitchen, and wanted to do justice to my vegan sandwich-loving readers. For help, I turned to Serious Eats, a website that has tons of good recipes and that is written in a smart, helpful yet unpretentious tone.
I followed Serious Eats Braised Kale and Chickpea sandwich almost to a T, though I cut some corners and added hot sauce, which Im starting to realize is how I tackle any cooking roadblock. Google it if you want the specific recipe basically, you cook a bunch of kale with oil, garlic and red pepper flakes, and add some garbanzo beans, which is a cooler way of saying chickpea.
The kale-garbanzo bean mixture gets topped with raw red onions which have been been tossed with toasted sesame seeds, and a spice called sumac, which is used in a lot of Middle Eastern dishes and apparently makes the whole sandwich, though I did not have it on hand.
Then you place all of that stuff on some vegan bread, which turns out comprises most bread in the supermarket. The crusty ciabatta that I used, for example, lists just wheat, flour and yeast as its ingredients. Milk, butter and eggs only come into play with richer, sweeter breads like Challah and brioche.
As a condiment, I made Serious Eats homemade vegan mayonnaise, which involved exciting scientific maneuvers. Homemade mayo is usually made with egg yolks and oil, and this vegan version involved switching out the egg for a spongy food called silken tofu. I blended the tofu with some lemon juice, garlic and the oil; something called emulsifying happened and the final product resembled actual mayo! It was a little less creamy, and slightly less thick, then the mayo Im used to, but it served its purpose as a spreadable substance. I mixed it with some Sriracha and the overall sandwich was finally complete.
I ate the whole thing! I devoured all of the wilted kale and the garbanzo beans; it really was a satisfying sandwich. The beans add some much-needed body, and the red onions provide a nice crunch. The kale is chewy and spicy and the ciabatta stands up to the toppings.
The only potential issue is that it took so much work to build the sandwich. Plus, I needed access to a grocery store and to a kitchen, two things that are hard to come by for underclassmen. The lesson learned here, though, is that with enough time and resources, good vegan sandwiches do exist. Though I couldnt help but imagine what the braised kale and garbanzo beans would have tasted like topped with bacon.
