I spent a year abroad in Australia in college, and there was this little coastal town in Queensland called Yeppoon, which was the main outlet to Great Keppel Island, where I would go as often as I could. (Great snorkeling and scuba diving, by the way, if you ever get the chance…) A poor college student at the time, I couldn’t afford a hotel, so I would find a little spot in the sand, and pitch a little pup tent that I found for $20AU. On the way to Great Keppel, I would stop at this little sandwich shop. They had the most AMAZING sandwiches there. Like, amazing. And for years I tried to find the equivalent. I visited sandwich shop after sandwich shop. That was over 20 years ago. I can’t even remember what the sandwich was called. It had beets, pineapple, sprouts, no meat, and I can’t even remember what else. And it was 100% heaven and 50% why I left my host family’s house in Rockhampton to go to Great Keppel. This is my attempt at the recreation. It’s not spot on, but it’s a darn good sandwich nonetheless. Note, you need to make your own pickled beets for this sandwich. This is not an optional step, and it does take a day or more. (Believe me if I thought you could get by without it, I would tell you you could skip it. You can’t. Get over it.) Allow yourself time in your meal plan to pickle beets. It’s worth it for these healthy veggie sandwiches.
The bread in this recipe was adapted from thesugarfreediva.com and is also available as a separate recipe HERE. You can find the pickled beets recipe by itself HERE as well.
Ingredients
Pickled Beets
- 2 each beet large
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Bread
- 8 Tbsp almond flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp dried basil
- 1/4 cup asiago cheese grated, optional
- 4 each egg
- 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sandwiches
- 1 each pineapple small , sliced
- 1 cup sprouts
- 1 each avocado sliced
- 2 cups baby spinach
Veggie Cream Cheese
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 Tbsp carrot chopped
- 1 each green onion chopped
- 1 Tbsp red onion chopped
- 1 Tbsp red bell pepper chopped
Instructions
Pickled Beets
- Add 1 cup water to the insert of an Instant Pot. Add a trivet to the instant pot. Cut the roots and stems off of the beets. Rinse. Add beets to the trivet in the instant pot. Lock lid; set valve to sealing. Program for manual-high and 14 minutes.
- Allow for 10 minutes of natural pressure release (NPR) or allow for total natural pressure release. Remove beets with a slotted spoon. Using a paper towel, remove peels.
- Thinly slice cooked beets and place in a glass jar.
- Combine vinegar, 1/4 cup water, honey, salt, and pepper in a shaker cup or blender. Shake or process to combine. Pour into jar. Seal lid. Refrigerate at least 24 hours or up to 1 week. Use as desired.
Bread
- Combine almond meal, baking powder, and salt. Mix in basil and asiago. Whisk together the eggs and oil. Fold egg mixture into flour mixture. Spray 4 microwave safe mugs with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly among 4 mugs. Microwave 45 seconds. Rotate mugs. Micrwave 20 seconds. Check for doneness. If not done, microwave on 10 second intervals, checking each time, until done. Slice in half.
Veggie Cream Cheese
- Combine all ingredients.
Sandwiches
- Spread cream cheese on 4 slices of bread. Top each with 1 slice pineapple, 1 slice pickled beet, 1/4 cup sprouts, 1/4 avocado, and 1/2 cup baby spinach. Top with remaining bread slices.
Comments (0)