Ribbon Sandwiches

[nverland]

Ribbon Sandwiches / Rainbow Sandwiches
Prep: 1 hour hour 50 minutes minutes Cooling time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes Cook: 50 minutes minutes Total Time: 4 hours hours 10 minutes minutes Servings: 40 mini sandwiches

Ingredients:

Spinach filling
570 g baby spinach or half spinach and half romaine lettuce
20 g parsley top stems and mostly leaves
2 green chili peppers or 1 serrano pepper
¼ tsp sea salt
Generous pinch of pepper or to taste
150 g margarine or butter

Carrot filling
350 g baby carrots or whole carrots
¼ tsp turmeric
Generous pinch of black pepper
¼ tsp sea salt
½ tsp ground coriander or cumin
¼ tsp honey or sugar (optional)
170 g margarine or butter

Beetroot filling
350 g beetroot
½ tsp crushed chili flakes adjust to your taste, I like to add 1 ½ tsp because I prefer it spicy
½ green chili or red chili pepper optional
¼ tsp sea salt
Generous pinch of black pepper
½ tsp ground coriander or cumin
¼ tsp honey or sugar (optional)
170 g margarine or butter

Sandwiches
40 slices soft white sandwich bread see recipe notes


Instructions:

Spinach filling
To steam the vegetables, you will need a large pot with a capacity to hold a steamer basket with the lid on.
Pour about 1 – 2 inches of water to the bottom of the pot and bring it to a simmer, with the lid on.
Add the baby spinach and let it steam for a few minutes until the spinach has just wilted and softened.
570 g baby spinach
Remove the steamer basket from the pot and place the steamed spinach in a bowl, and let it cool completely.
Once cooled, squeeze the spinach to remove as much water as possible. You can squeeze a little at a time in your hands OR place the spinach in a cheesecloth and squeeze the water out.
The remaining spinach should weigh about 220 – 230 g.
If you’re using lettuce, cut the lettuce into smaller pieces and steam it the same way as the spinach.
Let it cool and then squeeze out the water in the same manner.
Place the spinach and the spices in the ingredients list (except for the margarine) in a small food processor and process until you have a rough-looking paste. The weight of the paste will vary, but you want to have about 250 g of the green paste.
20 g parsley, 2 green chili peppers, ¼ tsp sea salt, Generous pinch of pepper
In a large bowl, place the margarine and 250 g of the green vegetable paste and whisk together until you have a smooth green buttery spread. Taste and season with salt to taste.
150 g margarine
Scrape this into a bowl and set aside until needed.

Carrot filling
The baby carrots can be steamed as they are, but if you're using larger carrots, you can cut them into smaller pieces.
350 g baby carrots
Steam the carrots in a steamer basket for 15 – 20 minutes, OR until the carrots are fork-tender (the fork should go through very easily). Top up the pot with water as needed while steaming.
Remove the carrots from the basket and let them cool down on a paper towel or kitchen napkin. Do not cover the carrots, since you want as much of the water to evaporate as it cools down.
You should have about 250 g of steamed carrots.
Place the steamed and cooled carrots in a food processor, along with all the spices in the ingredients list (excluding the margarine).
¼ tsp turmeric, Generous pinch of black pepper, ¼ tsp sea salt, ½ tsp ground coriander or cumin, ¼ tsp honey
Process until you have a rough-looking paste that still has small pieces of carrots in it (i.e. not a smooth, fine paste).
The weight of this paste should be around 260 g (at least 250 g).
In a large bowl, place the margarine and 250 g of the carrot paste and whisk together until you have a smooth orange and yellow buttery spread. Taste and season with salt to taste.
170 g margarine
Scrape this into a bowl and set aside until needed.

Beetroot filling
Slice off the tops of the beetroots and then steam them the same way as the carrots.
350 g beetroot
Remove the beetroots from the steamer basket and let them cool down on a paper towel or kitchen napkin until cooled to room temperature. PLEASE NOTE that beetroots do stain, so use a napkin or towel that you do not mind being stained.
Once cooled down, you can peel off the beetroot skin with your fingers as it should just come off easily. The steamed beetroot should weigh about 250 g as well.
Place the steamed, cooled, and peeled beets in a food processor, along with all the spices in the ingredients list (excluding the margarine).
½ tsp crushed chili flakes, ½ green chili or red chili pepper, ¼ tsp sea salt, Generous pinch of black pepper, ½ tsp ground coriander or cumin, ¼ tsp honey
Process until you have a rough-looking paste that still has small pieces of beetroot in it (i.e. not a smooth, fine paste).
The weight of this paste should be around 260 g (or at least 250 g).
In a large bowl, place the margarine and 250 g of the beet mixture and whisk together until you have a smooth deep pink / purple colored buttery spread. Taste and season with salt to taste.
170 g margarine
Scrape this into a bowl and set aside until needed.

Making the ribbon sandwiches (rainbow sandwiches)
Take four slices of bread and lay them out on your work surface.
40 slices soft white sandwich bread
Spread a thin layer of the carrot butter filling on one slice.
Spread a thin layer of the spinach butter filling on another slice.
Finally, spread a thin layer of the beet butter filling on the third slice.
Stack these three slices of bread on top of each other, along with the fourth slice on top. (You should have a sandwich that alternates with bread – filling – bread – filling – bread – filling – bread.)
You can stack them in any order you like in terms of the fillings. The filling shouldn’t be too thick, just an even layer that is visible when the sandwich is cut (as you can see in the pictures in the post).
With a sharp knife, slice off the crusts to make a square sandwich. Cut this sandwich into four smaller sandwiches. This can be either 4 square sandwiches, 4 triangles, OR you can cut the sandwich lengthwise to make 4 finger sandwiches.
Repeat with all the slices of bread.
40 slices soft white sandwich bread
The sandwiches can now be served right away.
To store them for later (or leftovers), place the sandwiches in an air-tight container. Make sure the lid is not squishing the sandwiches.
Store the sandwiches for up to 4 days in the fridge. If you used butter instead of margarine, the butter will first need to soften at room temperature before you can serve them.

Tips & Tricks

For the bread
Choose a soft white bread – because that goes best with these fillings.
However, you can use whole wheat if you prefer as well.
Do not use thick slices such as toast sliced bread or Texas toast.

Cooking the vegetables
To save time, steam the vegetables while the previous steamed veggies are cooling.
You can steam the vegetables and make the vegetable paste the day before and make the butter spread the following day. The vegetable butters (margarine) can also be made the day before and the sandwiches can be made the following day.

Adding the margarine
You can use butter instead, but butter hardens in the fridge. So the sandwiches cannot be eaten cold if you use butter.
You can add more margarine if you like. I prefer the filling to have more vegetables than butter, but you can also use a mix with a 1:1 ratio of butter and vegetables if you like.
This will then obviously make enough spread for more than 10 sandwiches.

Note about making the butter spread
You do not need to precisely weigh out the vegetable paste. It can vary between 200 – 300 g. But you have to be mindful about how much butter / margarine you add to the vegetable spread because if you add too much, you will lose the flavor and color of the vegetables, and the spread may taste too buttery.