A nifty way to get your plant count up to the health-giving 30 each week AND get a decent whack of protein in to keep going 4-5 hours is the open Danish sandwich.
The brilliant thing is they are really easy to assemble in 5 minutes and eat without mess. (They don’t travel well - so for Working from Home (WFH) they are ideal.)
Key is getting the ingredients in your home in advance. So this article has lots of food links and some gluten free options too.
If you are reading this in Portugal, Spain, US, Australia, the Middle East the black breads I describe are often found in German chains (eg Aldi) or expat shops. Or you can use my toppings with whatever unprocessed bread you do have around.
I’m going to show you 3 types of open sandwich I have designed to deliver nutrients for you and your gut bacteria to feast on, plus at least 20g of slow-burn protein.
Why around 20g you might say?
We need at least that amount - to prevent mid afternoon slump and cravings.
And if you are near or over 40 it has special significance. 20g of protein at each main meal helps prevent sag - think bingo wings and the like.
I know, not really a nice way to describe it…but hopefully you get what I mean. Officially it’s called sarcopenia, and we can lose at least a kilo (about 2 pounds) of muscle per decade as we age which is really annoying.
Lean muscle isn’t just about looks - it’s vital to maintain our strength and balance as we age. Protein helps counteract muscle waste especially with regular exercise too.
The bread
Ok, so before we dive in, the first thing to have at the ready is the bread.
All have lots of fibre and different grains and seeds etc in them, so every one of these counts towards your plant count.
Dark rye bread - various brands. Heavy, dense, and filling, and usually comes ready sliced. Popular in Germany with names from there. Here are some examples:
Mestemacher Bread Rye Aldi
Schneider Brot Vollkornbrot Rye Bread is found in Tesco
Schneider Brot Rye Bread with Sunflower Seeds Waitrose
No need to toast these ones. If you digest gluten ok then these rye breads are a great way to get another type of grain in you that isn’t regular wheat - which most of us have a lot of as a default. Remember the gut loves variety and rye will go towards your plant count.
Pumpernickel bread Also made from rye. This is what I have used in the examples below and I like a lot because it was thin and dense, which is my preference. If you are in the UK Biona does one available from Ocado.
3. Dillon Organic Original Flax (gluten free) - these come in a range of flavours, and are basically loads of flax seeds and other seeds clumped together. You have to slice it yourself, and I think it tastes better toasted than not. Available from Holland and Barrett health food chain in the UK.
Heart of Nature (gluten free) - you can get in Waitrose and Ocado. In my opinion tastes better toasted, but if you are WFH you can do that easily. Usually comes ready sliced. Lots of plants to feed your gut bacteria and make you healthy - eg oats, sunflower seeds, brown linseeds, golden linseeds, millet seeds etc.
The butter
This is probably the most important element to an open sandwich. Spread it on your chosen bread so that 1) your sandwich isn’t dry 2) your ingredients have something to stick to 3) it contains a substance called butyrate which is good for the gut lining (which can help with a healthy immune system). BTW many people, even if lactose intolerant are ok with real butter because there is so little lactose in it.
Let’s go to my suggested toppings…
Instructions to make: you literally layer up the ingredients as per the pics on top of the buttered bread.
Note - the protein content counts are without adding in any protein from the bread - the Heart of Nature and Dillons have quite a bit, which is helpful if you need extra because for example you exercise a lot.
Cottage cheese pumpkinseeds, pickled red onion, and lettuce
PROTEIN CONTENT 21g (16 from the 150g cheese, 5 from the 5g seeds)
Cottage cheese doesn’t taste of much, so the pickled onions are essential in my opinion (taste-wise the next best thing to pickled onion crisps and healthier - as the fibre in them is prebiotic and feeds good bacteria in your gut).
You can buy Vadasz red pickled onions from most supermarket chains in the UK now - even my local Co-Op fridge section has it. You can swap out for fresh sliced red onions if you can’t get hold of pickled.
Comté cheese, turkey, red pepper and green leaves
PROTEIN CONTENT 24g (2 slices of turkey 14g, a 30g slice of Comté 8g)
Are you looking at this thinking well that looks a bit plain? Where’s the mayo? Raw red pepper can be delicious (plus it’s loaded with vitamin C and plant chemicals which are brilliant for your skin and gut).
When you bite into raw red pepper in a sandwich you get a lovely fresh crunch, and release of the juice from the red pepper in your mouth. Try it (I first discovered this when I bought a breakfast bun in a Swedish bakery)!
If you don’t digest raw pepper easily, try using a roasted pepper from a jar instead.
Anyway, here we are using the idea for a WFH lunch. I don’t use ham (carcinogenic - though I do love it) so opt for organic turkey slices instead (a Waitrose thing). For this pic I was in Spain so had to use non-organic as that’s all I could get in Eroski.
I suggest Comté French cheese because you can even get it in Tesco Metro and major supermarkets in the UK and it is raw so contains probiotic bacteria which are good for your gut and immune system.
In Spain many of the sheep cheese Manchegos are raw so probiotic so I used that this time.
Sardines with tangy kimchi and lettuce
PROTEIN CONTENT 23g that’s just from the sardines
So I’ve taken a small 115g tin of sardines in olive oil and spread the fish across 2 pumpernickel slices. The kimchi brings a big burst of spice and crunch plus probiotic bacteria if you buy a live one. (For a DIY one see recipe and video here. I have also used a bit of Greek yogurt for taste balance but you can leave that out if you like.
By using kimchi you not only get a flavour hit, but probiotics AND prebiotics from the vegetables in it such as spring onion, Chinese cabbage, ginger, garlic, the red pepper flakes etc - and get a diversity of different types of fibre and colour for your microbiome in one spoonful.
AND FINALLY
I have been back in Ibiza over the bank holiday and finally got a chance to do some volunteering on a farm. My reasons were selfish as you’ll hear, but the farm did say as I left - “you volunteers save our arses”. So that has to be a win-win no?
I live in east London, in a flat, and don’t have so much as a window box (yet! If any of you have any advice on growing herbs etc in windy window boxes please share - everything I’ve tried dies).
So I’ve been keen to go and get my hands dirty in some earth (which improves your microbiome did you know?) for ages and the mind-clearing experience of being outside in nature.
I got a straight ‘no’ from the first farm (Terra Masia) I popped in and asked.
Afterwards I found out that it is owned by DJ Calvin Harris - so maybe they are already overrun with enthusiasts.
Then I approached Terra Viva farm which had posted on Instagram it was looking for volunteers.
No reply.
So I rocked up at a small farm and shop on the road to San Carlos - Can Cristofol - and asked if they needed help.
Yes!!
Third time lucky and all that, and the fit was Goldilocks just right. I met the chief gardener Youri Wilde from Holland. He paces around the farm with his 8-week old baby in a sling patiently teaching townie clueless volunteers like me what to do.
I learnt how to pick edible flowers, and peppery-tasting garden cress. These liven up mixed salad bags - a painstaking task but boy was it more satisfying than being at a computer!
As I’ve written about here - salad grown in real earth in the ground is better for us (because it contains lactic acid bacteria for our gut health) which isn’t present in the vertical stuff which supermarkets mainly sell. So it felt good supporting this kind of production.
Earth is powerful stuff - and Youri’s recent Tedx talk is a meditation on soil. Connecting with it helped him recover from heroin addiction. You can see his talk (and those shorts here).
And if by any chance you or anyone you know is planning to be in Ibiza on 1 June - come along to a gut-health workshop my friend Anne and I are holding. We will be talking earth and vegetables plus there will be an amazing goodie bag. I’ve noticed Ryanair, easyJet, and British Airways all have sales on right now…just saying!
Jeannette x
Love the sound of the recipes - I'll be giving those a try - GF for me!
Thank you for this - I had no idea that some cheese is raw or that supermarket salad leaves aren't grown in the ground!