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HomeFeaturesUnlocking WFPB delights: The sandwich press is your secret weapon

Unlocking WFPB delights: The sandwich press is your secret weapon

by Diana Noonan

For anyone contemplating a switch to whole food plant-based (WFPB) eating, the thought of living without processed oils and refined sugar can seem overwhelming. In fact, our fondness for ‘sticky-sweetness’ and ‘golden-crunch’ is usually so pronounced that even long-time WFPB adherents who haven’t discovered how to replicate these tastes and textures can feel hard done by.

But forget all that, because thanks to a simple, inexpensive, everyday cooking appliance, WFPB diners can now enjoy what the rest of the population craves – but minus the harmful side effects. Read on and discover how you can harness the natural sugars in vegetables

Anyone who thinks fruit is the only source of unrefined sugars, is seriously uninformed. Not only are vegetables rich in natural sweetness, but many of them actually contain a similar amount of sugar (if not more) than some fruits.

Take a cup of cooked sweet potato, for example, which contains around 2.5 teaspoons of sugar (that’s very similar to a cup of sliced peach), or a cup of cooked peas which contains 1.5 teaspoons of sugar (very similar to a cup of halved strawberries). So why do we regularly not recognise the natural sweetness of vegetables?

The answer lies in the way we prepare them. If we boil vegetables, much of their sugar leaches into the cooking water (just take a sip of the cooled liquid and you’ll soon see this for yourself). If we team vegetables with tart ingredients (such as vinegar) we disguise their sweetness. Even if we eat vegetables raw, we’re still not making the most of their sugar content.

To get the full sugar hit from vegetables, we need to up the heat on them. The most common way to do this is to douse them in oil and roast them. This sets in motion the Maillard reaction and caramelisation, processes that deliver the longed-for browning and intensifying of natural sugars.

Of course, it’s possible to achieve similar results by dry roasting (roasting in an oven without oil), but the problem with this, is that it takes forever for the oven heat to penetrate the food, and a hungry tum, especially one intent on a sugar-hit, isn’t prepared to wait!

Enter: The sandwich press

The sandwich press is the WFPB eater’s answer to fast, naturally-sweet, golden-brown food. Unlike its cousin, the indoor grill, the simple sandwich press lacks deep metal ridges designed to help drain away the fats found in fish and meat. Instead, the sandwich press has flat upper and lower plates. Once your vegetables are trapped between these, the heat immediately begins to penetrate.

Centimetre-thick slices of sweet or regular potato are cooked in minutes. The same is true for beetroot, carrot, and parsnip. Courgette strips, broccoli, and cauli are done in the blink of an eye; kale and edible seaweed chips in seconds! Röstis cook to crisp crunchiness in less time than if it was oil-fried in a pan.

Combine your sandwich-pressed vegetables, and in no time at all, you have a delicious, sweet selection of savoury snacks or a golden roast vegetable medley that can be doused in your favourite WFPB dressing.

Fruit just got sweeter

In the same way that your sandwich press brings out the best in vegetables, so it also dramatically intensifies the sweetness and characteristics of fruit. Roasted slices of orange, pear, plum and nectarine ooze complex flavours you may never have noticed before. Slices of apple and pineapple bubble and brown. Mango and apricot cries out to be paired with sandwich press-toasted tempeh or grilled firm tofu. What’s more, the sandwich system of cooking is so simple, you can brew up your breakfast by grilling everything together in one quick hit!

Going up!

Au naturel isn’t the only way to enjoy your sandwich press fruit and vegetables. This super-convenient machine will also cook and brown whole food fritters containing leavening agents such as baking powder.

That’s because, although the sandwich press is designed primarily to press down firmly on the food between its jaws, most models also have a clever catch on one side which allows the user to lock open the plates at various heights. With room to expand, the rising fritters puff up in minutes.

Flat out

The handy sandwich press also delivers perfect flat breads and fermented pancakes from an eclectic range of ethnic cuisines. Spanish tortilla (made from unleavened cornmeal) and Indian wholemeal chapati (made from a whole food flour called ‘atta’) are easily prepared by rolling the dough between two sheets of baking paper. Keep the rounds (or oblongs) 2-3mm thick for best results.

Pop these, baking paper and all, into the sandwich press to cook and brown (a few minutes is all it takes). Remove from the press when done, peel away the baking paper, and stuff with your favourite whole food filling.

To cook fermented pancakes such as Ethiopian injera (made from ‘teff flour’) or Indian dhosa (a combo of lentils and brown rice), lay baking paper on the lower surface of the press, ladle on the fermented batter (which is usually pancake-mix-like in consistency), and spread it out with the back of a spoon. Lock the sandwich press to prevent it closing completely, and wait for the magic bubbling to happen!

Going crackers

Whole food crackers are one of the most delicious ways to enjoy a range of unrefined toppings, from avocado to salsa, and hummus to pesto. But commercially-available varieties can be super-expensive – and also frequently broken to shards due to their fragile nature.

WFPB diners-in-the-know will already be using their ovens to make their own supplies of crackers from seeds and grains – but heating an oven comes at a cost. What’s more, whole food crackers lack the oils that keep their commercial cousins crisp, so even if you plan on making a big batch to save on electricity, there’s no guarantee they’ll keep fresh and crunchy. Fortunately, the sandwich press offers a convenient alternative.

Because the sandwich press cooks crackers gold brown and crispy in minutes, you can brew up a batch as you need them. Simply keep your cracker mix in a sealed container in the fridge, take out a spoon as required, roll it between two sheets of baking paper, and pop in between the plates. You’ll never have chewy crackers again – and if you’re making a plateful for guests or to take to a party, they will stay fresh for several hours.

Top tips for sandwich press cooking

When heading to a BBQ, grill your WFPB vege-kebabs, rissoles and fritters at home on the sandwich press. When you get to the party, pop them into a metal dish that can be placed on the BBQ plate to heat up (well out of reach of meat fats and cooking oils!).

If your veges are a little on the dry side, splash a few drops of water on them once they’re on the sandwich press. Close the lid and let them steam to perfection.

Watching your weight? Stick to vege instead of seed or grain crackers by toasting 3-4cm-thick potato slices in the sandwich press until gold-crisp. Cool thoroughly, and top with your favourite spreads. Eat immediately (these crackers are not ‘keepers’).

Use sandwich press rösti (see burger recipe) as pizza bases. Remove the cooked rösti from the sandwich press, and place it on a heat-proof oven tray. Add you favourite toppings to the rösti, then bake in a regular oven.

If you’re heading away on holiday or business, finding WFPB meals can be near impossible. So don’t forget to pack the sandwich press! It’s light and compact enough to fit in your luggage, and easy to use, no matter what accommodation you find yourself in.

WFPB eaters deserve a sandwich press to themselves (that way, there’ll never be any oils to tarnish the surface of the press’s non-stick hot plates). But if you do find the surfaces are no longer non-stick, simply cook your food between two sheets of eco-friendly, compostable baking paper.


FOOTNOTE: This updated article originally appeared in the Autumn 2021 print edition of Whole Food Living.

WFL
WFLhttp://wholefoodliving.life
Whole Food Living reviews and selects material from a wide variety of international sources. Our primary focus covers food, health and environment. We publish fact checked official announcements made as the result of formal studies conducted by Universities, respected health care organisations, journals, and scientists around the globe.
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