Pea, Goat Cheese & Mint Glamwich

Wotchers!

Just because lunch is a sandwich doesn’t mean it has to be ordinary.

For this recipe, I’ve taken the Swedish smörgåstårta and shrunk it to an individual serving size.

Three layers of dense, nutty rye bread are sandwiched together with two complimentary fillings – pea hummus and a fresh mixture of creamy goats cheese and petit pois. Wrapped in a ribbon of cucumber and topped with pea shoots, mint and a scattering of more peas, lunchtime just got deliciously elegant.

Ingredient choices

• Rye bread – for deliciously dark colour contrast and firmness to hold up the layers.
• Petit Pois – lovely bright colour and their sweetness contrasts well with both the earthiness of the tahini in the hummus and the sharpness of the goats cheese. Fresh peas in pods are always going to be rather mealy in comparison, unless you grow them yourself and can pod/cook them within an hour of picking.
• Goat’s cheese – The dazzling white is a great contrast against the dark of the rye bread and the bright green of the peas. The soft variety available in a pot allows for easy spreading and mixing. Alternatively, use cream cheese or mascarpone or ricotta.

Get Ahead

Whether a single serving for a weekday lunchbox or buffet-level numbers for a weekend event, you can make short work of this sandwich by partially assembling the day/evening before.
Proceed up to the point where the sides and top are coated with the cheese and then stop. Wrap the sandwiches in cling film and refrigerate overnight. Pick out your pea/mint/salad shoots and store, with the remaining peas, in the fridge in a plastic box lined with a dampened sheet of kitchen roll. Finish off the sandwiches just before serving.

Pea, Goat Cheese & Mint Glamwich

Makes 2 sandwiches – 1 serving.

For the pea hummus
3 sprigs mint
100g frozen petit pois
1tbs tahini
1tbs natural yogurt
juice of up to 1/2 a lemon
black pepper and salt to taste

• Put the mint sprigs into a pan and fill with cold water. Bring the water to a boil.
• Tip the frozen peas in and bring back to the boil.
• Drain and rinse in several changes of cold water (to preserve the bright colour). Remove mint and discard.
• Tip onto a paper towel to blot up the excess moisture.
• Weigh out 50g of peas and set the rest aside.
• Put the 50g of peas, tahini, yogurt and a squeeze of lemon juice into a spice grinder or small food processor and blitz to a paste. Taste and season as required. Use more lemon juice or yogurt if the paste is too thick or too cloying. NB To make this hummus vegan, use olive oil instead of yogurt, and add a little extra lemon juice.

Cheese and pea mixture.
50g soft, spreadable goats cheese
40g cooked petit pois
salt and pepper to taste

• Stir the peas and cheese together.
• Season to taste.

Decoration
2 slices rye bread – packs in the supermarket tend to be uniform i size and handily pre-sliced.
1 cucumber (not all of this will be used)
more spreadable goats cheese (or cream cheese/mascarpone/ricotta)
pea shoots, mint sprigs, the remaining 10g cooked petit pois

To assemble

• Cut each slice of rye bread into thirds.
• For each slice, spread one third with a thick (1.5cm) layer of the pea and goats cheese.
• Lay a second piece of rye bread on top and spread thickly with the pea hummus. Any leftover hummus can be eaten with carrot/celery sticks for a more substantial lunch.
• Add the final layer of rye bread. Repeat for the second sandwich.
• Spread the sides and top of the sandwiches with a thin layer of goats cheese. This will help the salad shoots and cucumber adhere and also keep the sandwich from drying out.
• Arrange the pea shoots and mint sprigs over the top of the sandwich, pressing them lightly into the layer of goat’s cheese.
• Using a Y-shaped peeler or mandolin, cut a thin ribbon of cucumber for each sandwich. Press the cucumber between a sheet of kitchen roll to absorb the excess moisture.
• Wrap the sandwiches in the cucumber ribbon, neatening the sides. Depending on the size of the ribbon, you may require more than one to fully wrap the sandwich.
• Sprinkle the remaining 10g of petit pois over the top of the sandwiches and enjoy!