Vegan Sandwich Spread Options

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

The question of what to spread your bread with comes up often in many vegan forums. It seems we’ve come accustomed to thinking that a sandwich can only be made with either cheese, sausage, butter or eggs, but the fact of the matter is that there are literally endless vegan options if you are willing to expand your horizons a bit and try new things. A quick search online would prove that and you should give it a try and experiment some to see what works for you. In the post today you can find 30 options for vegan spreads my style: tasty, healthy, and easy to make.

 

A few things to note before we go to the recipes:

For some of the spreads below I used ingredients that will yield spread enough for one toast, but you can easily double the quantities as needed.

In some of the spreads I wrote “olive oil, garlic, and salt” but did not mention exact quantities. That’s because I believe you should try it out and see how you like it, different people like different amounts of garlic and salt. Regarding the olive oil, the best practice is to add it while blending until the spread reaches the right texture.

 

I made all of the below spreads using the simplest hand blender, inside a recycled jar (that used to have almond paste in it), so you don’t really need any extra special kitchen appliance here. You could use, if you want to, a bigger blender or a food processor, which will likely be easier if you would be making bigger quantities. For smaller quantities, I find that the hand blender in a jar is the easiest way to go (including the washing of the appliances).

 

Vegetable Spreads:

Zucchini – blend 2 zucchinis with 1/4 a cup raw tahini paste, 1 table spoon olive oil, juice from 1 lemon, garlic and salt.

Roasted peppers – cut the peppers into large strips, place the strips in a large pan’ spread with olive oil and sprinkle some salt on top, place in the oven at 180 degrees until their peeling turns almost all black (around 30 minutes). Place in a sealed box while still warm and let them “sweat” inside for a while. When they cool down remove the peels (which will be easy now after the “sweating” part). Blend them with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic. Keep some pieces to put in sandwiches, its delish!

Dried tomatoes – slice the tomatoes and place on a pan, spread olive oil and sprinkle some salt on top, place in the oven at 120 degrees until they turn brown (a few hours). Let cool and blend with olive oil and garlic.

Olives tapenade – Blend olives with olive oil and garlic.

Avocado – spread some avocado, squeeze some lemon juice on top and finish with a bit of salt.

Garlic  – Place 2 whole garlic heads in the oven in 200 degrees for about 20 minutes (until you feel they are soft using a toothpick to check). Let cool and blend with juice from one lemon and salt.

Garlic almonds – use the previous spread and blend with one table spoon of almond paste.

Legumes and Beans spreads:

Red lentils – bring half a cup of red lentils with a cup and a half of water to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and cover. Turn the eat off when the water has all been absorbed, start checking the pot after 10 minutes of cooking. When done it is already spreadable, but may be a bit crumbly. Add one table spoon of olive oil, juice from half a lemon and salt.

Lima beans – soak beans in water for 12 hours, drain and cook till it is completely soft. Squash with a fork and drizzle in some olive oil, pepper and salt.

Edamame – cook until soft and blend with olive oil, garlic and salt.

Tofu cheese – blend one package of silken tofu, one table spoon soy sauce, 2 table spoons raw tahini paste, juice from half a lemon, and half a tea spoon salt. Place in the fridge to thicken.

Nut Spreads:

Tahini – Base: one table spoon raw sesame paste with half a table spoon water and half a table spoon lemon juice, a pinch of salt and some grind garlic. You can use this base and enrich it with different flavors, such as pink tahini (add beetroot, either cooked or raw), yellow tahini (add roasted yellow peppers), red tahini (add dried tomatoes), etc.

Walnuts – Blend with olive oil, garlic and salt.

Almond feta cheese – I use the recipe from here, though I usually use raw almond with their peel on and it turns out great as well.

Peanut butter – tasty just as is.

Peanut butter and jelly – well, no introduction needed I guess.

Peanut butter bananas – top the peanut butter with some banana slices.

Almond Tahini  – one table spoon raw sesame paste, one table spoon almond paste, 2 table spoons lemon juice and a pinch of salt.

Pine nuts butter – Melt some coconut butter, grind some pine nuts to flour in a coffee grinder, add salt and mix. Place in the fridge to thicken.

Sweet Spreads:

Halva – one table spoon sesame paste, one tea spoon date paste/maple syrup/ agave syrup.

Sweet almond – one table spoon almond paste, one tea spoon date paste/maple syrup/ agave syrup.

Halva almond – one table spoon sesame paste, one table spoon almond paste, one tea spoon date paste/maple syrup/ agave syrup. That’s the daily house spread in our house.

Almond chocolate – one table spoon almond paste, half a tea spoon cocoa powder, one tea spoon date paste/maple syrup/ agave syrup..

Chia seeds jam – you can use chia seeds in fruit jams as a cool trick to save all that crazy sugar dozes and the cooking of it actually. In this case I used about 12 strawberries which I blended until smooth. They produced about half a cup of strawberries liquid, to which I added 2 table spoons of chia seeds and one table spoons of your choice of sweetener (I used apple sauce).

Jam – whatever you have at home.

Sunbutter – blend one cup of sunflower seeds, half a cup of water, 2 table spoons date paste/maple syrup/ agave syrup, one tea spoon vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Place in the fridge to thicken.

Macadamia butter – blend one cup of macadamia nuts, half a cup of water, 2 table spoons date paste/maple syrup/ agave syrup, one tea spoon vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Place in the fridge to thicken.

 

P.S.

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