British Sandwich Week: Pimp Your Sandwich

Think about it: what’s actually the number one best thing since sliced bread? It’s got to be two pieces of sliced bread with a tasty filling in the middle, surely?

According to a survey carried out by Birds Eye in 2016, ham and cheese is the UK’s favourite sandwich filling, favoured by 35.5 per cent of Brits. Fish finger butties came in second (27 per cent) and chicken and bacon in third (26.5 per cent). Other top sarnie fillings included sausage, egg and cress, and the most sophisticated of them all: crisp.

From Sunday May 20th until Saturday May 26th, the nation will be celebrating its deep love of sliced bread-based snacks with the annual British Sandwich Week.

We’re going to assume that you already know how to make a ham and cheese butty for yourself, but here are a few ways you can pimp the classic concept for a snack with a difference.

The BLT is a classic, and they say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. While it’s true that you can’t go wrong with bacon, lettuce and tomato, Simply Sated has given the much-loved sarnie a modern millennial-esque makeover and added avocado. The BALT? The TALB? The LBAT? We’re not quite sure, but we do know it’s tasty.

What’s more, the bacon hasn’t just been fried as it is; it’s been coated with a smoky, sticky, spicy marinade and cooked alongside some juicy peppers for an added something extra. The PBALT? We can’t keep up.

Why should meatball subs only be something that you eat when you’re out of the house? They shouldn’t. Reason one: it’s pretty impractical trying to eat sauce-covered meatballs off bread in public. Reason two: the cost of all those subs can build up over time. Reason three: home-cooked food always tastes better. Do we need to keep going?

I Am a Food Blog has a recipe for The Best Meatball Sub (bold claim, but we’re not going to argue), which features homemade meatballs, a crusty baguette and plenty of melted cheese. Long live the sandwich.

What do you think a pizza sandwich should look like? A slice of cold pepperoni pizza between two pieces of bread? It could do, but these vegetable pizza sandwiches from Hungry Healthy Happy are just a little bit more sophisticated than that.

The recipe takes all of the toppings you’d associate with a classic margherita pizza – tomatoes, fresh rocket, mozzarella, garlic etc – and puts them in between two slices of bread. Toast it a little to melt the cheese, and there’s your posh pizza sarnie.

Change up the recipe to suit your fave pizza toppings; a few slices of pepperoni will work a treat, and as for ham and pineapple…well, we’ll leave that up to you.

A chicken salad sandwich is a pretty bog-standard option, right? Well, if you’re trying to cut down on the amount of bread you’re eating but still want to join in all of the British Sandwich Week festivities, it’s time to get creative with your chicken salad.

Use your Tefal OptiGrill to grill two lean chicken breasts with minimal oil, while you chop some lettuce, cucumber and fresh tomato. Let the chicken cool for a little while, then place your salad on top of one of the breasts. Then, add the second chicken breast on top, and you’ve got a chicken salad sarnie with a difference. Healthier? Yes. Will you look a little weird eating it in the office? Also yes.

The New York club sandwich is another arguably unbeatable classic, with its layers of chicken, bacon, salad, mayo and three slices of bread. It’s the Big Mac of sandwiches, if you will.

Ria Amber Tesia has created a veggie-friendly version of this beast of a butty, which uses Quorn instead of chicken, and a gorgeous tangy homemade yoghurt dressing, giving this age-old combo a refreshing modern twist.

Some breads can contain ingredients like milk and egg, making them unsuitable for vegans or people with certain dietary intolerances. You could skip the bread altogether though and use a mushroom instead – a big one, obvs.

This genius recipe from Naturally Sassy cleverly uses lentils, sweet potato and kidney beans to create hearty patties that are sandwiched between two portobello mushrooms for a burger/butty with a difference, which is ideal for barbecue season.

Nutritional yeast is used to create a cheesy topping too, which is why we’re declaring these the ultimate vegan sandwich.

Yes, you did read that heading right and yes, you should be intrigued. Apple pie on a cheese sandwich?! Yes – well, sort of.

Marla Meridith has a recipe for a cheese toastie like nothing you’ve ever seen before, which strangely works, combining sweet and savoury for the ultimate comfort food treat.

Basically, it’s toasted bread, topped with chopped nuts and cooking apples, with cheese melted on top, and a little honey drizzled over everything.

Is it a dessert? Is it the kind of thing you’d only eat after a night on the tequila? Or when you’re deliriously ill? We’re not sure, but we do know that you shouldn’t knock things ’til you’ve tried ’em, so we’re off to make one…