Inspired by Thai flavors, this is an easy recipe for vegan cucumber mint sandwiches with almond butter, cilantro, jalapeño slices and pickled red onion. It hits all the right notes–salty, sweet, bitter, sour and spicy. And it takes very little effort to make, which couldn’t be more fitting for summer.
At Chez UVK, I often don’t feel like cooking in the summer. When that happens, my household has “dinner on your own”, which roughly translates into make your own nut butter and jam sandwich. Because I’m not the biggest fan of sugary foods, I thought, “There’s gotta be a way to make a savory nut butter sandwich.” And so, here it is… a Thai-inspired vegan cucumber mint sandwich.
In a lot of ways, this isn’t a recipe. I offer some guidelines, but sandwiches are hard to measure out precisely. Bread can be different sizes. Some people like to be more liberal with some toppings than others. I’ll do my best to shepherd you through, but really, you’ve got this 😊
One quick note, I did not add any sweetener to the almond butter, because it already had some cane sugar in it. If you’re using unsweetened nut butter, you may want to consider stirring in a touch of agave with the reduced sodium soy sauce.
This recipe makes ~2 vegan cucumber mint sandwiches.
Explore more UVK recipes, like Lemon Mint Potato Salad, Creamy Chickpea Salad Sandwiches, Refrigerator Dill Pickles, Kale Pesto Sandwich with Seitan and Apples, or Grilled Portobello Mushroom Sandwich with Kalamata Olive Tapenade, Avocado, Tomato and Arugula.
Vegan Cucumber Mint Sandwiches
2 thin slices of red onion
Rice vinegar, to pickle the onions
½ cup creamy almond butter
1 Tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce
½ an English cucumber, thinly sliced
Thinly sliced jalapeño, to taste
A handful of fresh mint leaves
A generous handful of fresh cilantro (stems and leaves)
4 slices of bread (I used Dave’s Killer Bread Thin-Sliced Good Seed)
1. First, you’ll pickle the onions for the vegan cucumber mint sandwiches. Add the two thin slices of red onion to a small bowl. Then, pour the rice vinegar over the red onions until they are submerged. Set aside for 15 minutes.
2. While the onion pickles, mix the almond butter and soy sauce together in a small bowl. Then, spread ½ the almond butter across 2 pieces of bread.
3. Now, it’s time to assemble the first vegan cucumber mint sandwich. Layer the cucumbers over one piece of bread (far left pic). Then, layer some jalapeños over the cucumbers (center pic). Then, add a generous amount of mint leaves and cilantro, and top with pickled red onion (far right pic). And then, top with the other piece of bread. You’ve got one sandwich done!
4. Make the second vegan cucumber mint sandwich (spread the remaining almond butter across the final 2 pieces of bread and then, repeat step 3). Slice the sandwiches into halves or fourths. Serve.
