Ahead of the start of the school year, 11-year-old Talia Amrami from the Kedem school in Emek Hefer, went together with an Israel Hayom reporter to interview senior pastry chef Miki Shmo, who promised to reveal two original recipes for sandwiches, both healthy and tasty.
"We make a healthy avocado sandwich with vegetables - as my daughters Adi and Dana like: cucumber and carrots, and instead of a hard-boiled egg, we will use cooked chickpeas for the salad. They will give us both texture and stability. That way, even those who are vegan can eat our sandwich," Shmo explained.
Talia confirmed that she would agree to take such a sandwich to school: "Yes, even though I haven't tasted it," she said. When we asked her if there were sandwiches that children were embarrassed to take to school, she replied, "No, I would take everything, but I have the usual sandwiches: tuna, cottage cheese, hummus to wipe with pita on the side or malawah. Always with cherry tomatoes on the side."
Dinner - Mickey's Highlights for a Quick Dinner | Photo: Shmuel Buchris
The recipe for the avocado salad sandwich with chickpeas, whose name shared it with us, contains a variety of ingredients with nutritional values required for children during the school day. "I chose spelt bread," his name noted, "it's bread with a special taste, it's not too big and it doesn't have big holes, so the spread doesn't escape, so it's good for a sandwich. Spelt bread is bread that has little gluten compared to whole wheat or rye bread, and is considered very healthy."
Talia put on the journalist's hat and asked the chef the questions that intrigued her.
How do you invent a new dessert?
"A new dessert can come from many sources of inspiration – from a conversation, from a movie I've seen, from a picture I've encountered at an event. Ultimately, when creating a new dessert, it's most important to experience the flavors. Tasted something new? I say: 'Wait, this will work with fresh raspberries, because raspberries are a little tart and the other product is sweet' – that's how we balance."
You do a lot of cooking shows. What do you do if it doesn't taste good at the end?
"Great question. I have to tell you that I try to make it delicious, and if it doesn't taste good, I give it to the staff, everyone eats and eats," says his name with a smile and continues: "Before I prepare the recipe on the show, I check that the food is indeed delicious. We do tests first, improve the recipe, and only then bring it to the program and take pictures."
Sweet and healthy? Mickey Shamo demonstrates how to do it | Photo: Shmuel Buchris
The spread for the sweet sandwich was created by ingredients such as silan, ground dates, raw tahini and ground almonds. "Usually when talking about sweet, my daughters, for example, want chocolate spread or jam. Here we make a fairly innovative spread. It may look like chocolate, but there's not even cocoa in it."
How can you make a sandwich that is both sweet and healthy?
"I choose the type of bread first and make sure it's healthy. Here I chose wholemeal bread. Secondly, I use ingredients that will lead me to make a sweet spread, like dates that are very sweet, I put some lemon juice to balance and to this I add the tahini and silan, which adds color."
How can we get our children to replace the chocolate they are used to taking with this kind of sandwich?
His name: "The most basic thing is ultimately visibility. As soon as the sandwich stimulates us and looks pleasant, we will forget that it is made of dates and tahini. Finally, the spread we make looks like milk chocolate."
Hila Dudal participated in the preparation of the report
Healthy and sweet sandwich
Consists of bread made of whole wheat flour in a rectangular structure that is easy to make a sandwich from. The chocolate-flavored spread, from childhood flavors, we turned into almond paste with dates, in order to get a parallel and slightly dark shade. The sandwich is suitable for students and even exercisers in any physical training.
materials
√ 2 tablespoons ground almonds (possible with the thin peel)
√ 2 tablespoons whole sesame tahini
√ 2 tablespoons real silan
√ 1 teaspoon lemon juice
√ 2 tablespoons date paste or ground pitted dates
√ 2-1 whole dates
Method of preparation
♦ Mix all the ingredients together until you get a smooth, easy-to-apply spread.
♦ Assembling the sandwich: Spread a generous layer on one slice of bread. Slice date into thin slices and place on top. Close with the second slice, cross and serve.
A pure avocado sandwich with vegetables, photo: Michelle Dot Com
Vegan sandwich with avocado and hummus
Avocado spread is usually made with eggs, but in our case we replaced them with cooked chickpeas. We also used wholemeal spelt bread.
materials
√ 1 peeled soft avocado
√ 2 tablespoons cooked chickpeas
√ juice from half a lemon
√ chopped chives
√ salt and black pepper
√ you can add: a little hot chili and even a little chopped red onion
√ for decoration: thin slices of carrots and cucumber
Method of preparation
♦ Crush the avocado and chickpeas well with a fork and mix well. Season with the rest of the ingredients and mix until uniform.
♦ Assembling the sandwich: Spread generously over one slice of spelt bread. Using a peeler, slice thin slices of fresh carrots and cucumber and place on the spread. Close with the second slice of bread, cross and serve.
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