I feel that sandwiches are easy to overlook when thinking about vegetarian lunches. However, I love the endless possibilities of vegetables, greens, and sauces. A solid sandwich in my book can be as simple as fresh summer tomato, mozzarella sandwich to a cheese and pickle sandwich with mustard (and no, I'm not pregnant). This carrot sandwich stems from this hummus sandwich with pickled carrots. I love the slight sweetness that comes from roasting the carrots and the smoked paprika sunflower cream may be my new favorite condiment.
PrintRoasted Carrot Sandwich with Sunflower Cream
A hearty sandwich that highlights the slightly sweet roasted carrot paired with an easy, smoky sunflower seed cream
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 1 serving 1x
- Category: Main Course
Ingredients
Sunflower Cream
- ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
- ½ cup water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- Pinch of salt
Carrots
- 1 large carrot
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Pinch of salt
Sandwich
- 2 slices whole wheat bread
- ½ cup greens
- ½ ripe avocado
Instructions
- Combine sunflower seeds with water and let sit for 1 hour.
- Heat oven to 400˚ F. Slice carrot into ¼” thick strips, roughly the width of your bread slices or smaller. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast until tender and starting to brown, 20 minutes or so.
- In a high-speed blender, combine the sunflower seed/water with lemon juice, smoked paprika, zest, and salt. Puree until smooth and the consistency resembles hummus.
- Assemble the sandwich by spreading two tablespoon of the sunflower cream on one side of the bread then layer the avocado, lettuce and roasted carrots. Spread 1 to 2 more tablespoons of the cream on the remaining piece of bread and add to the sandwich.
Notes
Tips & Tricks: I've had luck with not soaking the sunflower seeds (if you're pressed for time). Soaking helps get the cream a bit smoother.
Stock up: get the pantry ingredients you will need: carrots, sunflower seeds, smoked paprika
Nutrition: see the information.
Step by Step
carrot sandwich
variations
The real balance in this carrot sandwich comes from the sweet/smoky combination. As long as you keep this in mind, you cannot go wrong with a few swaps. A few of my favorites:
Sweet Potatoes: Carrots can be slightly awkward to cut but I love their flavor roasted. If you would like something a little easier that would fill the sandwich, sweet potatoes are perfect. You could also make sweet potato chips for the sandwich!
Greens: I really love microgreens with this sandwich, particularly radish or arugula- the small bit of spice from these greens is a nice touch.
Nuts/Seeds: Want to make this but don’t have sunflower seeds on hand? Cashews would just as well!
Explore Sunflower Seeds
I keep a fairly extensive collection of nuts and seeds on hand whether it's for a snack, nut-burger, or salads. Sunflower seeds are one of my go-to salad toppings and I love sunflower seed butter (I might love it more than peanut butter, which is saying quite a bit). I typically only buy raw sunflower seeds and toast them before using.
Roasted Delicata Squash Salad with Bulgur
Chickpea Burgers with Spinach
Millet Porridge with Lemon Curd and Sunflower Seeds
Fernando @ Eating With Your Hands says
I totally agree. Sandwiches are for the most part regarded as something very unhealthy (something I sometimes to try change the perception of on my own blog), so very happy you made this recipe today 🙂
Stasja says
This looks amazing! I've been making my own lunches now (part of my New Year's resolutions to be healthier and save money) and this is definitely on the list now.
Jill Lloyd says
Could you use roasted sunflower seeds or sun butter?
erin says
I believe roasted sunflower seeds would work. Sun butter wouldn't have the consistency as using whole sunflower seeds.
Donna says
Thank you for sharing this recipe. It is amazing! With two of my favorite flavors- sunflower seeds and avocado, I just had to try it. I home-made whole wheat tortilla's and turned it into a wrap! It was so delicious!!! Yum!