A mushroom wrap to die for

When I announced that A Year in Sandwiches would feature 52 sandwiches, and that I would rank my top 10 at year’s end, I had a lot of requests for vegetarian sandwiches.

The majority of my diet is vegetarian but I have to say, when I think of a sandwich, I tend not to think about vegetables. I think mustard (my favourite condiment), cheese, chicken or meat.

Yes, the tomato sandwich at peak season is unbeatable. I love a simple cucumber and cream cheese sandwich. Grilled cheese? Forget about it.

But how to elevate a vegetarian sandwich in the middle of a snowstorm, when fresh vegetables are six months away?

I think: mushrooms. Most mushroom sandwiches that I google are a variation of a mushroom melt/panini. All good. Love. But could I experiment with the idea of a mushroom sandwich that might truly make it a contender for my top 10 sandwiches of 2020?

I remember that I have Ottolenghi’s amazing cookbook Plenty in my arsenal and that I once made the simplest of flatbreads from that book: greek yogurt, flour, salt, baking powder. I decide this will be my bread base.

Take 1 cup flour, add 1-1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 3/4 cup greek yogurt. Mix with hands and knead for a minute or more (until it goes from shaggy to dough). Roll into a ball, protect it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least an hour.

A fridge with handmade dough, be it so ever humble, is a happy fridge.

My dough is chillin’, and now it’s serious thinking time: how do I make mushrooms the star of this dish but also give it a robust counterpoint flavour? You might as well know that whenever I deal with mushrooms it’s one of two ways: sauteed with butter and blue cheese, on toast, or marinated in a soy, garlic, lemon mash up with tofu, later grilled or roasted.

I want more from today’s sandwich. I spend hours looking up mushroom sandwiches, sauces, salads and remain unsatisfied.

I keep going back to my chosen bread base: the homemade flatbread. And it makes me long for a shawarma sandwich in Ottawa, with true Lebanese influences. What I love second-most about a great shawarma is the garlic sauce (love the turnip pickle the most, true story).

Toum. That is the name for a Lebanese garlic sauce. It’s unapologetically garlicky, fluffy, light. When I first encountered it I thought it was a variation of a homemade mayo but, in fact, Toum isn’t made with eggs. It consists of four simple ingredients: Lots of garlic, a hint of salt, lots of vegetable oil, and lemon juice. But to properly emulsify, you take slow turns adding ingredients into your food processor.

I almost didn’t make the Toum because it leans heavily on your food processor, and my Cuisinart is now 27 years old (look how grand it still is!). It’s a workhorse but I ask myself: can it withstand about 15 minutes of steady processing or will Toum kill my old trusty? I decide to risk it. I’ll spare you the drama: it worked out!

I made a jar full of Toum, which will last a month but could also be frozen. It is very, very garlicky, so it is not for the faint of heart. I think it’s the best jar of anything I have ever made.

I am doing a straightforward treatment of my mushrooms: sautee about 2 cups of chopped mushrooms with a mix of butter and oil until the mushrooms release their juices and those juices reduce to almost nothing, then add about 1/4 cup white wine and let that reduce until there are almost no juices left.

For brightness I add an herb salad of: 1 tbsp fresh tarragon, 2 tbsp fresh dill, 3 tbsp fresh chopped parley, 1 tbsp minced preserved lemon peel, juice of one lemon. Toss that into the mushroom mixture.

This isn’t your everyday sandwich–it’s a weekend project, so schedule your time accordingly. Nightfall is descending and it’s time to turn my project into a sandwich. That means pulling the dough out of the fridge, pulling it apart to make six small mounds, then rolling each mound onto a floured surface to create my flatbread.

Cast iron pan goes onto the stovetop, filled with olive oil base upon which to fry the flatbread.

How great does that look?

Now to build my mushroom flatbread: schmear of Toum garlic sauce in the middle of the hot flatbread, spoon in the mushroom mixture.

I’m getting hungry. Now roll up the flatbread, cut in half, eat and share!

That’s the best vegetarian sandwich I have ever had, let alone made (tomato sandwich in peak season notwithstanding, because that’s not a fair contest).

One small critique: it was a bit drippy. I like a messy sandwich but if you don’t, I recommend scooping the mushrooms with a slotted spoon to reduce the amount of juices in the flatbread.

Suggested modifications: Maybe you want this mushroom sandwich but don’t want to make the toum or the flatbread. That’s fine. Mayo (with added garlic if you like) would be a fine sauce substitute, as would yogurt or tzatziki. Naan bread, pita, or wraps could substitute for the flatbread–but the flatbread here was part of what made this sandwich amazing.

Trish Hennessy