On our first trip to Europe (1968), we discovered the joys of open-faced sandwiches in Copenhagen: colorful, flavorful combinations of food and well-textured bread combined to create delicious and easy-to-eat simple meals.  They were ideal lunches, and were beautifully adapted to a cold beer or glass of wine.

I’ve been rediscovering those treats, now that I have our own country bread and so many great vegetable/legume/condiment choices available as a vegan.  While I occasionally miss a succulent sardine fillet, bursting with omega-3 oils, I am delighted with some of the combinations we are having this summer.  Here are some examples.

Caponata and white bean puree (leftover from the birthday party), plus bean puree, topped with kale from Lynn’s garden and sliced Bartlett’s tomatoes, served with a Sportello private-label Barbera from Martilde:

Perhaps you would like a little more detail.  This little sketch will provide construction details on two such creations a couple of days later:

The results looked a lot like this:

The final set in this trio of open-faced beauties included a few new stunning ingredients:

• Barbara’s superb hummus
• my own, home-sprouted French Garden mix of seeds from the Sproutpeople
• excellent black beans (Eden Foods Dry Organic Black Turtle Beans), cooked much more effectively than I usually do
• golden beets, and more tomatoes from Bartlett Farms
• toasted, freshly-ground coriander seed to spice up the beets
• rich, ripe avocados