Vegan sandwiches from shitty restaurants can really make you kind of disappointed by sandwiches. If you are lucky, they will have the standard hummus sandwich or veggie burger, otherwise you can sometimes order a PB&J off the kids menu. If not that, you are stuck with the worst sandwich in the world; the condiment sandwich aka the “veggie sandwich”. Sorry but lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, ketchup, and mustard does not a sandwich make. If you grew up eating tons of sandwiches, like I did in the old USA this can be very disappointing. Don’t you wish someone would come and solve this nightmare problem? And that there was someone who could restore their former glory? 
This book is called “Vegan Sandwiches Save the Day” but really I think Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes are the ones who deserve the superhero status. They sent me a copy of their new cookbook for their book tour and I am so happy they did! My boyfriend is even happier since he was begging me to get a copy of the book the week that it came out. And he couldn’t care less about cookbooks usually. (yeah I don’t get that either) He loves sandwiches so much that I recently smuggled him one from Illinois across four state lines so he was very excited about this one.
This book has all the old favorites like, the Dagwood, the BLT, and the Fishwich. It has veganized American classics like the Country Sausage & Biscuit or the a KFC knockoff. It has international sandwiches like a Shwarma, a Bahn Mi, the Welsh Rarebit, Bierocks, or From Russia with Love, They have breakfast sandwiches like Mexican Chick-Un and Waffles and Berry Stuffed French Toast Pockets. They even have dessert sandwiches like an open-face Bananas Foster cake sandwich or a chocolate panini. They have also come up with all sorts of combinations that only a couple of awesome vegans could create like, Tofu Pomegranate Pockets, Onion Ring Ranchocado, or the Mac-Shroom. And if you have no idea what any of these should actually look, never fear, like there are tons of glorious pictures throughout. Nearly every sandwich has a mouthwatering shot.
The last chapter contains everything you need to really get down with making homemade sandwiches with several different amazing sounding seitan recipes to make your own cold cuts from, recipes for rolls and even a brioche, and then tons of spreads and condiments that you could use to enhance any old sandwich. There is also a great index and little symbols telling you if a sandwich is potentially gluten free, if it’s quick to make, or keeps well to bring to work. And speaking of preparing ahead, there is a whole section on how to pack up sandwiches so that you won’t have soggy bread and tips on each sandwich throughout.
I have a sandwich that I brought to work today and I’m so excited to eat it. I had a really hard time deciding which one to make, but in the end I went for the one that sounded really easy, the Peanut Butter Bacon Banana Sandwich. Filling in for the pig so he could live another day is a really well put together recipe for broiled smoky chickpeas that I absolutely loved and feel I will be making all the time. 
When I was assembling the sandwich I thought those chickpeas would be flying everywhere but we just had a few men overboard, most of them clung to the chunky peanut butter and just ripened bananas. I did make one mistake since the recipe called for soft rolls. I didn’t want to make anything and thought that these dinner rolls I found at Whole Foods would work fine, but they didn’t squish down at all when I fried them up. They were, in fact, hard rolls. A better sub would have been hamburger rolls. They were delicious though, even though we had a hearty soup on the side Dan was already fixing his second sandwich before I had even sat down to eat mine. All the flavors came together beautifully.
This is the perfect book for vegans that like really exciting food and recreations of old favorites. It does call for some ingredients that you wouldn’t find at any old store but it definitely doesn’t rely on grocery store vegan meats and cheeses, there are recipes included for those to make your own. And although their are some great sounding healthy options, some recipes call for a good old fashioned deep fat fry. There is definitely something for everyone.
CONTEST CLOSED KZ Cakes is the winner! Her comment was “Okay this is really gross, and un-vegan but when I was little I used to make what was called “Special Sandwiches” which were white bread, both halves slathered in Miracle Whip and filled with cheeze puffs. Ew right? I don’t even remotely want to veganize it.” eww indeed. And hilarious.
Do you want to make glorious sandwiches too? Just comment below and let me know what your favorite sandwich was growing up. Bonus points if it is a concoction you came up with yourself or if it’s a regional favorite. And if you can’t think of one tell me the worst vegan sandwich you ever had at a restaurant. I know you can do that. You have until 11-2-12 to leave a comment.
Lazy Smurf's Guide 
Growing up I always loved eating fried egg sandwiches with lots of mayo. Sounds pretty frightening now!
I used to love fried bologna which sounds so horrible now! Yikes! lol
Seriously. Sandwiches in omni and often veggie ones too are disappointing as heck. When I was a wee one I learned two delightful sammies from my dad that I still enjoy today. The ol’ peanut butter banana and even better, peanut butter & molasses. I am a bit of a peanut butter nut though, smearing it on a hot burger (even before going veg) is amazing 🙂
In Mexico the national sandwich is called torta. It can be made with egg, ham, shredded chicken, breaded beef (milanesa), sausages and several other meats. My favorite one was called torta cubana, which had all the aforementioned ingredients between the bread. It was a great treat.
Thank you for the giveaway!
As a kid, I enjoyed peanut butter & potato chip sandwiches, because I was healthy like that! 😛
When I was in elementary, I loved bologna and smashed Cheeto sandwiches (I hated bologna by itself, so I’m not sure why I included it on the sandwich). Grosses me out now. 🙂
I’m really interested in this book. Thanks for the giveaway!
As a kid, I liked to make mushed banana and peanut butter sandwiches. I’d the bananas with a fork, mixed in some peanut butter (extra chunky of course), spread the mixture between two slices of toast, and I’d feel a sense of pride that it was a delicious concoction I could easily make all by myself. 🙂 I still make this occasionally – sometimes with a little agave nectar mixed in. I’ve also been picking up lots of pecans around the neighborhood this time of year and I love chopping them, roasting them with some salt and maple syrup, and adding those as well.
my mom used to make me apple and cheese sandwiches in the oven. so yummy! although, if I ever make one now, I will sub daiya..hmm. maybe I should try that. it’s been a while.
My grandparents used to make these awesome sandwiches that were totally unhealthy yet delicious: white bread with margarine and sugar.
What a good looking cookbook! I always struggle with lunch time foods, though I bet many of these would make it to the dinner table too. As a kid and even now, my favorite sammich as I liked to call it was tomato. But it had to be a homegrown tomato, preferably from my Grandpa’s plants. A few slices, a little mayo and salt and it was incredible. I’ve since made them with vegan mayo and a few bits of basil and the memories have come flooding back. So good!
Grilled cheese. Always. With tomato!
When I was a kid I *loved* a slice of rustic bread with butter and cocoa or chocolate sprinkles. Or salted butter and hazelnut spread. I ate more of those than I care to admit 🙂
My now vegan self shudders when I think about how much I liked biscuit and sausage sandwiches as a kid…
My favorite sandwich growing up was white bread with butter and hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles). I still treat myself on it in the weekend sometimes, now using vegan margarine.
Another favorite -and I’ve never met anyone else who’s had that- was butter, caster sugar and garden cress. Yum!
Thanks for the giveaway, it’s awesome!
Oh, and I forgot: speculaas on bread!!! 🙂
My favorite childhood sandwich was half peanut butter and half jelly, no mixed pbj for me.
Good old PB&J. But it HAD to be strawberry jam, not grape! (But my mom wasn’t that creative with sandwich fillings…)
I’m a Turk, so I loved grilled fish sandwiches with lemon, dill, and olive oil. I’ve been trying to perfect a tofu replica off and on for the past five years. I’ve had a lot of GREAT vegan sammiches, but the most disappointing ones have always been my own: I have a tendency to produce bland or overly greasy sammiches- I don’t have the knack yet!
i liked a lot of gross foods when i was a kid, but i will never renounce peanut butter and marshmallow sandwiches!
Mine was a ham and cheese sandwich (with mayo) made by my mom for school lunch – it just didn’t taste the same when I made it! Wonder what her secret ingredient was….
Bologna and grape jelly!
Peanut butter and jelly.
Come on, it’s the childhood classic. ;9
My favorite childhood sandwich was My Mom’s egg salad on white (Wonder) bread, crusts removed. It was even better when she would use a cookie cutter to remove the outer edges, so I would have awesome heart/rabbit/tree-shaped sammies.
I think the worst vegan sandwich I’ve ever had was a BOILED tofu sandwich. Yeah- my friend’s mom BOILED the block of tofu, put it between two slices of bread with a tomato and called it a day.
Growing up, I would only eat jelly sandwiches. Strawberry jelly only. The idea makes me super annoyed with 8 year old me. PEANUT BUTTER IS AMAZING, why didn’t I know?
I love peanut butter and dill pickle! But the bread has to be toasted.
My favorite sandwich was always just a plain grilled cheese sandwich (with required tomato soup for dipping, of course). Nowadays, I make it with Daiya cheese, avocado, and sambal oelek (chili sauce). The sandwiches I had most while growing up were plain peanut butter and honey, and by the time they made it to lunch at school, the honey had just made the bread soggy, and it was a pretty sad sandwich.
Oh, also, Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter and Suzanne’s Ricemallow Fluff make a darn good desert sandwich.
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Amen about shitty sandwiches! I used to love tuna fish sandwiches when I was a kiddo, but fluffernutters were a close second, since we weren’t allowed to eat stuff like that at home.
My favourite childhood sandwich was always a grilled cheese with ham. I love to recreate it now with the Smoky Mountain Cheese from Vegan Diner & some Yves Bologna.
My favorite sandwich growining up was a grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It’s the ultimate comfort food. Health nut bread, crunchy peanut butter, homemade jam grilled in a skillet with lots of butter. Perfect with a glass of cold almond milk.
Wonder Bread with bologna, Miracle Whip and crushed Lay’s Potato Chips! Gaaarooossss!!!
This is my favorite so far, lol!
My Mom used to make the best creamed tuna on toast which was always good on a cold weekend morning in Winnipeg….I need some fresh ideas now as a new vegan !!
Peanut Butter & Nutella!!!
or
Grilled Cheese & Tomato!!!
I’m from the midwest, so Steak and Shake was a big deal. I loved their grilled cheese (just white bread and American cheese) with a pickle on top (their pickles were those long flat ones that were bright green).
I worked at Steak n Shake for many years! My favorite was the horseshoe but you can only get that in Springfield.
As a child my favorite sandwich was grilled cheese, but I’d only eat it if my mother included sliced green olives with pimentos. Looking back on it, it seems strange for a 4-year-old, but my tastes are exactly the same today! Of course this time around it’s a vegan grilled cheese with olives.
My favorite sandwich as a kid was cream cheese and green olives- it was a family favorite.
ooo I like that one still on bagel
I really didn’t eat a lot of sandwiches, but I loved peanut butter, banana, and honey on whole wheat pita.
Well, I was a complete cheese addict from pretty much birth, so one of my absolute favorites was just cheese and mustard on wheat bread. Boring, but I could eat them every day!
This is kinda gross now that I’m all grown up…. but I loved a peanut butter and BUTTER sandwich on Wonder bread. And then I got older and wondered why I had big hips, haha.
My favorite sandwich growing up was peanut butter and fluff on Branola bread. Do they even make Branola anymore??
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So much has changed, but my favorite sandwich used to be a plain omelet folded onto the bread, which was loaded with mayo and a slice of cheese on one side. My mom used oil so it was a little greasy, bubbly and toasty.
I used to love white bread (or plain waffles if I could get Eggos) with cheddar cheese and mustard. So gross.
Meatball sub. Ugh, now I really really want one. All toasty and good!
I really liked any sandwich put in pita bread as a kid. My mom started making these when I went veg. I felt very special with the pocket filled with veggies.
I have to say, after this blog tour, I am jumping up and down to get this book!
My great grandma used to make me cheese, mustard and pickles on white bread. I haven’t had one since I was probably 12 but I remember them being awesome.
Wow, that sounds amazing! There ‘s a shop in Boca Raton called D’Best subs and they have a D’Pilgrim which is carved roasted turkey, cranberry mayo and stuffing on a hogie roll. I made sure to eat one last one right before I went vegan!
One of my favorites has always been a veggie ‘croque monsieur’, simple bread with cheese (now I just make one with vegan cheese ;)). And as a kid I loved banana with brown sugar!
I think I wanted to be Elvis as a child because my absolute favorite was the grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich. (I have updated it for adulthood with vegan Nutella and panini bread).
although simple, I used to make cheese sandwiches with chipotle mayo. Even today I like the simple things, like egg and cheese sandwiches — although now it’s more of a cahew tofu egg with daiya,… but I digress.
I became vegetarian in middle school but I was very shy and didn’t want my lunch to look different from my friends. So I ate a lot of faux ham sandwiches. It was the same thing every day. Now I can’t touch that stuff but I’m happy mock meat existed back then to help with the transition into vegetarianism (and now vegan). Wish this book was around to inspire me and mom to make something different and yummy!
I’ve only been vegan for 2 years and I’m 42, so unfortunately my childhood was rife with bad, bad food. Growing up, though, an egg sandwich with mayo was the ticket. I have always been a huge sandwich lover; my new favorite is one that sadly isn’t offered anymore. Cafe Elite, a vegan restaurant here in the Dallas area used to do a panini with tofurkey and lots of pickles and peppers and mustard and melty Daiya cheese. I almost want to weep just thinking about it. I need this book!
My favorite sandwich was and still is PB&J. I could eat it every day!
Aha, boy, are you ready for this?! I will have to say Grilled Cheese Microwaved Bologna- Cook your bologna in the microwave until the edges were crispy almost burned, 2 slices of Kraft Slice Cheese put it in the “grilled cheese” machine we had until the cheese melted off the edges, slam it on a plate and pour excessive amount of Locally grown Maple Syrup on top of it, Voila! Sounds gross but it was actually pretty good, lol… Can you taste the Canadian in me? Lol. Speaking of, I should definitely Veganize that, eh? Thank you for the give-away! I hope to be the lucky star this time! I plan on making a sandwich a day 🙂
My childhood is haunted by the memory of marshmallowy white bread spread with Miracle Whip (not even real mayo), decked out with Kraft slices…and OLIVE LOAF. Anybody remember olive loaf? I think there was one actual food ingredient in that entire sandwich.
I already have this book, so I don’t need to enter the giveaway, I just wanted to say that this sandwich is next on my list! I can’t wait to try it!!!
My favorite sandwich as a highschool student was one from our local supermarket: It was a cucumber/mayo sandwich in a rye roll. Funny, because back then I used to hate mayonaise.
Peanut butter and fluff, hands down.
Egg salad was my favorite growing up and I’m glad we found a good vegan alternative recently.
I love peanut butter and pickle sandwiches!
I was a boring kid- I loved peanut butter and jam!
Okay this is really gross, and un-vegan but when I was little I used to make what was called “Special Sandwiches” which were white bread, both halves slathered in Miracle Whip and filled with cheeze puffs. Ew right? I don’t even remotely want to veganize it.
That is so wonderful
I’m repulsed by the sandwiches I loved as a kid…bologna w/ ketchup and salami w/ cream cheese.
grilled cheese was my fave
This totally grosses me out now that I’m vegan but I loved canned spam with mayo on soft fresh good ole white bread.
My favorite was a grilled cheese w/tomato, especially with some tomato soup to dip it in. These days I still make that sandwich, but with Daiya’s Havarti, and I dip it into roasted red pepper soup.
My favorite sandwich from childhood was a sandwich that my grandfather had concocted and my father always referred to them as “Grandpa’s Special Sandwiches.” This is an open-face sandwich on toast. Toast is smeared with a generous layer of smooth peanut-butter upon which are added few crispy strips bacon (Facon could work here!) and finally topped off with a thin layer of zesty cocktail sauce. Its sounds really weird but its tasty. Then again…I haven’t eaten one since I was ten years old! Well, my memory of the sandwich is tasty and just thinking about it conjures fond memories of my grandpa. Mmmmmm.
oh yeah! Best served with French Onion soup. Well, according to grandpa anyway… :oP
This is a sandwich I only had once, made by my grandma, a woman who put Paula Deen to shame, but the memory will haunt me forever with its weird deliciousness: friend peanut butter and dill pickle. Sounds gross. Was actually super tasty. I really should replicate it.
*fried, not friend. Though that sandwich was my friend.
It’s national vegan day! I really am looking forward to seeing some great new ideas in this book! I am a vegetarian for years and I want to make the final leap to vegan! This will help!
I used to make an open faced Cheese Whiz and bacon bit sandwich which I would bake in the toaster oven. Sounds revolting to me now!
My favorite sandwich growing up was definitely pb&j.
My fav sandwich (being a native from Memphis) is a pulled pork with lots of hot sauce with Slaw ON the bun…. yep, ummmm — haven’t had one since I went vegan but I’d love to win this cookbook so I could make a new fav.
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