The Plant-Based Cheese Sandwich Even My Kids Will Eat

Photo Credit: Kerstin Shamberg

This post is part of a month-long August series in which we asked writers to share their favorite sandwich recipes with us to celebrate National Sandwich Month.

When I would visit my grandparents in Germany as a child, any time we spent a day in town shopping and running errands, or headed to the train station for a trip somewhere in the region, we would stop for a Käsebrötchen (or cheese sandwich) at one of the countless bakeries that pepper European cityscapes. While you will find variations in preparation from shop to shop, the Käsebrötchen was always reliable, a consistently delicious and simple meal deeply embedded in my childhood memories.

When I tried to make versions of this sandwich back home in the United States, I initially struggled most with the bread. The German brötchen, a type of small bread roll, is very difficult to find here. Though you can certainly make this sandwich with any bread you like, I’ve settled on the French baguette as my stand-in for the brötchen. To be clear, it’s quite different but it gets the job done with its crispy outside and soft inside.

A few years ago, I adopted a plant-based lifestyle and the bread was no longer my biggest hurdle — it was the cheese. After much trial and error, however, I've found a way to recreate this beloved sandwich of my childhood. And most important, my kids love it, too!

Plant-Based Cheese Sandwich 

Ingredients

• French baguette
• Miyoko’s European Cultured Vegan Butter
• Romaine lettuce
• Field Roast Chao Vegan Cheese Slices
• Cucumber slices
• Tomato slices

Cut the baguette to the size you want your sandwich. Then cut it in half lengthwise. Generously apply vegan butter to the cut sides of the baguette. (You can use other plant-based butters but this is by far the most authentic European-style vegan butter. Check your grocery store’s plant-based dairy section. Target also typically carries this butter.) On the baguette bottom, add a large piece of romaine lettuce, several slices of vegan cheese, and some cucumber and tomato slices. Top with the baguette top.

Eat immediately or bag it up for school, work, picnics, etc. If you are not going to be eating it right away, layer the ingredients so that the cheese and lettuce separate the cucumber and tomato from the bread to keep it from getting too soggy.