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Taking time to live well
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Photography by Anneliese Klos and Liz Boyd

The Rules | Tomato Sandwiches

Iona Bower August 10, 2024

Any job, even a simple one, is always worth doing properly. Particularly if it makes the end result even more pleasurable. There’s definitely a simple pleasure in a properly done tomato sandwich… a world away from soggy bread and seeds everywhere. Here are our rules for making the very best tomato sarnie.

1. Let’s begin with the bread. The scaffolding that will hold your tomatoes together. Put down the flimsy pre-sliced plastic bread. That will not do at all. What you need here is something with substance - sourdough is a good choice as it’s dense, so it holds things together well, but anything nice and crusty will do. Wholegrain or very seedy breads are good for texture, too. If you’re worried your bread is too soft in the middle, try toasting it lightly first.* Once you have made your bread selection, cut two nice, thick slices. 

2. What to spread on your bread? The juiciness of a tomato is both its best aspect and its achilles heel, because a sliced tomato will immediately make the bread soggier than a November afternoon on Skegness seafront. To counteract this, you need to create a ‘barrier’ between bread and tomato. The best way to do this is with a reasonably thick layer of salted French butter. Specific? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely. Vegans should replace this with the best quality olive oil or plant-based spread they can muster. Hipsters may use a little mashed avocado as a barrier. If you feel like something a little richer, cream cheese also makes for a good bread/tomato barrier and adds a cool, creamy foil to the sharpness of the tomatoes. A smothering of Pesto will give it some Italian attitude. 

3. Onto the main event. Ideally, your tomatoes will be picked from the garden that morning, leaving the grassy scent of the vines all over your hands and clothes as you bring them in. If you aren’t a grow-your-own type, just look for the freshest tomatoes you can find, preferably on the vine. The variety is entirely up to you - pick your favourite! But we love a large, knobbly beefsteak type as it has lots of pink flesh in the middle for plenty of bite and fewer seeds. Whichever you choose, slice the fruits about half the width of your bread and then place them in two layers across one slice of the buttered bread.

4. What about condiments? Well, the most important question is: salt and pepper? Or… and bear with us here… sugar? If you’ve never given it a go, it’s worth trying at least once. Just sprinkle a little crunchy sugar over your sliced tomatoes. The acidic nature of the tomatoes will soften the sugar slightly and bring out the sweetness of them a little more. If salt is your preferred condiment, a rough, flaky salt with big crystals is best for added crunch. If you want to be very fancy, a smoked salt such as Viking Salt, available from specialist food stores, adds a depth of flavour to the sandwich. A generous grinding of black pepper is optional but always welcome. 

5. And herbs? Basil is classic, of course. Snipped chives also add oniony savouriness to tomatoes. Any fresh herbs will bring new flavour to your tomato sandwich. Dried herbs need not apply. 

6. Let’s close this lunch deal. Pop your top slice on the tomato layer, press down firmly and slice your sandwich in half. We think triangles taste better than rectangles but you do you. 

*A word about toasting your bread. If crunch is the way you choose to go, we highly recommend trying our three-ingredient recipe for Grated Tomato on Fried Bread, from our new series ‘Please Yourself’ in our August issue. It might just be the simplest and most delicious thing you’ll try this month.

Photography by Kirstie Young


Our Tomato Sandwich Rules were inspired by our colourful back cover image from our August issue. The issue is in shops now and can also be purchased from our online store. Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe


More ways with tomatoes…

Featured
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Aug 10, 2024
The Rules | Tomato Sandwiches
Aug 10, 2024
Aug 10, 2024
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Sep 16, 2023
Recipe | Green Tomato Salsa
Sep 16, 2023
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Jul 15, 2023
Recipe | Tomato Tatin with Thyme Honey
Jul 15, 2023
Jul 15, 2023

More from our August issue…

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Aug 20, 2024
Make | A Beetle Bucket
Aug 20, 2024
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How to | Do a Swimming Pool Handstand
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In Eating Tags Issues 146, tomatoes, sandwich
Comment
Photography: Kirstie Young

Photography: Kirstie Young

Make | Sweet & Silly Sandwiches

Iona Bower June 5, 2021

Picnic season is upon us, and what better reason for a silly sandwich? 

If there’s ever a time when we can cast aside the sensible egg and cress or ham and mustard it must be for a midsummer picnic when a bit of fun and frivolity is always on the menu. Here are a few of our favourite sweet sandwiches that are part lunch, part pudding and part party. 


Fairy Bread

An Antipodean delicacy; open buttered white bread slices, sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. Nutritional factor: zero. Fun factor: eleven out of ten. 

Banana and Honey

Reminding us of childhood Sunday teas, the hilarity of putting banana in between slices of Hovis has never left us. Jazz it up with a sprinkling of cinnamon. 

Grated Apple

Excellent with crusty bread and a slightly salted butter. Add peanut butter if you must but we quite like the simplicity of a good old apple sarnie. 

Chocolate, brie and raspberry

One for toastie fans. This is like a sweeter version of a bacon, brie and cranberry toastie. The brie and the chocolate (dark for preference) melts beautifully into the toast while the raspberry reduces to a very pleasant mush, taking the place of the cranberry sauce. 

Fruit Sandos

A Japanese staple: chilled, whipped cream and seasonal fruits - strawberries, mandarins, pear… whatever you like - sandwiched in slices of milk bread (brioche also works). Fresh, sweet and so pretty looking. 

Sugar sandwiches

No messing about here. This traditionally Irish treat was usually bestowed upon children by over-indulgent grandparents. There’s little as exciting as the sight of the bag of Tate and Lyle, a tub of Stork and some plastic bread on the sideboard in your Granny’s kitchen. Add some lemon juice for a bit of zing and a pancake day ambience. 


In our June issue, we have a rather lovely recipe for a grown-up silly sandwich. The Rose Petal & Strawberry Sandwiches (recipe below) are part of our Heart Body & Soul feature that focuses on roses this month. It also includes instructions to make Rose Bitters, Rosewater Tonic and a savoury galette with Rose Harissa. 


Rose Petal & Strawberry Sandwiches

Give your afternoon tea a floral and fruity twist with sandwiches that give scones a run for their money 

Per sandwich: 

Two slices of brioche bread 

1 tbsp clotted cream 

1 tbsp strawberry jam 

A few drops of rosewater 

3 strawberries 

Fresh rose petals, six or more 

1 Spread the cream onto both slices of the brioche bread. 

2 Stir the rosewater into the jam, then spread this on top of the cream on one slice of bread. Thinly slice the strawberries and carefully lay on top of the cream on the other slice. 

3 Remove the heels of the rose petals if needed before laying the petals on top of the jam and carefully putting the two pieces together. Either cut into dainty fingers or leave as delicious doorsteps.

Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

More from our June issue…

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Playlist | Fruit
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More inspiration with roses…

Featured
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May 31, 2025
Recipe | Pavlova with Berries and Rose Petal Cream
May 31, 2025
May 31, 2025
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Jul 6, 2024
Tipple | Rose, Chia & Almond Sherbati
Jul 6, 2024
Jul 6, 2024
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Jun 18, 2022
Tasting notes | Roses
Jun 18, 2022
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In Fresh Tags issue 108, sandwich, strawberry, summer recipes, roses
Comment
Photography: Karoline Jönsson

Photography: Karoline Jönsson

Food | Reinventing the Toastie

Iona Bower December 30, 2020

Making an event of sandwiches since the 1920s, the toastie maker is a lunch game-changer. Here’s how to make more of yours

There’s nothing wrong with a cheese sarnie. In fact, there’s plenty that’s right about it, but a crispy, golden, oozing cheese toastie? Now that’s a lunch to look forward to. But if you’ve never considered much more as a toastie filling than cheese (or cheese and ham if you’re feeling adventurous) you’re definitely missing out. Here are a few toastie fillings we have tried and loved. Drag out your toastie maker from the back of the cupboard, or simply fry on both sides in a frying pan. However you toast your toasties, there’s a whole new world of hot lunches waiting for you…

Beans in Toast

Yep. IN toast. An inside out twist on beans on toast, simply fill your slices of bread with beans and perhaps a dash of Worcestershire sauce. Comfort on a plate. 

Chilli and cheese

An excellent use for a small amount of leftover chilli con carne, this works equally well with veggie chilli, too. Make it vegan by simply leaving out the cheese. Excellent dipped in sour cream.

Butternut squash, bacon and gorgonzola

Roast the butternut squash and fry the bacon then assemble and sprinkle gorgonzola on top before toasting. 

Pizza toastie

This works like a folded pizza, with the bread working as a dough ‘case’ you can hold easily. Just spread tomato sauce or passata on the bread slices, top one with whatever toppings you like on a pizza, close and toast. 

Festive toastie

Stilton and cranberry sauce is simple but delicious. If you like, you can add turkey and stuffing, sliced sprouts, and any other Christmas fare you like.

Tapas toastie

A bit of Spanish sunshine in sarnie form. Manchego, chorizo slices and, if you like, a couple of anchovies, one or two roasted red peppers from a jar and perhaps an olive or two on the side. 

Mushroom and gruyere

Lots of sliced mushrooms, fried in a little garlic and butter, go beautifully with gruyere cheese. 

Ploughman’s toastie

Cheese paired with thinly sliced apple or pear. Such a good combo, we’re amazed it doesn’t happen more. Works well with a good strong cheddar and a bit of chutney on the side. 

Spag Bol toastie

Yes, we are double carbing. Nothing wrong with that. Another excellent way to see off leftovers too. Snip the cooked spaghetti up a bit, top with some of the Bolognese sauce and a few cubes of mozzarella. If you want to be posh, sprinkle some grated parmesan on the outside of the buttered bread once it’s toasting. 

Don’t forget dessert

Nutella, sliced banana and mini marshmallows. Utterly childish. Utterly delicious.

The waffle toastie with creamed mushrooms pictured above is from Happy Vegan Comfort Food by Karoline Jönsson (Pavilion Books). Photography: Karoline Jönsson. It’s just one of the recipes in our feature, Comfort Lunches, which you can find in our January issue, on sale now.

More from our January issue…

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Jan 27, 2021
January | a final thought
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Jan 16, 2021
Nature | Seaweed Weather Forecasting
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Jan 12, 2021
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More marvellous things to do with toast…

Featured
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Feb 25, 2023
Recipe | Posh Beans on Toast
Feb 25, 2023
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Dec 30, 2020
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Aug 15, 2020
Science lesson | the toast centre of the brain
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In Eating Tags issue 103, Issue 103, toast, lunch, sandwich, January
1 Comment
Photography: SHANTANU STARICK

Photography: SHANTANU STARICK

Toast | Spring peas, broad beans & flowers

Lottie Storey April 10, 2018

Full of the things that shine in spring.*

Serves 4
100ml extra virgin olive oil
350g podded broad beans and peas
Handful of parsley, stalks and all, finely chopped
Handful of mint, leaves picked, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 dried chillies
1⁄2 lemon
4–8 slices of sourdough

TO SERVE
Lemon
Ricotta
Edible flowers
Cook’s note: You can now buy edible flowers at the supermarket, usually stocked alongside the fresh herbs.

1 Heat 80ml of the olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan over a low heat. Add the broad beans, peas and a pinch of salt and pepper. Fry for about 10 mins.
2 Grind the parsley, mint, garlic and chilli with the remaining oil to a paste using a pestle and mortar. Add to the pan with the veg and fry for 2–3 mins. Remove from heat and add a squeeze of lemon juice.
3 Boil the eggs for 6 mins and toast the bread.
4 To serve, peel and halve the eggs, spoon the broad bean mix on the toast, then top with the eggs, a squeeze of lemon, some ricotta, a pinch of salt and freshly ground or cracked black pepper, and a scattering of flowers.

Turn to page 31 for more from our Grown & gathered feature to find out how Australians Matt and Lentil have learned to live alongside nature, adapting an ancient way of life for the modern world. Hear their story and try a few more of their recipes. 

* ...if you’re in Australia. In temperate Britain, you’ll have to wait until early summer!

  Buy ,  download  or  subscribe   See the sample of our latest issue  here   Buy a copy of our latest anthology:  A Year of Celebrations   Buy a copy of  Flourish 2 , our wellbeing bookazine  Listen to  our podcast  - Small Ways to Live Well

Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe

View the sampler here.

 

More from the April issue:

Featured
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May 6, 2018
Make | Herbal tea bags
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More edible flower recipes:

Featured
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May 31, 2025
Recipe | Pavlova with Berries and Rose Petal Cream
May 31, 2025
May 31, 2025
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Mar 31, 2024
Recipe | No Bake Cheesecake
Mar 31, 2024
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Sep 3, 2022
Recipe | Ricotta & basil stuffed nasturtium flowers
Sep 3, 2022
Sep 3, 2022
In Eating Tags issue 70, april, toast, bread, sandwich, spring, edible flowers
Comment
Featured
  Buy ,  download  or  subscribe   See the sample of our latest issue  here   Buy a copy of our latest anthology:  A Year of Celebrations   Buy a copy of  Flourish 2 , our wellbeing bookazine  Listen to  our podcast  - Small Ways to Live Well
Feb 27, 2025
Feb 27, 2025

Buy, download or subscribe

See the sample of our latest issue here

Buy a copy of our latest anthology: A Year of Celebrations

Buy a copy of Flourish 2, our wellbeing bookazine

Listen to our podcast - Small Ways to Live Well

Feb 27, 2025
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The Simple Things is published by Iceberg Press

The Simple Things

Taking time to live well

We celebrate slowing down, enjoying what you have, making the most of where you live, enjoying the company of of friends and family, and feeding them well. We like to grow some of our own vegetables, visit local markets, rummage for vintage finds, and decorate our home with the plunder. We love being outdoors and enjoy the satisfaction that comes with a job well done.

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