Soda Bread Open Sandwich

INGREDIENTS

For the soda bread:

• 170g/6oz chickpea flour
• 150g/6oz plain gf flour, plus extra for dusting
• 600g sweet potato, peeled, cooked and cooled
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 250ml oat milk
• 1 tsp olive oil

For the pink onions:

• 1 red onion
• Juice of two lemons or limes

For the pesto:

• 1 handful spinach
• 1 handful basil leaves
• 1 handful cashew nuts
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Good pinch of Maldon salt

Other topping ideas:

• Vegan feta
• Cherry tomatoes, halved

METHOD

For the soda bread:

1. Place the sweet potato in a food processor along with the oat milk and blitz until smooth.
2. In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add in the sweet potato and olive oil and combine well. Form into a dough. If the mixture is too wet add a little more flour gradually until the dough is firm enough to tip onto a surface. If the dough is too dry and crumbling, add a little more oat milk.
3. Form the dough into a large ball, or several small balls if you would prefer to make individual rolls, and cut a deep cross into the top. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes until the outside is hard and the inside is cooked throughout.

For the pink onions:

1. Finely slice your onion.
2. Heat a little oil on a medium heat and fry the onions, making sure not to brown them, you want them to be softened, so add a splash of water or turn the heat lower if they are catching.
3. Once softened tip them into a bowl and add the lemon or lime juice. And now let the citrus work its magic to turn them pink. Should take about 10 minutes.

For the pesto:

1. Place everything in a blender and blitz to a coarse pesto, blitz for longer if you would prefer it totally smooth, you may need to add a little water to loosen it. If you don’t have a blender you can always hand chop everything very fine and mix with the oil.