Isa's Roasted Red Pepper Almond Mayo

First, I hope you like the new look to the blog, I've been meaning to update my header and background for ages now, the other ones were supposed to be only briefly temporary! I do get around to things.....eventually :-)

Second, I hope you'll forgive me posting another "no recipe" blog post but I made this Rouille by Isa (she needs no last name!) the other day and it was so epic I just had to blog about it.

Now, I had never heard of rouille before but it's a French breadcrumb based sauce. Isa based hers on a Julia Child recipe which uses almonds instead of breadcrumbs. That swap made this spread taste not hugely dissimilar to the almond feta before it gets baked but with a spicy mustard, roasted red pepper thing going on. Oh yeah....

Multigrain Pan-Grilled Avocado, Baby Spinach and Basil Sandwich with Roasted Red Pepper Almond Mayo

Although it's called rouille (which is a sauce) I decided to fully embrace the mayo title here and use it as a sandwich spread....and wow. It's simply stunning in sandwiches. Those of you who follow my daily blog will know I was spreading that stuff in everything but was loving this sandwich in particular. The flavour combination of that mayo with avocado is a match made in heaven. 

I am so happy to have found this recipe. I always seem to be short of delicious vegan sandwich spread options. Sure, I have a mayo I love - Plamil Organic and there's always houmous and all it's variations but for the most part that's about it. This one will get well used. Thank you Isa!!

Just keep one thing in mind, this may have healthier ingredients than regular mayo but it actually has more calories than full fat egg mayo (!) So, if you are watching the calories you may want to spread conservatively... although, as you can see, I struggled with that one!

*Make sure you go to the PPK for the FULL mayo recipe* 
These are just a few personal notes of small changes I made but I otherwise followed the recipe exactly.

♥ I roasted my pepper using the quick roasting method from the "Golden Slipper" post. Simply top, tail and de-seed a bell pepper and slice into 4 large flat pieces. Place these skin side up on a grill safe baking tray and grill until the skin is blackened. Transfer to a bowl and cover with cling film and let it sit for 15 minutes to sweat. Peel off the skins which should peel off easy now, then simply chop them up before adding to the blender.
♥ I used ground almonds or almond meal instead of slivered. As you guys know, I have a weak ass blender. I used 55g (½ cup) of ground almonds and pan fried the ground almonds in a dry non-stick frying pan until fragrant and ever so slightly golden.
♥ I used 3 garlic cloves instead of 2 (but they weren't very big).
♥ Recipe called for 1/4 tsp of salt and then more to taste. I used ½ tsp of salt in total.
♥ As she says, don't worry if it seems a bit runny at first as it does thicken up in the fridge. Still, if it is getting hard to blend resist the urge to add more water. I only added the amount of water the recipe calls for....I further made no changes to the oil or dijon mustard.

A great lunch with some thai sweet chilli and red pepper crisps and a refreshing glass of  San Pellegrino Limonata!

Pan-grilled Avocado, Baby Spinach and Basil with Roasted Red Pepper Almond Mayo

• 2 slices good quality multigrain bread (or whatever you like!)

• slices of avocado

• handful of baby spinach

• fresh basil leaves

• 25g or a couple tablespoons of the Rouille / Mayo

• salt and pepper (preferably smoked sea salt)

• vegan butter to fry

Get a cast iron grill pan nice and hot. Assemble the sandwich: mayo, avocado, tiny pinch of smoked sea salt and a few grinds of black pepper, basil then the spinach.

"Butter" the top of the sandwich and place this butter side down onto the hot grill pan. "Butter" the top again and flip over when golden brown. 

♥

I also made a wrap using this mayo in place of regular mayo in my chicken salad recipe and adding some avocado, tomato and basil. I also chose to pan-grill this one but you could also eat it as is. It was a beautiful wrap.

Vegan Chicken Salad Wrap with Roasted Red Pepper Almond Mayo, Avocado, Tomato and Basil

• 1 large wrap

• 30 - 40g vegan chicken style pieces (I used Fry's)

• 30 - 40g Rouille / Mayo

• 1 large spring onion, chopped fine

• diced avocado

• diced tomato

• fresh basil leaves

• olive oil

Fry the chicken pieces in a tiny bit of olive oil until cooked, or according to your brands instructions.

Warm up a large wrap in a dry frying pan to make it more pliable. Finely chop the chicken and mix it in a bowl with the mayo and spring onion. I added a few grinds of black pepper here as well. 

Top with the avocado, tomato and basil - wrap up and eat OR get a grill pan nice and hot, brush the wrap with olive oil and pan grill until golden brown. 

♥

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