Poor Student's Sandwich

The "Farmer's lunch" is a meatless sandwich that's served at City Feed in Jamaica Plain. There have been several rave reviews of this sandwich and I'm sure it's really as awesome as the reviewers say it is. However, it's quite expensive at around $7.50! I'm not sure what kind of farmers can afford to eat this sort of thing but as a poor student, I cannot justify paying that much for a sandwich that has no meat in it. The mayo and mustard probably makes it extra tasty and juicy but still, where are these bourgeois farmers coming from? Even if you try and make this sandwich at home, all those organic ingredients will cost you almost as much as getting it made at the store. A small jar of the pickled green tomatoes are $5.99.

So, I decided to make my own version of this sandwich and call it the "Poor Student's sandwich". It's inspired by the farmer's lunch but probably a little spicier and contains no mayo or mustard. It's also a lot less expensive so you can this everyday if you like. I also don't have any pickled green tomatoes lying around, so dill pickle will have to do.

The Poor Student's sandwich
2 slices of bread
1 slice cheese (e.g. pepperjack or something flavorful)
4-6 thin apple slices (use a sweet or sour apple, depending on what you like)
dill pickle slices
Chacarero sauce (if you don't have time to make this, use whatever hot sauce you have)

Chacarero sauce (made in a blender)

Put the Chacarero sauce on one slice of bread and the cheese on the other. Toast both slices in a toaster oven. While the bread is heating up, cut the apple into 4 to 6 thin slices and let the dill pickle slices drain a bit. When the bread is ready, put the sandwich together and serve.

Ingredients: bread, cheese, sauce, apple, and pickle

Putting it together

If you get the bread for about $3.50 a loaf, a block of cheese for about $3, 6 small apples for $2, jar of pickles for $4, cilantro for $1.39, a couple of onions, lime & garlic should be about a buck. Cost: about $2.50 per sandwich.

Side view
The combination of the apple and the onion in the Chacarero sauce might sound weird but it's actually quite good! The apple adds a pleasant crunch and doesn't really stand out as its own flavor. It's the combination of the sweetness from the apple, the salty from the pickle, the creaminess from the cheese, and the spiciness from the sauce that makes this sandwich really amazing. If you use a flavorful bread, that could make the sandwich even tastier. To make this into a panini-style sandwich, you might need to add another slice of cheese so it all sticks together.