Tea Sandwich Saturday #24 - Tomato Roses & Hummus

This week's tea sandwich inspiration came from morning TV. I was watching Fox and Friends when Steve Doocy was talking to Food Network star Paula Deen about a picnic menu. Naturally, Paula was packing her basket with hearty picnic fare, and Steve jokingly asked if she had any hummus sandwiches. No, she said, but I thought, "Hmmm, I love hummus, and hummus *would* actually make a good sandwich." But plain hummus would be sort of blah, so I'd need a nice garnish. I did an online search for "garnish" and soon came up with several videos and how-to websites showing how to make a rose from a tomato. Here's how: peel it in one long spiral and roll the desired length of it into a rose shape. This isn't rocket science. I got all three of these roses from one medium tomato.

So my recipe ingredients this week are shown right here: Sunflower seed bread from the bakery, medium size tomatoes, and Sabra's new Basil Pesto Hummus. (We go through lots of hummus at my house, and Sabra is the brand we keep coming back to. I think we've tried every flavor they make!) You can, of course, make your own hummus if you have a favorite recipe.

I cut out rounds of bread with both 2-inch and 2-1/2-inch cutters. I spread the hummus pretty thickly, because I wanted to make sure the roses would have something to adhere to. I practiced rolling them up in different ways, but I'm actually happy with all of these.

And if you like, you can even "garnish the garnish" by adding mint leaves. Voila, you have roses! So pretty and sooooo easy!