Ribbon sandwiches were a quintessential part of parties and gatherings when I was growing up. These little tea sandwiches are so pretty and so delicious, and colorful like a rainbow!
The prettiest quadruple decker (or multi-decker), aka tea sandwiches, or club sandwiches, these vegetarian ribbon sandwiches are the perfect party appetizer!
I’ve been wanting to share the recipe for these classic Sri Lankan Ribbon Sandwiches for the longest time. These classic mini sandwiches with orange, red, and green bands are loved by so many. Kids love to eat them because of how colorful and eye-catching they are, but here’s the best part, they don’t even realize that they are actually eating healthy veggie sandwiches…
Why I love this recipe
- I mean, look how pretty they are! How can you say no to something that looks so colorful and gorgeous?
- I provide tips on how to get the correct texture for each of the vegetable spreads. No runny, lumpy spreads.
- I upgraded the recipe that I grew up with to make the fillings so much more flavorful here! The vegetable filling is buttery, flavorful, and delicious.
- They are the perfect finger food for any party! From birthday parties to cocktail parties, and family gatherings and potlucks.
- The sandwiches are filled with vegetable fillings. So these are vegetarian, and can be made vegan very easily too.
- Kids AND adults love these sandwiches, so they are a guaranteed crowd favorite!
Why are these called “ribbon sandwiches”?
They’re called ribbon sandwiches because of the bands of color that look like ribbons (like a ribbon cake), but I think “rainbow sandwiches” are a more appropriate name!
These sandwiches consist of four soft sandwich bread slices, with a layer of vegetable spread (3 types of spreads) between each pair of bread slices. Classic ribbon sandwiches are made with,
- Carrot spread
- Beetroot spread
- Parsley and lettuce spread (you can also use spinach). Other herbs such as cilantro and basil can also be added.
These vegetarian club sandwiches are very popular in Sri Lanka, but they are also popular in some parts of India. They are an ever popular snack at parties in Sri Lanka, along with Sri Lankan fish patties, Sri Lankan fish cutlets or their vegetarian counterpart jackfruit cutlets.
How to make ribbon sandwiches / rainbow sandwiches
Ingredients
Sandwiches
- Soft, white sandwich bread. Here in Canada, I prefer Pom sandwich bread (not Texas toast), but any soft, white sandwich bread would work.
- Butter – Butter is the base for all the vegetable spreads here. You can use margarine or a plant-based margarine instead if you prefer. Margarine might be a better choice if you want to refrigerate the sandwiches, so that it won’t harden in the fridge, and can be eaten cold.
Orange filling
- Carrots
- Turmeric
- Black pepper
Pink / Red filling
- Beets
- Chili powder
- Red or Green chili
Green filling
- Romaine lettuce (you can leave out the lettuce and only use spinach too)
- Spinach
- Parsley
- Green chili
How to make ribbon sandwiches / rainbow sandwiches
Preparing the vegetables
The main problem that most people face when making the vegetable spreads is that the spread has too much water because of the vegetables. Then the butter and veggies don’t mix well, creating a lumpy and watery spread that leaks into the bread in the rainbow sandwiches.
I’ll show you how to avoid this problem, and how to get perfect spreadable, flavorful vegetable fillings.
The first step is to steam the carrots and beets. Steaming avoids waterlogging the vegetables. You can also bake the veggies in the oven, but I find steaming is easier and more foolproof. The vegetables might burn or dry out in the oven if not taken out on time.
The spinach and lettuce can also be steamed the same way as the carrots and beets, but obviously they’ll take a much shorter time. You can also choose to dry cook the greens until they wilt. Either method works well for the greens. The next step for the greens is to make sure you squeeze out as much water as possible. Both spinach and lettuce have a high water content, so it’s important that you remove as much water as possible.
Making the vegetable paste
I find it much easier to make the paste in a mini food processor.
First, process each vegetable separately with the spices, so that they are finely chopped into a rough-looking paste.
Next, you mix in the butter or margarine, with salt, until you have a nice spreadable paste that has small pieces of vegetable suspended through the colored butter mix. This is what creates the colorful rainbow vegetable spreads for your ribbon sandwiches.
If you don’t have a food processor, you can grate the steamed carrots and beets separately, then finely chop the grated vegetable and then mix it with the butter. The greens (parsley and spinach and/or lettuce) must be finely chopped, OR roughly ground in a mortar and pestle.
The amount of butter you add to the vegetables will vary depending on your taste. This is my preference,
I can add the most amount of butter to the beetroot. Since beetroot has a stronger, earthier flavor, I can add a fair amount of butter and still taste the beetroot, while retaining a deep color.
Carrots use a little less butter, because I don’t want to dilute the “orange” color, OR the taste of the carrots.
With the spinach mixture, I add the least amount of butter, because I want to retain that deep green color. The more butter you add, the lighter the color will be.
Making the rainbow sandwiches
Each ribbon sandwich is made up of FOUR slices of bread. This recipe makes a minimum of 10 sandwiches (depending on how much of the spread you have on each slice of bread).
Spread each vegetable spread on 3 of the bread slices and stack these on top of each other, while placing the fourth slice right on top to complete the ribbon sandwich.
Slice off the crusts to form a crustless square sandwich. Next, cut the sandwich into four pieces – either as a square or a triangle or as long finger sandwiches.
All in all, this recipe should make at least a total of 40 mini sandwiches!
Storing the sandwiches
If you’re making these ribbon sandwiches ahead of time, make sure to store them in an air-tight container in the fridge. Butter will harden in the fridge, so you will need to let the butter soften to room temperature before serving the sandwiches. However, if you used margarine, you don’t need to worry! They can be served chilled or at room temperature.
Serving the ribbon sandwiches
You can serve these gorgeous rainbow colored sandwiches however you like. They don’t need any accompaniments, because they are so flavorful on their own. Don’t be fooled by their size either, they are SO filling!
I sometimes like to add a fourth “filling” of cheese, but this is only when I make these for us. A sandwich with 5 bread slices (and 4 fillings) might be a little too hard to eat at a party (i.e. with people around you…).
Final thoughts
Growing up, I loved eating these ribbon sandwiches at birthday parties! The carrot and beetroot fillings are buttery, a little sweet, with a hint of spice. And the green layer is herby, spicy, and fresh! As a kid, I gravitated towards these sandwiches because of how colorful they were, and as an adult, well, not much has changed. I still love how colorful and pretty they are. But they are also super delicious too!
Make sure to show off the beautiful rainbow colored fillings in your sandwiches when you’re serving these. I promise these will be a crowd favorite!
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Ribbon Sandwiches / Rainbow Sandwiches
Ingredients:
Spinach filling
- 570 g baby spinach or half spinach and half romaine lettuce
- 20 g parsley top stems and mostly leaves
- 2 green chili peppers or 1 serrano pepper
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- Generous pinch of pepper or to taste
- 150 g margarine or butter
Carrot filling
- 350 g baby carrots or whole carrots
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- Generous pinch of black pepper
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp ground coriander or cumin
- ¼ tsp honey or sugar (optional)
- 170 g margarine or butter
Beetroot filling
- 350 g beetroot
- ½ tsp crushed chili flakes adjust to your taste, I like to add 1 ½ tsp because I prefer it spicy
- ½ green chili or red chili pepper optional
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- Generous pinch of black pepper
- ½ tsp ground coriander or cumin
- ¼ tsp honey or sugar (optional)
- 170 g margarine or butter
Sandwiches
- 40 slices soft white sandwich bread see recipe notes
Instructions:
Spinach filling
- To steam the vegetables, you will need a large pot with a capacity to hold a steamer basket with the lid on.
- Pour about 1 – 2 inches of water to the bottom of the pot and bring it to a simmer, with the lid on.
- Add the baby spinach and let it steam for a few minutes until the spinach has just wilted and softened.570 g baby spinach
- Remove the steamer basket from the pot and place the steamed spinach in a bowl, and let it cool completely.
- Once cooled, squeeze the spinach to remove as much water as possible. You can squeeze a little at a time in your hands OR place the spinach in a cheesecloth and squeeze the water out.
- The remaining spinach should weigh about 220 – 230 g.
- If you’re using lettuce, cut the lettuce into smaller pieces and steam it the same way as the spinach.
- Let it cool and then squeeze out the water in the same manner.
- Place the spinach and the spices in the ingredients list (except for the margarine) in a small food processor and process until you have a rough-looking paste. The weight of the paste will vary, but you want to have about 250 g of the green paste.20 g parsley, 2 green chili peppers, ¼ tsp sea salt, Generous pinch of pepper
- In a large bowl, place the margarine and 250 g of the green vegetable paste and whisk together until you have a smooth green buttery spread. Taste and season with salt to taste.150 g margarine
- Scrape this into a bowl and set aside until needed.
Carrot filling
- The baby carrots can be steamed as they are, but if you're using larger carrots, you can cut them into smaller pieces.350 g baby carrots
- Steam the carrots in a steamer basket for 15 – 20 minutes, OR until the carrots are fork-tender (the fork should go through very easily). Top up the pot with water as needed while steaming.
- Remove the carrots from the basket and let them cool down on a paper towel or kitchen napkin. Do not cover the carrots, since you want as much of the water to evaporate as it cools down.
- You should have about 250 g of steamed carrots.
- Place the steamed and cooled carrots in a food processor, along with all the spices in the ingredients list (excluding the margarine).¼ tsp turmeric, Generous pinch of black pepper, ¼ tsp sea salt, ½ tsp ground coriander or cumin, ¼ tsp honey
- Process until you have a rough-looking paste that still has small pieces of carrots in it (i.e. not a smooth, fine paste).
- The weight of this paste should be around 260 g (at least 250 g).
- In a large bowl, place the margarine and 250 g of the carrot paste and whisk together until you have a smooth orange and yellow buttery spread. Taste and season with salt to taste.170 g margarine
- Scrape this into a bowl and set aside until needed.
Beetroot filling
- Slice off the tops of the beetroots and then steam them the same way as the carrots.350 g beetroot
- Remove the beetroots from the steamer basket and let them cool down on a paper towel or kitchen napkin until cooled to room temperature. PLEASE NOTE that beetroots do stain, so use a napkin or towel that you do not mind being stained.
- Once cooled down, you can peel off the beetroot skin with your fingers as it should just come off easily. The steamed beetroot should weigh about 250 g as well.
- Place the steamed, cooled, and peeled beets in a food processor, along with all the spices in the ingredients list (excluding the margarine).½ tsp crushed chili flakes, ½ green chili or red chili pepper, ¼ tsp sea salt, Generous pinch of black pepper, ½ tsp ground coriander or cumin, ¼ tsp honey
- Process until you have a rough-looking paste that still has small pieces of beetroot in it (i.e. not a smooth, fine paste).
- The weight of this paste should be around 260 g (or at least 250 g).
- In a large bowl, place the margarine and 250 g of the beet mixture and whisk together until you have a smooth deep pink / purple colored buttery spread. Taste and season with salt to taste.170 g margarine
- Scrape this into a bowl and set aside until needed.
Making the ribbon sandwiches (rainbow sandwiches)
- Take four slices of bread and lay them out on your work surface.40 slices soft white sandwich bread
- Spread a thin layer of the carrot butter filling on one slice.
- Spread a thin layer of the spinach butter filling on another slice.
- Finally, spread a thin layer of the beet butter filling on the third slice.
- Stack these three slices of bread on top of each other, along with the fourth slice on top. (You should have a sandwich that alternates with bread – filling – bread – filling – bread – filling – bread.)
- You can stack them in any order you like in terms of the fillings. The filling shouldn’t be too thick, just an even layer that is visible when the sandwich is cut (as you can see in the pictures in the post).
- With a sharp knife, slice off the crusts to make a square sandwich. Cut this sandwich into four smaller sandwiches. This can be either 4 square sandwiches, 4 triangles, OR you can cut the sandwich lengthwise to make 4 finger sandwiches.
- Repeat with all the slices of bread.40 slices soft white sandwich bread
- The sandwiches can now be served right away.
- To store them for later (or leftovers), place the sandwiches in an air-tight container. Make sure the lid is not squishing the sandwiches.
- Store the sandwiches for up to 4 days in the fridge. If you used butter instead of margarine, the butter will first need to soften at room temperature before you can serve them.
Tips & Tricks
For the bread
Choose a soft white bread – because that goes best with these fillings. However, you can use whole wheat if you prefer as well. Do not use thick slices such as toast sliced bread or Texas toast.Cooking the vegetables
To save time, steam the vegetables while the previous steamed veggies are cooling. You can steam the vegetables and make the vegetable paste the day before and make the butter spread the following day. The vegetable butters (margarine) can also be made the day before and the sandwiches can be made the following day.Adding the margarine
You can use butter instead, but butter hardens in the fridge. So the sandwiches cannot be eaten cold if you use butter. You can add more margarine if you like. I prefer the filling to have more vegetables than butter, but you can also use a mix with a 1:1 ratio of butter and vegetables if you like. This will then obviously make enough spread for more than 10 sandwiches.Note about making the butter spread
You do not need to precisely weigh out the vegetable paste. It can vary between 200 – 300 g. But you have to be mindful about how much butter / margarine you add to the vegetable spread because if you add too much, you will lose the flavor and color of the vegetables, and the spread may taste too buttery.Nutrition Information:
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
Faiza Sajjad says
Hello from Pakistan. I tried this recipe and I and my whole family love this whole meal sooo much!! Super healthy.