Crema Cafe and World Vegetarian Day
by Janel on October 1, 2009 · 0 Comments
in Restaurants, Sandwich Recipes | 
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Last week I was doing some research on cafes in Harvard Square to host a 25-plus person book club (not an easy task) and came across Crema Café. I’ve heard of this café before but admittedly have never been. But, every time I come across a new restaurant, I check out the 
menu. It’s a hobby of mine, I guess, since reading menus inspires me to cook creatively at home. I came across Crema’s Sweet Potato Sandwich made with avocado, green apple, sprouts, hummus, and caramelized shallot vinaigrette on toasted wheat. The sandwich stood out to me since it packs in some of my favorite foods – avocados, apples, sweet potatoes and hummus! Apparently others enjoy these flavors as well because numerous people were giving rave reviews to this sammie on yelp:
“And even for this omnivore, the vegetarian sweet potato sandwich really satisfied! The creaminess of the avocado, the tang of the apple, the out-of-worldness of the dressing/sauce…”
Without ever having tasted this sandwich, I decided to make it at home. And you can too! It’s relatively simple and just in time to make for World Vegetarian Day. That’s today!
I (as usual) made some ingredient swaps – instead of a green apple I used red, and instead of the caramelized shallot vinaigrette I used a basic balsamic. And then I made up the rules on how to 
make this Crema sandwich.
I sliced the sweet potato into ½” thick slices and then microwaved them for a few minutes to get them soft. Then I put them on my grill pan with a little bit of balsamic vinaigrette on each sweet 
potato slice, and grilled away until they started to get a little caramelized with blackened grill marks. Meanwhile, I toasted an Arnold’s Sandwich Thin and layered on plain hummus, avocado slices, thin slices of apple, and a bunch of sprouts. When the potatoes were done grilling, I layered them on as well.
This made for a massive sandwich that was hard to get my mouth around! But the flavors went well together with the buttery avocado, caramelized potatoes, crunch of the tart apple, earthiness of the sprouts and creaminess of the hummus. It targeted all of my taste buds in every bite. Now I’m even more curious to know how Crema Café makes this sandwich. Do they use the sweet potato pureed as a spread instead of sliced? Does the shallot vinaigrette give it a whole new flavor profile? I guess there is only one way to find out and taste test myself!
