Belgium: vegan toast cannibale

This week we are back in Western Europe for a stopover in Belgium. Here, we prepare a vegan toast cannibale, a sandwich covered in the Belgian version of steak tartare. So our first mission in creating this vegan recipe, is to make vegan steak tartare. Read on to learn a bit about Belgian cuisine, toast cannibale and how to make a vegan steak taratre. Or jump straight to the recipe.

Belgian cuisine

Located on the coast of the North Sea, between The Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg (where we made kniddelen), and France, Belgium sees a lot of similarities with all of these European cuisines. On it’s own, Belgium is famous for a wide variety of unique foods, such as the iconic waffle, fine chocolates, and a wide range of beers ​[1]–[3]​.

In the Belgian kitchen, you will find several dishes shared with Belgium’s neighbour the Netherlands, such as stoemp, a dish of mashed potatoes with vegetables similar to the stamppot we cooked when visiting the Netherlands and oliebollen, a deep-fried dough ball filled with apples and raisins ​[2], [3]​. French influences are also abundant and can be seen in dishes like vol au vent, a puff pastry chimney filled with chicken stew ​[2], [3]​. Among the more unique Belgian dishes you can find waterzooi, a soup or stew based on cream and eggs, anguilles au vert (eels in a herby, green sauce) and plenty of endive dishes, such as endives baked with cheese and ham ​[2]–[4]​. And of course, you will find Belgian fries served in a multitude of ways.

The secret to Belgian fries is that they are deep-fried twice ​[5], [6]​. First to cook them through and then to make the exterior crispy. But beware, traditional Belgian fries are fried in fat from animals, like cow, horse, pig, or duck. In addition to reputedly being very good, Belgian fries are plentiful and go with everything, like meatballs ​[3]​, or vol-au-vent ​[2], [3]​. Belgian fries are also paired with boiled mussels ​[2]​ and used as a sandwich filling in mitraillete ​[1], [7]​. Or you can just eat them on their own with some mayonnaise ​[5]​. Speaking of sandwiches and French influences, for our visit to Belgium I decided to prepare a Belgian sandwich prepared with filet Américain, the Belgian version of steak tartare.

Filet Américain and toast cannibale

Filet Américain is the Belgian version of the French steak tartare, a dish consisting of finely minced raw meat ​[8]–[10]​. The main difference between filet Américain and steak tartare seems to be the tradition of grinding the filet Américain (as opposed to mincing). Originally invented in the 1920s by Joseph Niels who founded the Brussels restaurant The Canterbury, the filet Américain has grown in popularity and is now common across Belgium ​[9], [11]​. It is often served on crackers as a starter ​[9]​ or used as a sandwich spread to create toast cannibale or a Martino sandwich, both of which are popular lunch dishes ​[12]​.

Toast cannibale recipe

Traditional recipes for filet Américain are based on raw beef mixed with a variety of condiments like capers, cornichons or gherkins, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, red onion, mayonnaise, and mustard ​[10], [13]–[15]​. Many cooks add hot sauce such as tabasco ​[13]–[15]​ and some add ketchup ​[14]​, curry powder ​[12]​, or egg yolks ​[12], [13], [16]​.

There are two main ways of preparing the filet Américain. Some cooks prefer finely mincing the ingredients before mixing everything together, preserving individual pieces of the gherkin, capers, and the other ingredients ​[13], [15]​. Other cooks like to run everything, including the minced meat, in a food processor to create a homogeneous, smooth paste or paté ​[10], [12], [16], [17]​. The third option is to blend the meat into a smooth paste and add the chopped condiments afterward ​[14]​. Alternatively, you can serve the puréed meat with all the condiments in separate bowls, and let the guests prepare their own filet Américain ​[9], [18]​.

Finally, to make your toast cannibale, the filet Américain is simply spread on a piece of toast. The filet américain can also be used for other sandwiches like broodje Martino, where it is spread on a baguette or bread roll and topped with boiled eggs and other condiments, like ketchup and fresh tomatoes ​[17], [19]​.

Vegan steak tartare

To create a vegan toast cannibale recipe, I started with looking into vegan steak tartare recipes, as this is a closely related dish and much more well-known. There is a wide range of vegan recipes for classic steak tartare, where the minced meat is replaced with different ingredients like tomatoes ​[20], [21]​, beats ​[22]​, beats and mushrooms ​[23]​, or uncooked Beyond meat (which, apparently, does not taste great) ​[24]​. Another vegan steak tartare recipe uses cooked red lentils ​[26]​ which reminds me a lot of Turkish mercimek köfti, where cooked red lentils are mixed with bulgur, herbs and other ingredients and shaped into oblong “balls” ​[27]​. Depending on where you live, you might be able to buy some vegan filet Américain in a tub. The company Bon Mush sells a version based on oyster mushrooms ​[25]​.

These recipes all seem to capture different aspects of steak tartare. Tomatoes and mushroom contribute tons of umami, the cooked red lentils seem to have a good texture and the raw Beyond beef is, of course, raw. Another interesting technique I found was to use puffed rice crackers mixed with some liquid (such as water, tomato pure and liquid smoke) ​[28], [29]​. Judging from the pictures, this seems to create a very interesting texture that is both firm yet soft and yielding.

Vegan toast cannibale

After having read a whole lot of vegan steak tartare recipes, I decided to go with another option for the bulk of my vegan filet Américain. In contrast to steak tartare, which seems to be mostly based on ground meat, Belgian filet Américain is often blended, creating a very smooth texture before the condiments are mixed in. To mimic this blended, pâté texture, I went with kidney beans that I blended before stirring in the finely chopped ingredients. (As a bonus, blended red kidney beans give a pink colour not completely unlike the blended meat.)

After replacing the blended meat, the rest of the vegan toast cannibale recipe creation is straightforward. Use vegan Worcestershire sauce and vegan mayo, and omit the raw egg yolk. I added a pinch of Himalayan black salt for the eggy sulfur flavour but this is completely optional. (It also did not quite come through in the final dish.)

Conclusion

The vegan filet Américain used to prepare this vegan toast cannibale was really good. The beans don’t have that much flavour so the dish is completely defined by the other ingredients. The dish comes together in minutes and the vegan filet Américain is almost ready when the toasts pop out of the toaster. The spread actually reminds me a lot of a chickpea salad I sometimes make and serve with baked potatoes. For that dish, I just mash chickpeas and mix with mayo, mustard, red onion and cornichons. The ingredients are almost the same so not really a surprise that the two taste very similar.

I really enjoyed this simple spread and will make it again for a quick and easy lunch. In fact, between preparing the spread for this post and actually writing the post, I have made vegan toast cannibale an extra time for an easy lunch during a day hike in the local mountains.

That’s it for our visit to Belgium. Join me again on the next stop on this vegan world tour when we head south to Cameroon in Central Africa. If you don’t want to miss the next stop, you can subscribe to the email list and I’ll send you an alert when we arrive.

Vegan toast cannibale

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Vegan toast cannibale

Course bread, lunch, Snack

Cuisine Belgian, Western European

Keyword beans, Spread

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 4 toasts

Ingredients

• 1 can Red kidney beans
• 1 tbsp Capers
• 5 Cornichons or gherkins
• 1 tbsp Red onion, minced
• 1 tbsp Parsley, minced
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 3 tbsp Vegan mayonnaise
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• ½ tsp Tabasco or other hot sauce optional
• Himalayan black salt optional
• Black pepper
• 4 Slices of bread

Instructions

Filet Américain

• Drain and blend the kidney beans using a food processor, immersion blender or blender
• Finely mince the onion, capers, gherkins, and parsley
• Mix the blended beans with the minced condiments
• Add mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and optional hot sauce to the mix
• Season with salt and pepper

Toast cannibale

• Toast the bread to your liking
• Spread a thick layer of filet Américain on each toast

References