PEANUT BUTTER & TOMATO on TOAST

The best things in life are free

Okay, maybe the ingredients aren’t. But the magic of family traditions most certainly are. This particular tradition came about through my grandfather’s love of Indonesian food. Having been born in Kupang, on the island of Timor, travels throughout Indonesia filled his childhood (and therefor later mine) with flavourful dishes like nasi goreng, lumpia and gado gado.

Your life is your best inspiration

When, as a young father of two, my grandfather wanted to create a simple, healthy and to his mind, tasty snack for the kids – he drew on the flavour combinations that he knew. Enter the eloquent, simple peanut butter and tomato on toast. 

Origins from the Orient

It sounds bizarre to most people I mention it to, but this is one of those areas in life where it pays to taste it first before you judge it. You see, the flavours for this magic odd combo come from the Indonesian gado gado salad – a dish in which blanched and fresh veg – tomato among them –  is dressed in a deliciously salty sweet satay sauce, or pinda sous, as the Dutch call it. Essentially this is a cooked peanut sauce (and someday soon I’ll share my recipe for it!).

So really, all oupa Eddie did, was put the peanut sauce on the toast and pop the tomato on top instead of underneath. Genius if you ask me.

Evolution is essential

The ironic thing is, that since the distilling of this heritage dish into a super simple snack – it has since done what all things in life do and pendulumed (it’s not a word but it should be!) once again toward complexity. My husband and I dress this favourite lunch time snack in chilli crisp – not pictured here because we ran out – gosh darn it! And, because we have an abundance of the stuff growing in our garden, it also gets a fresh topping of majoram leaves.

Recipe essentials: Don’t forget the salt and pepper

The quality of peanut butter you use matters. We prefer Buttanut or Omega crunchy variety. Whether you like actual butter underneath is a matter of preference. The fresher the tomatoes the better the flavour profile. I always opt for organic rosa varieties if I can find them.

So it hardly requires a recipe because it is THAT simple, but incase you need one: 1. Sliced sourdough – multi seed or plain.

2. Lightly toasted.

3. This spread of butter.

4. Thick spread of crunchy peanut butter.

5. Thickly sliced tomatoes.

6. Garnish with chilli crisp and fresh majoram leaves.

But one thing is crucial – a healthy grind of salt and pepper on top!

And just like that, as my good friend Nate from Oceaneers says – “it’s like a mini gado gado.”