Spicy Pimento Cheese Sandwiches

The thing with Keto breads is that they don’t taste like regular white bread.  Don’t go into a Keto bread expecting that, or you’ll be sorely disappointed.  The texture is slightly off and the flavor is a little bit heartier.  It’s absolutely to be expected though, right?  That’s why it’s important to make sure you find a bread you really like, and then the right thing to put on it for your taste and needs.

We stock piled a few loaves of Keto bread, when we found some a few months ago, and while being stuck at home, it’s nice to be able to pull them out of the freezer for quick weekend lunches.  (Make sure you watch your ingredients.  Some of these can throw you out of ketosis.)  I, personally, prefer to have strong flavored items on them to drown out the flavors I pick up on in the bread.  Tuna Salad with jalapenos is good, and a hearty sausage, egg and cheese sandwich with yellow mustard is always delicious.  Additionally, I’ve recently pulled out an old staple from childhood, pimento cheese.

Check out this related Pimento Cheese post, where I compare different local pimento cheeses.

There are lots of memories with pimento cheese, in my life.  It was always very basic and good over at Maw-Maw’s…pimentos, shredded cheddar, mayonnaise and a squirt of yellow mustard with a little salt and pepper.  Then, there was my Mom’s version.  She makes hers gourmet…pimentos, shredded cheddar, pecans, green olives, mayonnaise, and a squirt of yellow mustard with a little salt and pepper.  I do feel I must mention that the only mayonnaise that any Southerner should be using is Duke’s Mayo.  I know there are alternatives with different ingredients, but this one has always been a staple in our home that I grew up knowing.  It’s good stuff.

A little trick from something my Mom taught me in the kitchen — Pan fry your sandwiches on the outside to toast the bread a little.  Before you put them in the pan though, spread a thin layer of mayonnaise on the outside of the bread, and use that as your browning helper.  It gives it a different layer of flavor as opposed to just toasting your bread in the pan with butter.  This technique also works incredibly well with making grilled cheese.  We do this with our hamburger buns we’ve found as well, but just on the insides of course.

While I could easily just make a good pimento cheese by heart, without a recipe, I wanted to try one online.  You can find the original recipe, by clicking here.  The spices went together rather well, and we did half pickled jalapenos and half pimentos to keep the spice level down a bit.  Very good in the end.

Spicy Pimento Cheese

Ingredients

• ¹⁄₃ cup mayonnaise (an olive oil based mayonnaise would work just fine as well)
• 4 tbsp pimentos or pickled jalapenos, finely chopped (this time it was half and half)
• 1 tsp paprika powder or chili powder (we used paprika for this one)
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard (we prefer to use stone ground dijon for extra texture)
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 4 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
• chopped fresh chives or fresh parsley, for decoration

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients together, except for the chives.  Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour, preferably two.  Dip it or spread it, and sprinkle with chives to make it prettier.  Enjoy!

Random Cat thought:  I’ve been a cat bed for over a month now…this view still hasn’t gotten old.