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7 Ways to Lighten Up Sandwiches

Tips to cutting down on the fat, calories and sodium in sandwiches without losing any of the flavor

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Why it works: Avocado and prosciutto work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and 17 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

Prep10 min
Cook8 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Mash the avocado in a bowl with the lemon juice, coarse salt and cayenne pepper until mostly smooth.

  2. Spread the avocado mixture over one side of each of the 8 bread slices.

  3. Divide the turkey breast and prosciutto evenly among 4 slices, layering turkey first then prosciutto, and top with the remaining bread, avocado side down.

  4. Heat a panini press or large skillet over medium heat. Grill the sandwiches 3 to 4 minutes per side until the bread is golden, pressing with a heavy pan if using a skillet.

  5. Make sure the filling is heated through to 165°F (74°C) in the center, since the turkey is cooked deli meat and the prosciutto is cured.

  6. Cut each sandwich in half diagonally and serve warm.

By paninihappy. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Avocado + prosciuttotop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + turkeytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together822 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Avocado + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together800 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Pepper + turkeytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the avocado

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, pepper, bread, turkey, prosciutto):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Orangebetter flavor fit
  3. Limebetter flavor fit
  4. Avocadothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, pepper, bread, turkey, prosciutto. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).