Pan bagnat with sunflower seed "tuna"

When I was sixteen, I visited Marseilles, France, as part of an exchange program. The family I was living with was vegetarian, and since I wasn’t really into eating meat that much myself, I gave their lifestyle a try. It seemed pretty easy and I didn’t miss being a carnivore much... until we took a road trip to Nice, where I had my first pan bagnat, which is essentially a Niçoise salad in a sandwich: tuna fish, hard-boiled egg, veggies, herbs, olives, and crusty bread bathed in olive oil - in fact, that’s how this sandwich got its name, “bathed bread.” The combination made this new vegetarian weak at the knees. I ate it in front of my vegetarian hosts with a little bit of embarrassment, but a whole lotta pleasure.

Since that sandwich is practically vegetarian already, I came up with my own recipe for plant-based tuna. After soaking sunflower seeds for a snack, I realised that they had the look and texture of canned tuna fish—hence the sunflower seed “tuna” salad. The nori has that familiar taste of the sea, lending its fishy flavor to the seeds. Although pan bagnat is tasty right away, I like to enjoy this sandwich after it has marinated for a few hours, allowing the bread to soak up all that olive oil and delicious flavour. It’s the perfect picnic meal or traveling companion.