Steemit-Ironchef Round 3 ~ Still live with two jars and a cucumber 🥒

My this week's contribution to the #steemit-ironchef challenge caused me a little bit of headaches. I know this might be the case only for my neck of the woods but cucumbers are simply not in season right now. If you buy them they are not only expensive, come from elsewhere and are wrapped in a ridiculous amount of plastic they don't even taste good! I know that's not visible but my aim is always to create something that we really enjoy to eat. The cause is - even if my entry finishes in one of the lower positions - we still eat a delicious, beautiful and satisfying meal! 😋

Alright. Enough of the rant. That's only my issue. Lets have fun and make the best out of it! 🥒🥒🥒🥒🥒

I would like to thank @progressivechef for hosting this contest and to @canadian-coconut, @donkeypong, @trophytokens, @voiceshares and @bambam808 supporting this challenge. This is the link to the actual post with all the rules and stuff: STEEMIT IRON CHEF 2018 Act 01 Round 03.

A typical german - I think 80ies Style - party dish is the so called "Schichtsalat", a salad where the different ingredients are filled into a glas bowl layer by layer ... made of things like celery, cooked ham, hard boiled eggs, leek, apples, canned pineapples, cannend corn and topped with shredd cheese ... like I said: very 80ies style food.

Because I didn't trust the taste of the cucumber - it was italian, unwrapped and looked very appealing though - I thought to combine different tastes and textures. That's why I've taken a little inspiration by the old fashioned "Schichtsalat".

Ingredients:

• one small cucumber 
• half an apple 
• a carrot 
• four slices Pumpernickel bread
• a cup of sunflower seeds 
• two cups of soyghurt
• lemonjuice
• nutritional yeast
• dill
• salt and pepper 

Preparation:

I wanted to make a plantal cream cheese on the base of sunflower seeds and soyghurt. I let the sunflower seeds soak in warm water for a few hours.

I crumbled the Pumpernickel bread and fried them in a plantbased butter in a hot pan until crispy. Stir occasionally. It takes some time because the Pumpernickel is very moist in texture. Don't forget about it and burn it!! 

I drained the sunflower seeds, filled them in my mixer and mixed together with the soyghurt, some nutritional yeast, lemon juice and dried garlic until creamy. I stired in the dill and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Often when you need lemon juice, you just need a little bit but the lemon is cut open and starts to dry out or absorbs some smells of your fridge. This is a simple and practical way to keep it fresh ...

I cut the carrot into very small cubes, halved the cucumber and removed the seeds.

I cut it into cubes and the apple into fine sticks.

Then I filled layers of the ingredients into two whiskey glasses starting with a crispy layer of the hearty and kind of sweet all the same time Pumpernickel crumps, followed by the cucumber cubes and cream cheese, then carrots, then apples, Pumpernickel again, cream cheese ... ... 😴 ... 

I have been a bit suspicious as to whether this entire creation would really taste good. But sometimes if your expectations are low you get surprised in a very positive way. It was delicious! I loved the combination of the crispy veggies, the creaminess of the cheezy sauce and the crunchy aromatic bread crumbs. It might not be my most beautiful creation but the taste and the texture was great! The hubby left it for the next day for lunch. Then the crumbs soaked a lot of liquid and weren't crunchy anymore what he liked better.

Thank you for reading my post. I hope I could inspire one or other to follow my recipe or create one own similar. 

Good luck to all of the other contestants! ☀️