Vleessla (Meat & egg salad)

Ahhh vleessla...no doubt one of my all-time favorite sandwich fillings. You can buy it readymade in virtually every butcher's or supermarket in Belgium, however, there's nothing like the homemade version. It's easy, it's rich and it's very, very tasty. And it's not for those who try to keep their cholestorol in check...

In Belgium it's usually eaten as a filling between two slices of bread, for lunch or dinner. However, while I was studying in the UK last year, it also appeared to be a great hit as a late night snack with my Spanish friends. We had planned a big night out; dinner, bar and some not too sober dance moves later on. As usual, afterwards all of us were craving for a good, filling snack before we were going to crawl into our warm, soft beds. Since these midnight cravings always seem to surface each time we went out for a drink or two, I prepared a large bowl (there were ten of us...) of vleessla in advance. Upon our return, I toasted a whole loaf of sliced bread and plopped the bowl of goodness on the table. Soon after, I was struggling to scrape together enough vleessla to put on my own piece of toast...the nerve...

What do you need?

Three hardboiled eggs

60 gr of cooked ham

1 mid-sized white onion

Three tablespoons of mayonnaise

salt and pepper

This will serve 3.

Preparation:

1. Hard-boil the eggs.

2. While the eggs are boiling, start slicing and dicing the onion and ham into little cubes or slices.

3. Once the eggs have cooled down a bit, remove the shell and mash them up in a plate.

4. Add the sliced ham and onion. Mix these three ingredients thoroughly, so you end up with a somewhat homogenous mixture.

5. Add the mayonnaise and mix it in well with the other ingredients. When the mixture has a thick paste look and feel to it, you're done!

6. Put some on a slice of (toasted or not) bread, if you can resist eating it straight from the plate!

Again, here you can play with the amount of each ingredient used; if the mixture is too dry add some more mayo, if you prefer a stronger onion taste, just pour in some more! Flexibility is key!

Tip: you could also replace the onion with chopped up chives and add a little natural yoghurt to the mayonnaise. To top it off, add in a little bit of chopped dill.