Here are the recipes for the Harvest Tea’s savory course. If you are running short on time, buy both the chicken salad and ham salad from the deli and add your own touches, like curry powder for the chicken and apples to the ham salad. For the Veggie Tea Sandwich, start with flavored cream cheese and add only one chopped vegetable.
Creamy Vegetable Tea Sandwich
I used a big pumpkin cookie cutter to make this tea sandwich but it doesn't show up so well in the photo. This one contains no meat so it works well for vegetarians. Change out the veggies according to whatever you have in your fridge.
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 carrots, shredded
1 garlic clove, minced finely
½ cup sliced green onions
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
½ teaspoon salt
16 thin rye bread slices
Combine all ingredients until well blended. Spread on rye bread with crusts removed. Use a seasonal cookie cutter or cut tea sandwiches on the diagonal.
Autumn Ham Tea Sandwich
2 granny smith apples, sliced
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter
½ pound baked ham
¼ cup grainy mustard
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup green pepper, chopped
3 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons chopped pecans
Melt butter in small pan, add brown sugar and stir until dissolved. Add apples and cook for 5 minutes over low heat. Apples should be softened but not mushy. Drain apple slices reserving liquid, and coarse chop. In the bowl of a food processor, add ham, mustard, cloves, ginger, green pepper, onion and reserved apple cooking liquid. Process until smooth. Remove ham salad from food processor into a bowl. Stir in the apples and pecans by hand. Spread on bread, crusts removed and cut into thirds, or on small bakery rolls.
Curry Chicken Salad in Mini Pitas½ cup flaked coconut
½ cup chopped almonds
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1 ½ teaspoons curry powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 cups diced cooked chicken
3 tablespoons diced celery
Bake coconut and almonds in a shallow baking pan at 350ยบ, stirring occasionally 5 to 10 minutes or until toasted. Stir together cream cheese and next 4 ingredients; gently stir in chicken, coconut, almonds and celery. Slice mini pitas in half and fill.
