Picnic Veggie Cucumber Sandwiches w Air Fryer Granola

About

Picnic weather makes everyone want to enjoy their lunch outside. If you’re on the Keto diet, you won’t be left out of any plans! Make these chilled vegetable cream cheese cucumber sandwiches with your own, scratch-made cream cheese spread. Keto vegetables are used, including crunchy celery and jarred pimentos. A red-orange seasoning blend flavors the cream cheese spread, which you’ll be sandwiching inside hollowed cucumber “canoes”. The fresh cucumber makes your “sandwich” a handheld lunch, and the ingredients are stable enough to last outside on a picnic blanket. Alongside the refreshing cucumber sandwiches are handfuls of a seed and nut granola. You can make this granola in your air fryer in under 10 minutes, so any last-minute invites won’t ruin your meal plan! Bring your chilled meal with you to the park, or use this Keto recipe for your next meal-prepped lunch.

Other Carb Manager Keto Picnic Recipes

Picnics are only good if there is an assortment of finger foods to choose from, right? Your easiest answer to picnic foods is simple, Keto-friendly ingredients such as cheese cubes, assorted cured meats, olives, and low-carb vegetables with high-fat dipping sauces. Try any of Carb Manager’s Keto Cracker or Chips recipes, which may also be made in your air fryer. The Carb Manager Keto Hard Boiled Egg Breakfast Bites is another yummy handheld recipe that has only 1 gram of carbs per serving.

I Don’t Have An Air Fryer

If you don’t own an air fryer, that’s okay. It may just take you a little longer to cook your granola. Prepare the granola as directed and spread it on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and cook the granola for 10 minutes. Toss and turn the granola and continue baking in 5-minute increments until the granola is done.

Ingredients

3 oz cream cheese
2 oz celery
½ oz pimento canned
½ tbsp, chopped scallions
1 dash salt
¼ teaspoon paprika
⅛ teaspoon onion powder
⅛ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon parsley, dried
⅛ teaspoon oregano, dried
6 oz cucumber, raw, without peel
3 oz pecans, raw
½ oz cashews, raw
1 oz almonds, sliced
½ oz pumpkin or squash seeds, shelled, unsalted
1 ½ tablespoon coconut oil
½ tablespoon tahini
1 dash salt
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
10 drops liquid stevia
½ teaspoon brown sugar replacement

Instructions

Pull your cream cheese out in advance to soften at room temperature. You may use a microwave to assist you in warming the cream cheese, but you cannot melt it. Once it’s soft, mash it in a mixing bowl using a fork. Next, thin-slice celery stalks, dice pimentos, and chop the green onion. Add these ingredients to the cream cheese with salt, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, parsley, and oregano. Mix with your fork until your vegetable cream cheese spread is blended.
Set the cream cheese spread aside and prepare the cucumber. For every 4 servings, slice the ends off of a whole medium-sized cucumber. Peel the skin off the whole cucumber, and slice the naked cucumber into two short halves. Slice each half in half again, this time down the length of the pieces, to make 4 pieces of cucumber about 5-6 inches long. Use a spoon to scrape the seeds and pulp from each piece of cucumber to make hollow “canoes”.
Discard the cucumber peel and seeds. The cucumber “canoes” should equal the yield listed in your ingredients (about 1 ½ ounce per piece). One by one, use a spoon or your fork to spread the vegetable cream cheese into each hollow piece of cucumber. Pack the cream cheese in, and it’s okay if it piles above the top of the cucumber. Set the filled cucumber sandwiches in your refrigerator to chill and set. Now you can make the granola.
Chop pecans and cashews, and add them to a large mixing bowl. Make sure you have a mix of larger and smaller chopped pieces. Mix sliced almonds and shelled pepitas (pumpkin seeds) into the bowl. Sliced almonds are best for this recipe since they are very lightweight. However, if you only have whole almonds, just chop them finely.
Set the bowl of nuts aside and grab a small pot. Over low heat, melt coconut oil in the pot and stir in tahini until you have a smooth, tan liquid. Once the ingredients combine, take the pot off the stove heat, and stir in salt, vanilla extract, liquid stevia, and brown sugar replacement. Stir the mixture to help it cool down for about 60 seconds. Then, pour it over the nuts in your mixing bowl.
Use a spatula to fold the nuts over with the hot coconut oil mixture until they absorb some of the moisture and are completely coated in the glossy, sweet granola glue. Set the bowl aside. Turn your air fryer on to preheat to 350 degrees. Line your air fryer tray with parchment paper and use a toothpick to poke small holes throughout the paper. Use your spatula to pour and spread the sticky granola mixture in the lined tray. Make sure the nuts are spread into a single, solid layer. Pour any excess “granola glue” from your mixing bowl on top.
Set the tray of granola in your air fryer and cook the granola for only 5 minutes. Remove the tray, and use your spatula to toss and turn your granola before re-forming it into a single layer and returning the tray to your air fryer. Cook the granola for another 2-5 minutes. If your air fryer has a light feature to watch your granola, use this to watch out for burning nuts. If your granola overcooks, it can become dark very quickly. When done, remove the granola from your air fryer, toss once more with a spatula, and let the granola cool completely before enjoying with the cucumber sandwiches. Each serving includes 1 piece cucumber sandwich and 1 ½ ounce granola.