Fitness enthusiasts are now trying bell pepper sandwich without bread. (Source: idaho.louisiana/Instagram)

With people taking to cooking at home instead of ordering in amid the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of new food trends have emerged in the past few months, from pizza cereals, froggy bread to island cake.

Among these trends is a kind of sandwich that recently went viral on social media, except it does not need bread. Food enthusiasts recently came up with what they claim to be a healthy version of the dish called bell pepper sandwich in which sliced bell pepper substitutes bread. Take a look:

How to make bell pepper sandwich

In this sandwich, you can use two slices of bell pepper or make an open sandwich with a single slice. The filling can contain meat, cheese, and vegetables of your choice.

Bell pepper sandwich is being deemed healthy as it is Keto-friendly — it omits carbohydrates present in the bread and replaces it with a vegetable. Some nutritionists have also pointed out how the sandwich is an easy way to cut down on calories. Some other experts, however, pointed out that the dish is nothing but a small salad. Fitness blogger Lucy Mountain, for instance, shared a picture on Instagram and captioned it, “There isn’t anything inherently wrong with pepper, tomato, cheese and chicken. But combining them and calling them a bl**dy sandwich implies bread needs a substitute because it’s ‘bad’. And it is really really really not.”

View this post on Instagram

That thing of the left? You might recognise it from your explore feed – it’s certainly been all over mine. And I’ll admit it – it’s cute. My heart is not made entirely of stone. ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ But when it comes to food, particularly creations which are quite CLEARLY rooted in diet culture, I’m a huge fan of calling it what it bloody is. ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ And that, my friend, is not a fucking sandwich. ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ It’s a very tiny salad. ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ Without dressing, at that. The audacity. ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ ‘But these names are just for fun !’ ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ Okay cool. Maybe they are. But the problem often isn’t the actual foods themselves – but the implications of these ‘substitutes’. ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ For example; ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ There isn’t anything inherently wrong with cauliflower. It’s great. But ‘cauliflower rice’ implies rice needs a substitute because it’s ‘bad’. (It’s not.) ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ There isn’t anything inherently wrong with courgette. It’s also great. But ‘courghetti’ implies spaghetti needs a substitute because it’s ‘bad’. (It’s also not.) ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ There isn’t anything inherently wrong with pepper, tomato, cheese and chicken. But combining them and calling them a bloody sandwich implies bread needs a substitute because its ‘bad’. ⠀ ⁠⠀⁠⠀ And it’s really, really, really not. So yeah. It’s fine to enjoy trends or cute recipes. But if I see diet culture trying to kid you into thinking a fucking green pepper is the same as bread I’ll lose my tiny mind thank u xo

A post shared by lucy (@lucymountain) on Jun 15, 2020 at 9:53am PDT

A while ago, popular chef Gordon Ramsay also criticised the concept in a TikTok video. “No, that is not a low-carb sandwich…that is an idiot sandwich, right there,” he said, as quoted by businessinsider.in.

Read| This fluffy, colourful ‘cloud bread’ is the latest food trend; try the easy recipe

Would you like to try this sandwich?

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