Recipe: top chef Robert Kranenborg’s famous meatball sandwich

Top chef Robert Kranenborg pays tribute to lunch classics from the truckers’ café. During a one-off restaurant takeover of Bij Marjan, the most popular truckers’ café in the Netherlands, he treated truckers to his Michelin-star-worthy version of the meatball sandwich. And this is how you make it at home.

Kranenborg’s meatball sandwich is called ‘boulette de viande en croute’. The ball is a so-called ‘50/50 ball’, made with fifty percent ground beef and fifty percent mushrooms. Served on an airy croissant bun, with mayonnaise, sweet-and-sour cucumber, a few leaves of butter lettuce and paper-thin sliced red onion. The crispy croissant bun from his recipe comes from a Parisian bakery, but you can also use a regular croissant (and your own version of your favorite meatball).

What you need for Kranenborg-style meatball sandwich

– 1 large croissant, lightly warmed
– 2 leaves of butter lettuce, light green and crisp
– 1 fifty-fifty meatball (50 percent ground beef, 50 percent mushrooms) or a regular meatball
– 2 tablespoons coarse mustard mayonnaise
– 4 half-moons of red onion
– 4 slices of sweet-and-sour cucumber

How to make Kranenborg-style meatball sandwich

1. Wrap a freshly baked or precooked meatball in aluminum foil and warm it in the oven at 140°C for 15 minutes.
2. Warm the croissant lightly in the same oven and carefully cut it exactly in half lengthwise with a serrated knife.
3. Spread the bottom half of the croissant generously with the coarse mustard mayonnaise (mix ⅔ mayonnaise and ⅓ coarse mustard).
4. Then add the 2 leaves of butter lettuce and the sweet-and-sour cucumber slices, followed by the warm meatball, a little more coarse mustard mayo and the paper-thin half-moons of red onion.
5. Place the top half of the croissant on top and serve.

With thanks to Lotto, the initiator of this truckers’ lunch.

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