Spicy Pineapple Bites (Vegan!)

My siblings and I are really involved in our local Indian cultural scene. We have dance practices for some event or another almost every week, and the rehearsal is at a different house every week. After the hours of dancing and directing, everyone wants something satisfying and filling to eat. 

Normally, whenever the practices are at our house, my mom will prepare a few (dozen) snacks, such as fruits or cookies. However, she had the wonderful idea today of making some finger sandwiches--or bites, as I've dubbed them here--as today's practice was going to run fairly late. 

We came up with this interesting flavor combination, and were pretty wary of what the others' reactions were going to be to our strange snack. Luckily, everyone LOVED them! Everyone asked us for the recipe, as it was such an easy and unique dish. So, I thought I'd share the recipe here, as simple as it may be.  

(Regarding the photos... I'm clearly still working on those!)

Ingredients:

***Use these measurements to make a dish with 20 servings***

• 1 loaf of firm sliced bread
• 10 walnuts
• 1 cup pineapple chunks
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper 
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 package of (vegan) cream cheese 
• 1 teaspoon of Sriracha Sauce (or however much you can handle!)
• Optional: 1 teaspoon of sugar, only if your pineapple is on the bitter/sour side

Method:

1. Put loaf of bread in freezer to keep its density.
2. Crush or grind walnuts until they are a little denser than powder.
3. In a bowl, mix the pineapple (with optional sugar,) salt, and pepper. If you want a creamier, more sauce-like filling, you can put this mixture into a food processor or blender on pulse until a paste forms.
4. Add cream cheese package and Sriracha sauce to pineapple mixture, and mix thoroughly. 
5. Fold crushed walnuts into the mixture.
6. Get bread out of freezer. Optionally, cut off the crusts of the bread for presentation, if you would like.
7. Spread the mixture onto the slices of bread, and cover with other slices to make sandwiches.
8. Cut sandwiches into fourths, to make bite-sized delights.
9. Put bites into refrigerator for at least an hour, and serve chilled (and with some Sriracha sauce for dipping!)

Came across this awesome mortar and pestle my mom had, so I destroyed the walnuts with this instead of a food processor.

The consistency my mom wanted our pineapple/salt/pepper mixture to be... it was surprisingly dense in the end!

The spread in the end... please trust me, it's a LOT more appetizing than it looks here! And you can totally use this spread for more than just on bread. It would be great as a veggie or chip dip!

My mom and I served these bites to about 15 people... the bites were all gone in less than 5 minutes!


Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Did you try this recipe out?
Please let me know in the comments!