Kicking Avocado Toast Up a Notch!

Winter has finally arrived and to be honest, I really am in the dumps about it.  The beautiful leaves have fallen off of the trees and the Appalachian Mountains are starting to look dull and grey.  Because of this, I too am starting to feel a little grey.

One of the best ways to get out of a slump is to eat healthy and foods that are full of nutrients to make you feel better.  My go to food is always avocado toast.  It is something that I actually have not eaten in quite sometime and I found myself wanting it. Not wanting to go to the grocery store and wanting to be a little more inventive, I raided my kitchen and was able to throw together a perfect avocado toast that kept me full for the rest of the day.

One of the most crucial parts to making a great avocado toast is having really good bread.  Thus, I always make sure that I have some fresh locally baked bread from the bakery in addition to avocados in my house.  I was also able to find some bread cheese, an ingredient that I used in the post Playing Around With the Classics.  With these few ingredients in addition to some fresh tomatoes and garlic, this avocado toast turned into a meal worth having! Recipe is as follows.

Avocado Toast with Grilled Bread Cheese, Sautéed Tomatoes, and Balsamic Glaze

2 slices of artisanal bread, toasted

1 avocado, peeled and pitted

1 cup of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed

4 slices of bread cheese, grilled on all sides

2 Tablespoons balsamic glaze

2 teaspoons hemp seeds

salt and pepper to taste

In a small skillet, grill the bread cheese on high until all sides are browned and crispy.  In another small skillet, heat up the olive oil over medium high heat and add garlic.  Sauté garlic until fragrant and add the tomatoes.  Reduce heat to medium low and cook until the tomatoes begin to soften and season with salt and pepper.  Meanwhile, toast your bread and smooth one half of avocado on each piece of toast.  Evenly split the bread cheese on each piece of toast and top with the sautéed tomatoes.  Then top with balsamic glaze as well as hemp seeds.  Enjoy!

Cook’s Notes: if you cannot find bread cheese, halloumi works just as well.  If both cheeses are unavailable to you, go ahead and use your favorite type of cheese like goat cheese or mozzarella!

xoxo Sarah

November 11, 2015 by Sarah Hoski Categories: Avocado, Easy, Healthy, Lunch Dinner, Recipes, Simple, snack, Tomatoes, VegetarianTags: Avocado, Bread Cheese, Easy, Healthy, Lunch, Recipe, Simple, snack, tomatoes, Vegetarian Leave a comment

Playing Around With the Classics

Ya’ll, let me just tell you, I am OBSESSED with Bread Cheese.  I was lucky to come across this unique cheese the other day when I was walking around Ingles grocery store.  Similar to halloumi, the cheese that I blogged about in my Salty and Sweet blog post, bread cheese is a Finnish squeaky cheese also known as juustoleipä or leipäjuusto. It’s a semi-soft cheese traditionally made with reindeer milk, but several American cheesemakers have adapted the Finnish original to create a pasteurized cow’s milk version that’s commonly known here as bread cheese. When you buy bread cheese at the store, it will already look browned and charred in spots, like it’s been toasted—that’s because baking is indeed part of the bread cheesemaking process.  It is a cheese that is meant to be cooked, thus it is suggested that you heat it up in the toaster oven, microwave, sautéed in a pan, or thrown on the grill. The best part about cooking bread cheese that you do not need extra oil when adding it to a pan or a grill to get a nice sear on it.
Because I have a new found love affair with this cheese, I wanted to share my obsession with you all and make a very classic dish that most people already know about, a caprese salad.  However, I will be using bread cheese instead of mozzarella, adding some avocado, and making a creamy basil dressing, the same one I used in my Stacks on Stacks on Stacks blog post, instead plain basil leaves.  Thus, I have deconstructed the classic Italian salad and made it my own (something that I hope you all start doing with other dishes). Recipe is below!

Deconstructed Caprese Salad with Bread Cheese and a Creamy Basil Dressing

1  whole avocado, sliced

1 whole tomato, sliced

4 1/2 inch slices of bread cheese

Red Pepper flakes (optional)

In a small nonstick skillet, cook bread cheese over medium high heat until browned, about 2 minutes per side. In the meantime, make sure that you have both the avocado and tomatoes already platted.  Once the cheese is ready and has a nice crispy sear on all sides, remove from heat and plate.  If you want to have smaller bites, go ahead and cube the cheese before adding it to the skillet.  Just make sure that you brown it on all sides.

Creaming Basil Dressing

1 cup loosely packed fresh basil
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped shallot
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (I used white balsamic from Trader Joe’s)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Add all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth. Once you have the dressing ready, go ahead and serve it on the side or drizzle it on top. Enjoy!

Even though this post is about bread cheese, I do not want you to think that you have to use this ingredient for this dish.  The whole purpose behind this post was to introduce a different type of ingredient as well as showing how you don’t have to be intimidated by the unknown.  Instead of doing some elaborate dish with bread cheese, I wanted to stick to a classic dish that most people know about and incorporate the cheese into it.  Now get cooking and enjoy!

xoxo Sarah

August 28, 2015 by Sarah Hoski Categories: Avocado, Basil, Cheese, Dinner, Easy, Gluten Free, Healthy, Italian, Recipes, Simple, Tomato, Vegetables, VegetarianTags: Avocado, Basil, Bread Cheese, Cheese, Dinner, Easy, Gluten Free, Healthy, Italian, Recipe, Simple, Tomato, Vegetables, Vegetarian 1 Comment