There’s a reason why cheese toasties have become a staple for Saturday lunchtimes with the family; they’re quick to make, plus they’re carby and comforting. But if you want to boost the nutritional profile of your toasties, we suggest swapping your go-to loaf for sourdough. This is because the fermentation process involved in making sourdough bread leads to higher levels of folate and antioxidants than in standard loaves. We’ve added some mushrooms into our toasties, too, as they’re a vegetarian source of protein and vitamin D, which most of us Brits struggle to get adequate amounts of over the winter months. Try the recipe for lunch this weekend with a lick of homemade pesto for good measure – you won’t be disappointed.
Serves 4
For the pesto:
1 garlic clove, peeled
30g vegetarian hard cheese
50g pine nuts, toasted
50g basil
100ml extra virgin olive oil
For the toasties:
2 tbsp olive oil
500g chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced
8 thick slices of sourdough
2 mozzarella balls, sliced
1 Place the garlic clove and hard cheese in a food processor and blitz. Tip in the toasted pine nuts and blitz again, until roughly chopped. Next, add in the basil and blitz again briefly, ensuring that the pesto remains slightly chunky. Drizzle over the olive oil, season with a little salt and stir everything together. Set to one side.
2 Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan and tip in the sliced mushrooms and a little salt. Cook the mushrooms on a high heat until golden.
3 Spread 4 slices of sourdough with the homemade pesto and layer the mushrooms and mozzarella slices on top. Sandwich the stacked ingredients together with the remaining sourdough slices.
4 Heat the remaining olive oil in a large pan and carefully place the sandwiches in, side by side. Cook on a medium heat for 3-4 minutes or until the bottom of the bread is golden. Carefully flip each sandwich and fry on the other side for a further 3-4 minutes. Once the sandwiches are golden brown and the cheese has melted, remove from the pan, slice in half and serve immediately.