Fancy schmancy…that’s me alright! Well not really, but I felt slightly fancy when I ate this sandwich. Here’s the deal, this week I had some fresh beets staring me down in my refrigerator and I wanted to find something fun to do with them. A couple of years back, I featured 3 different beet recipes, so I was anxious to find another creative take on beets. I’m sure you can imagine when I found a post for a Beet, Arugula and Goat Cheese Sandwich I didn’t look back. I mean, come on, there’s goat cheese!
So think of this really as a fancified grilled cheese sandwich. The most time-intensive part of this recipe was dealing with the beets. I HIGHLY recommend getting a dark cutting board if you don’t already have one. Beet juice easily stains things, so the dark board is very helpful. It’s up to you how you want to cook your beets. I found roasting them whole was the easiest way. The skin peels off surprisingly easily. Then slice up the beets you want to use and fry them in some sherry, white wine, or even balsamic vinegar to give them some extra umph!
After that it’s a matter of putting together the sandwich. I grabbed some French bread and sliced it up. Next I buttered one side of each slice. Then for each sandwich, I piled some arugula and baby spinach on the non-buttered side followed by a few dollops of goat cheese. Then I put about 3-4 beet slices on top. (Side note, my bread wasn’t huge so I made two small sandwiches. If you have larger bread, you’ll definitely want to pile on more arugula and beets than I did.) Finally I smother the other slice with goat cheese and press the sandwich together. Then fry it up over medium heat until the crusts are nice and brown.
I was a bit worried that there wouldn’t be enough texture or flavor to make this grilled cheese tasty, but I was wrong. The crispy crust and combo of the rich cheese, smooth beets, and spicy greens worked great together. On one sandwich I added some balsamic vinegar to the arugula and spinach before grilling the sandwich. To be honest, I couldn’t even tell which sandwich I added it to, so next time I’d probably skip that step. The end result, however, was really good! You could serve it with some chips, a side salad, pick your poison!
I gotta say this was a great way to eat beets, and I’m really looking forward to enjoying it again in the near future! Click here for the recipe and step by step directions…Enjoy!
A look back:
One year ago: Baked Potatoes with Sausage and Spinach Sauce
Two years ago: Banana Bread…The Only Option
Three years ago: My New Favorite Soup…Chicken Tortilla Soup
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