Friday, November 15, 2013

Spinach and Artichoke Panini

Grilled cheese is one of my favorite meals. I don’t mean your mama’s grilled cheese with processed American cheese slices on white bread. I mean artisan breads, fancy cheeses, and a variety of veggies stacked together and grilled to gooey perfection. Going vegan means no more grilled cheese because vegan “cheese“ is not cheese. *sigh*

No Thanks to Cake had posted a recipe for Chicken, Spinach, and Artichoke Panini that looked amazing. It inspired me to create a vegan version. It’s not quite grilled cheese, but it’s so flavorful I don’t care.

I don’t have a panini press, nor do I have a grill of any sort. However, I remembered reading somewhere that if you’re press-less all is not lost. You can still make panini in a regular skillet using a heavy pot to press it, flip it, and press it again. That’s what I did and it worked. It was crispy on both sides and pressed well enough that it stayed together without cheese to bind it. Sure, it was missing the pretty grill lines, but that’s okay.

I did make the meaty, cheesy version for my family. It was a big hit.

Spinach and Artichoke Panini
(I’m not using quantities. Build your sandwich according to the ratio of veggies you like.)

2 slices of your bread of choice*
Marinated artichoke hearts
Mushrooms, sliced
Fresh Spinach
Tomato slices
Onion slices
Nutritional yeast flakes**
Olive oil cooking spray

1. Sauté mushrooms and onions in a couple spritzes of cooking spray.
2. Once mushrooms and onions are done, build your panini, sprinkling a couple pinches of yeast flakes on your last layer of veggies.
3. Press your panini using whatever method you have available.
4. Enjoy!



*Pro tip: If you don’t want to bring a whole loaf of bread home to tempt yourself with, grab what you need from the individual bread bins. I turned my multigrain roll into panini bread by shaving off the top and bottom crust.

**If you’ve never had it, the taste is reminiscent of grated parmesan cheese.

2 comments:

  1. OMG, that looks delicious!!! You are making me seriously hungry. Yumm!

    ReplyDelete