grilled spinach and goat cheese croissant & ratings

• Fresh Spinach A-
• Goat Cheese A
• Gruyere Cheese B
• Onion B
• Croissant A

with grilled fingerling potatoes

The side dish for the evening…courtesy of the sous chef.

thoughts

This week, I decided that I was going to call AOL’s bluff and see if they really knew grilled cheese sandwiches. I was about to put them to the test. I decided that I was going to follow one of AOL’s recipes that I wrote about in a previous entry. Ever since I started this project, I have been using some sort of traditional bread, bread that comes in loaf form. This week I decided it was time to think outside the box a bit more and use a croissant for the basis of my grilled cheese sandwich. Again, I must say thank you AOL, the croissant was delicious. I had been hesitant to use non-original recipes, but after eating tonight’s sandwich I won’t be.

Oh yummy croissant. How I love thee…

The most interesting part of the sandwich was how AOL suggested that you put the sandwich together. For all of my other sandwiches, I put the cheese on last, on top of all the other ingredients. That is a typical grilled cheese sandwich. However, AOL suggested that I mix the goat cheese in with the spinach and onions. Interesting, huh? I thought so as well.

Browning onions and wilting spinach.

I was instructed to finely chop up the onions, put them in a pan with butter and brown them. Simple enough. Next I added in the mostly dry spinach, cover and cook until it was becoming wilted. Finally, I added in the goat cheese, stirring everything together. That became the basis of my sandwich and let me tell you, it was delicious. I did add some salt to the mixture, prior to putting it on the croissant and I may have actually added too much. That is something I will need to keep in mind in the future, even if I am a fan of salt.

Onion, Spinach, Goat Cheese Mixture

Adding cheese into the ingredients, instead of on top of them, is definitely something I should try again. The goat cheese was a perfect cheese for this type of mixture and sandwich. If you out there in Internet land have any suggestions for other cheeses that would work in a similar situation, please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

The gruyere on top, which could have also been goat cheese, did not melt as much as I would have liked. That may have been partially because of problems with our oven, but I also wonder if gruyere has a higher melting temperature. It did brown, but unfortunately, did not completely melt . It didn’t affect the taste, but it did affect the look which in cooking is a big deal. I will have to play with that in the future.

The sandwich prior to melting.

And the croissant. I love them plain and could eat a few at a sitting. The croissant worked very well with this sandwich and added a nice flaky texture. The croissant was there but allowed the other ingredients to pop as well.  Everything worked very well together and surprisingly, the recipe came from AOL. Whowouldathunkit?!

in closing

I must admit, I was hesitant to use someone else’s recipe. I believed that all of my Sunday Dinners needed to be 100% original. Now that I have tried this recipe, I will become more open to the idea of using outside recipes for inspiration. Overall, this was a great sandwich and definitely one that I would try again. The spinach/cheese mixture on the croissant was delish. I just need to watch my salting and try and melt the gruyere a little more.