Classic ingredients meet classic bread sandwich. It is love at first sight. A flavor bomb from the black bean paste, creamy deliciousness from the sliced avocado, salty softness from the feta cheese, and crisp sharpness from the red onions… Add some spicy tomato ketchup to that and you have yourself a match made in heaven!
Recipe Inspiration
Beans, believe it or not, are my (Jack’s) favorite food. I developed a true love for all things bean related as I traveled around the world. Along the way, I met many-a-bean prepared in so many delightfully-delicious ways.
While living in Guatemala, I ate black beans, queso fresco (“fresh cheese”) and white bread very often for breakfast. This toastie recipe is inspired by all of those breakfasts, with our own style added to it.
Why We Love It
Are you kidding? This toastie has everything you could want in a meal, comfort food, and/or snack: creamy black beans, creamy avocado, salty feta.
The thicker slices of sourdough bread add some density and flavor that you do not find in your typical toasty, and with this recipe the flavors work well.
Equipment
Toasties do not grow on trees, at least not yet. Until then, you will need some tools to turn your toastie fantasies into reality. For this toastie, here is the specific equipment that we used:
- Tefal: Inicio Grill (Awesome for Toasties and All Grilling Needs)
- Tefal: Ultracompact Sandwich (Dedicated Toastie Maker)
- Tefal: Infiny Force Premium (Hand Mixer Set)
- Silicone Spatula (Any Brand is Fine)
We have spent many hours making, and eating, toasties in our Toastie Lab kitchen. We have some awesome equipment recommendations that you can use to make your very own toasties. Check it out on our Recommended Tools page.
The Vegan Option
The easy way to turn this toastie into a vegan one is to leave out the feta cheese. The avocado and beans go so well together, there’s no need to replace the cheese for anything else.
Make sure your bread and condiments are vegan and enjoy!
Black Beans 101
You can, of course, start from scratch and turn an “easy” toastie into an even fancier lunch bite, by cooking your own beans. The benefit of cooking your own beans is that you can decide how cooked you want them. Especially for a paste, it could be nice to leave them cooking for a tad of extra softness.
Add garlic, onion, herbs and spices to your liking and your Black Bean & Feta & Avocado Toastie will burst with even more flavours. Keep in mind that cooking beans might take a while, though, so plan accordingly.
If you are using canned black beans, you might prefer to rinse them first. The liquidy stuff that comes in a can is known to have excess sodium. Don’t want it? That’s OK, drain and rinse and you can add some oil and/or water to make sure your beans are liquid enough to blend.
If you don’t have anything to blend your beans, you could use a fork to mash ‘m. You could even use the beans as they come – whole. We like the paste because it allows for adding extra flavours and it prevents your toastie from falling to pieces when you’re about to take a bite.
Garnish
Trying to impress someone? Cut your toastie diagonally and place them playfully on top of each other. Add a little bowl with your (homemade?!) sauce or spicy ketchup and drizzle a drop or two of tabasco on the plate. Now, sprinkle some freshly cut coriander around your toastie and your feast is ready.
To Butter or Not to Butter
To your liking, you can start by spreading a thin layer of butter on the outsides of your slices of bread. You don’t need to add a layer of butter to your bread. Most modern equipment has a non-stick coating to prevent your beauty from sticking, but we have to admit that a little bit of butter makes every toastie just-that-little-bit-more comforting.
Alternatively, you could choose to spray or sprinkle some (olive) oil on the sandwich or on the grill. It can make your toastie a little less dry and thus, again, a little nicer 🙂
YouTube Video
Are you a visual learner? Watch us make this recipe in our YouTube video!
Let Us Know What You Think
Tried this recipe? Let us know what you think! Suggestions, variations, or any other things that you would like us to try, are more than welcome. Here at the Toastie Lab, we love to experiment!
Print
Black Bean, Feta and Avocado Toastie
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 5
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 2 1x
Description
Classic ingredients meet classic bread sandwich. It is love at first sight. A flavour bomb from the black bean paste, creamy deliciousness from the sliced avocado, salty softness from the feta cheese, and crisp sharpness from the red onions.
Ingredients
- 130 grams black beans (strained and cooked)
- 150 grams feta cheese (cut in slices)
- 1 avocado (cut in slices)
- 1 small red onion (cut in rings)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tbsp cumin powder
- 4 slices sourdough bread
Instructions
- Taking priorities here. Get your beans, drain them (not too much, a little liquid is nice) and put them in your blender. Add one clove of garlic and a teaspoon of cumin. Some salt tastes nice, too. Now, blend until it is smooth and your bean paste is ready.
- Take your favourite bread. We choose white corn bread for this tasty gem, but seedy breads work well, too. Make sure you defrost your bread if you take it from the freezer!
- Spread a nice layer of your freshly made bean paste on the bread. Yes, on both slices. Yes, be generous! After the bean paste-layer comes the avocado-layer and on top of that the feta-layer. The thinner you can cut your feta, the tastier your toastie will be. Add some of the onion rings and close it off with your second slice of bread.
- The tricky part! Place your toastie in a sandwich grill, toastie-iron or panini-press. Needless to say we need that preheated, yeah? Close ‘m up gently, press softly and let the grills do their magic. After 6-7 minutes your Black Bean, Feta and Avocado Toastie is ready to be taken out of its glowing irons. Now, with a little bit of TLC and a spatula or two, you should be able to do the trick!
- No spicy tomato ketchup handy? Have you looked for tabasco and regular ketchup? You can mix those pretty well to add a nice spice to your toastie. Feeling culinary? Try our home-made salsa recipe for an extra, extra bite!
- Category: Comfort Food, Snack, Lunch
- Method: Grilled
- Cuisine: Fusion
Keywords: Toastie, Toasted Sandwich, Panini, Healthy Sandwich, Comfort Food, Lunch, Snack
