Blue Cheese, Date and Walnut Pesto Toastie Recipe

Imagine Friday night, you feel like watching a movie, you have your blanket wrapped around you, the skies are grey and it just starts to drizzle. You know that feeling? We have the perfect comfort food recipe to make that evening complete. This Blue Cheese, Date and Walnut Pesto Toastie makes every evening comfortably flavorful. 

Because when you got things between bread in your head…

Recipe Inspiration

The day I ate the most delicious pizza in my life inspired me to make this toastie. It was one of those Friday, comfy couch-hanging, glass of red wine, kinda nights. Stormy night, good friends, delicious food. The pizza I ate that night was covered in blue cheese, dates and walnuts. And so it began… 

Why We Love It

Jack and I are both cheese lovers (duh) and no matter in which corner of the world you can find us, we will find the necessary amount of blue cheese to satisfy our needs.

Dates are one of Jack’s not-so-guilty pleasures and he will eat those like candy. In fact, the bag we bought to make this toastie has been decimated by the time the post is up. 

We both love walnuts as a healthy snack or addition to our meals and adding one to a toastie without having to many big chunks of nuts in it, inspired the “walnut pesto”, which, in fact, isn’t really a pesto because it lacks the basil. By replacing the basil with the walnuts we created a whole new thing that perfectly matches this toastie recipe. 

Another reason we this is such an enjoyable toastie, is because the combination of sweet dates and savory cheese & walnuts is one that makes your mouth water…

Equipment

It might seem like magic, but we, too, need our equipment to make these beauties. Today we have used the following helping “hands”: 

• Tefal: Inicio Grill (Awesome for Toasties and All Grilling Needs)
• Tefal: Ultracompact Sandwich (Dedicated Toastie Maker)
• Tefal: Infiny Force Premium (Hand Mixer Set)

You can see how we made this toastie in our accompanying YouTube video. We have actually done a test and used both sandwich makers to see which one we liked best. Keep reading to find out which one won!

The Meaty Option

This recipe is vegetarian and doesn’t include any meat. For the classical toastie-lovers that would like a piece of meat on their toastie, we recommend using some type of prosciutto. Add it between the cheese and the dates and keep the rest of the recipe the same. 

The Vegan Option

You see we like our options, right?! Haha! 

To the point: you actually could make this recipe an easy vegan one, too. For the pesto, leave out the Parmesan cheese and add a pinch of salt instead. Instead of the cheese, add some mashed pumpkin, or grilled pumpkin slices.

Make sure the bread is vegan and Mother Earth will love you!!

Walnut Pesto

If you don’t feel like making the pesto (which isn’t really an excuse at all, because it actually only takes 2 minutes!), you could use some plain walnuts as well. Make sure to chop ‘m up nicely so that they don’t fall off the toastie when eating. 

Salty Tooth

This recipe combines many different flavors: salty blue cheese, sweet dates, crunchy pesto (not a flavor, I know, it just sounds good. The pesto is savory and garlic-y, I’d say!). There is no need to add any extra salt to the pesto or any other part of this recipe, unless you are making the vegan version and you want to supplement the cheese). 

Grillin’ Styles

Jack and I both have our preferences when it comes to toastie-makers and sandwich-presses, so we do a little test for the recipes we make and we try them both! 

Normally, we think the thicker toasties do better on the grill. Today, we thought the toastie-maker actually won! Even so, there are still pro’s and con’s for both. 

Pro’s of sandwich-press: 

• Crisp and “straight” toastie
• Easy to pile up on ingredients

Con’s of the sandwich-press: 

• As soon as the cheese starts running, it’s gone. 

Pro’s of the toastie-maker: 

• The cheese has nowhere to go, but to stay in the middle where it can melt deliciously… 

Con’s of the toastie-maker: 

• The crusts… Since all the ingredients are pushed inside, the crusts can get a little dry. 
• If you make the toastie to thick, the toastie-maker will push the top slice of bread off the toastie, with disastrous consequences. 

Blue Like the Ocean

Blue cheese really is cheese heaven for cheese lovers. At least, for us. This recipe works well with any kind of blue cheese, but we do recommend going with one that has a lot of extra kick. During the grilling process, a bit of the cheese and flavor can get lost. And since those flavor combo’s are what makes this toastie such a yummy one, you can’t let that happen!!!

Butter

So we put butter on everything. Super Keto, right? If you don’t want to Keto-up on your toastie, leave out the butter. With the oily pesto and creamy cheese, you will have enough juicy substances on them bread slices. 

Here’s actually another little pro for the toastie-maker. It has an awesome non-stick coating, so you really don’t need butter for a crispy toastie!

YouTube Video 

Need us to guide you through the process? No problem, go to our YouTube Channel and watch the video in which we show you how we did it! Also, while you’re at it, get inspired by the other recipes, too! 

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! 

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