Are you craving comfort food, but you want something healthy at the same time? Try this delicious toasted sandwich with goat cheese, beets and a fresh home-made pistachio-mint pesto. This colorful toastie isn’t just a joy for the eye, it will make your taste buds do a happy dance!

Because when you got things between bread in your head…

Recipe Inspiration

It was Christmas Eve, 2018… After having spent years living abroad, it was the first Holiday season celebrated at home, with my loving family. Finally, I could enjoy Christmas in my own comfortable way, with the people I love, and yes… the food!

I could finally prepare the Christmas dinner I had been craving for, after so much time! Of course, there would have to be a little bit of that hippy-flavored touch… so I decided to make a beet carpaccio for this big night’s entree.

Beets, cut in slices, mint-pistachio pesto, crumbled goat cheese, and oh lord… success guaranteed! And well, then the Toastie Lab happened and I figured this recipe would work perfectly on a toasted sandwich. Pretty fancy toastie, right?

Why We Love It

You might think that toasties or grilled cheese sandwiches aren’t high on the healthy food lists. Well, in our opinion, that really depends on what you make of it!

We consider this toastie somewhat of a light version of a grilled sandwich. Beets are good, goat cheese is a protein-rich and nutritious type of cheese, and this mint-pistachio pesto is perfectly guilt-free!

Equipment

We knew this toastie was going to be a big one, so we didn’t try using the classic toastie-maker. Instead, we went straight for the pro’s equipment and we used our favorite grill to give this toastie the crunchy grill it deserved. We also used a blender to make the pesto.

Tefal: Inicio Grill (Awesome for Toasties and All Grilling Needs)
Blender Tefal: Infiny Force Premium (Hand Mixer Set)
Spatula (Any Brand is Fine)

Feel the Beet

Oooooooooh we looooooooooooove beets! Healthy, delicious, versatile, easy, everything you need is in this yummy little veggie. When uncooked, beets have an earthy taste and are perfect for this rainy, yukky fall weather.

However, when they are cooked, grilled or roasted, beets get a naturally sweet taste to them and, well… honestly, they’re even yummier! You can find fresh beets from summer through fall.

We felt like taking it easy today, so we went for the jar-option. Here’s a little secret: beets from a jar are slightly sweetened, which makes them perfect for this recipe. If you want to go more natural, cook your own beets to your liking. You could even use raw beets, as beets are perfectly edible without cooking.

The easy-natural option: check your local supermarket for cooked organic beets. We have seen these more and more in the stores around us, and it really is the best option!

Careful, beets (and their juice) stainnnnnn. Better to be a little cautious when cooking with beets!

Goat Cheese

As you fellow-cheese lovers might know: goat cheese comes in many shapes and sizes. For this recipe, we recommend using a soft, crumbly goat cheese. Not those Gouda shaped ones, but the softer ones.

We find that this type of goat cheese is A) easier to spread on the bread, and B) has a bit more of a kick to it: complementing the other flavor bombs of this toastie.

Also, goat cheese is packed with healthy fats, tons of vitamins and will leave you more filling than other types of cheeses.

According to this Healthline article, goat cheese is also lower in lactose, easier to digest and can even reduce inflammation!

Flavor Bomb

Goat cheese has a unique flavor, yet it is fresh, lemon is sour and fresh, mint is soft and fresh, pistachios are crunchy and savory… the beets are sweet and earthy… sooo many flavors in this toastie!!! We mean it when we say your taste buds will make a happy dance.

A flavor explosion, it will be, promise you, we will!

If you don’t like the sour taste of the lime, just cut down by half of the lime juice. It will take away slightly the bomba effect that just promised you above, but hey! Judge Free Zone here!

Colorcoded

Did you see the photos? We didn’t want to tear into this toastie because it looked so pretty. Pink/purple and green! Our favorite colors!!! And that on a toasted sandwich… We couldn’t have asked for more!!!

Pro Tip

Practise makes perfect: We discovered (as a general toastie rule of thumb) that toasties are just better when the cheese is the top layer of the sandwich (that is before the bread of course). See the difference:

Goat Cheese on Bottom.
Goat Cheese on Top

Pistachios

Don’t forget to take them out of their little shell! Did you know that the shells are great for doing arts and crafts? People make some really fun things with them! Check out this video for example!!

Check to see if the pistachios you have are salted or not. If not, you might want to add some more salt to the pesto.

Sauce

Beets actually go really well with ketchup, if you’re the kind of person that can’t eat a toastie without ketchup A) you might be Jack’s soulmate, and B) go ahead and add some ketchup on the side!

Feeling Creative?

The colors of this toastie already make it a joy for the eyes, but there’s definitely more you can do if you want to impress your fellow-toastie-lovers! You can highlight the greens with some lime zest, mint leaves, crushed pistachios…

YouTube Video

Don’t believe what you’ve read, yet? Check out our YouTube video and you will see that perfection exists!

Sandwich Grill Vs. Toastie-Maker

If you don’t have a (un)fancy grill handy, don’t sweat it! You will be able to make this toastie in a toastie-maker. Just make sure to add a thin layer of beets so that it doesn’t all fall apart when you try to toast it.

Also, make sure to push back the bread when you close the iron: because of the beats the toastie might slip. We don’t want that to happen!

Let Us Know What You Think

Suggestions? Recommendations? Want to share the love? Reach out to us! We love to hear what you think of this recipe and we definitely like to see more people doing some experimentoasting!

If you have any ideas for a toastie recipe that your would like us to make, let us know that, too. We love to try all varieties of toasties… like, all of them! If we choose your toastie idea we will give you a shout out in our articles and YouTube videos.

Goat Cheese, Beet and Pistachio-Mint Pesto Toastie Recipe

Author: Toastie Lab
Prep Time: 5
Cook Time: 5
Total Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 2 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Scale

Ingredients

4 slices of multigrain bread

50 grams of goat cheese
1 beet, peeled, cooked and cut in slices
2 handfuls of fresh mint leaves
2 handfuls of pistachios (taken out of their shell)
2 cloves of garlic
Juice of half a lime
Olive oil (extra virgin)

Instructions

Put the pistachios (without shell), oil, and lime juice in a blender. Mix for about 1 minute. Add the mint. Mix again. If needed, add some salt to taste.
Take two slices of bread and butter them on the outside. This is optional – though recommended 🙂
Flip the bread.
Spread plenty of goat cheese on one slice. Spread plenty of pesto on the other side.
Put a layer of beets on the pesto-slice. Put another layer on top of that one if you feel like it 😉 If you’re using a toastie-iron, be aware not to overdo any of the beet-layering. If you’re using a grill however, there’s no limit.
Put the goat cheese-slice on top of the other slice. This is important for aesthetic purposes! Your toastie will look a thousand times nicer this way! 🙂
Place in the grill. Grill for 4-5 minutes (depending on your grill, of course) or when it looks about done.
Take out carefully, cut diagonally and enjoy!

Notes

Bread Tip: Multigrain, dark, seedy, nutty, bread. Something healthy.
Sauce Tip: Extra pistachio-mint pesto 🙂

Category: Comfort Food, Healthy, Lunch, Snack, Vegetarian
Method: Toasted Sandwich
Cuisine: Fusion

Keywords: Vegetarian, Goat Cheese, Beet, Pistachio-Mint Pesto, Comfort Food, Lunch, Snack