Print This Post
Grilled Cheese Croutons — what fun! — dress up a lovely heirloom tomato salad with a lemony vinaigrette that’s sparked with a secret ingredient.
Perfectly ripe and juicy heirloom tomatoes, in all their beautiful summer finery, need very little to bring out their intrinsic glory.
A little salt, a little pepper, and away you go.
That’s the theory behind today’s super simple salad.
Those colorful tomatoes, dressed simply with an olive oil vinaigrette, and made more lunch-like with some grilled cheese croutons. What could be better?
How to make Grilled Cheese Croutons for your Heirloom Tomato Salad
Pick the tomatoes (lucky you if you get to pick them from the yard; still lucky if you can pick them from the farmers market).
Gather the ingredients for croutons, and by croutons, I actually mean grilled cheese sandwiches. But today we’re calling them croutons, because they will sit atop a salad. Let me have my little quirks, OK?
Cut thick slices of challah bread (or use your favorite bread). Cut slabs of Kerrygold Dubliner cheese (or use your favorite). Make sandwiches.
Slap them together and grill in a panini maker until toasted on the outside and melty on the inside.
Let them cool just a bit before cutting into squares for croutons.
Lunch is served! Heirloom Tomato Salad with Grilled Cheese Croutons.
You don’t really need a recipe for this…I trust you to make it to your own liking. But I’ll give you one anyway, because I like to make sure even the most inexperienced cook can be successful. I have great confidence in you…you can do it!
And if you do it, be sure to send me a picture of your creation!
Grilled Cheese Croutons -- what fun! -- dress up a lovely heirloom tomato salad with a lemony vinaigrette that's sparked with a secret ingredient.
Ingredients
- Croutons
- 4 thick slices challah bread (or your favorite)
- Sliced Kerrygold Dubliner cheese (or your favorite)
- Butter (optional)
- .
- Salad
- 4 large heirloom tomatoes
- Meyer Lemon Vanilla Salad Dressing (or your favorite vinaigrette)
Directions
- Make croutons: Assemble 2 sandwiches with cheese in the middle and grill in panini maker until outside is golden and cheese melts. (Some people like to butter the outside of the sandwiches before grilling. I don't, but suit yourself as to your own preference). Remove from grill and allow sandwiches to cool for a couple of minutes, so the cheese doesn't escape when you cut them.
- Make salad: Cut each tomato in half at the equator, and if there are large seed pockets exposed, use your finger to flick out the seeds and mucilaginous stuff and discard it. (I'll wait while you look up mucilaginous.) If the pockets are very small, don't bother. Dice tomatoes and add to 4 flat, wide salad bowls, making sure to get a nice mix of each color tomato in each bowl. Drizzle with vinaigrette.
- Cut the sandwiches into small squares, and poke with a toothpick or a pick. Add crouton picks to the salads.
- Serves 4.
Notes
Recipe source: Dorothy Reinhold | Shockingly Delicious
Note on the cute sandwich picks
See the picks in the photos, which I have used to spear the grilled cheese croutons? I got them from Restaurantware.com, a wonderful resource for a variety of serving ware that can spice up your family table. They have a new emphasis on sustainable, eco-friendly tableware, ranging from paper goods like straws or decorated paper bags to bamboo plates and little cones and “boats” that look cute for salad. The Handmade Red Heart Bamboo Skewers are 1,000 to a box, for $79.99. They’re 4.75 inches tall. They lend a little romantic air to a dish, and I have a few tucked away for Valentine’s Day, our anniversary, and other similar occasions. How about for a wedding, too? They’d go well spearing a little fruit kebab, or deconstructed caprese salad on a skewer, right? Let your imagination run a little wild on how to use these.
Looking for more sandwiches?
French Ham and Butter Sandwich
Hatch Chile Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Disclosure: Kerrygold sent the cheese for recipe development. Restaurantware.com sent the picks.
Thanks for visiting…are you hungry for more? Follow Shockingly Delicious on…
FACEBOOK | PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER
…for all the latest recipes, ideas and updates!
This post may contain affiliate/referral links. It is a way for this site to earn advertising fees (at no cost to you) by advertising or linking to certain products and/or services that I approve and prefer. Thank you for using my affiliate link to shop, so I can continue to bring you shockingly delicious recipes!
Welcome to my kitchen!
At ShockD, you’ll find scrumptious, tried & true, "scary good" recipes, tips and coaching to make YOU a fabulous home cook! Don't blame me if you need a 12-step program to wean yourself away!
E-mail me: Dorothy.Reinhold@gmail.com
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Next Comments →
Beautiful! Love the grilled cheese croutons. 🙂
Thank you Susan!
Dorothy, what a delicious lunch! Do you deliver? I have great memories eating the fresh, warm tomatoes from my grandfather’s garden when I was little – can’t wait until ours are ready this year!
And those skewers, I haven’t seen anything like them!
Lynne,
Thank you! The skewers are so fun!
what a FUN salad! I am loving the heirlooms right now, oh so good. these croutons are great!
Kristina,
The heirloom tomatoes….so, so great.
This is genius! Why haven’t I thought of this! I LOVE this idea–what a fun twist on both the sandwich AND the salad! Can’t wait to try this out!
Dee Dee,
I felt the same way…why had I never thought of that before? D’oh…
I’ve never used the word “cute” to describe croutons… but these are so stinkin’ cute!!! 🙂
Liz,
They ARE! STINKIN’ DARLIN’ croutons!
This is such a fun appetizer or kid snack idea! I just love those grilled cheese croutons. I will have lots of tomatoes hopefully coming this summer, so I am going to try this for my son!
Julia,
Snap a pic and show me what YOURS looks like!
I am so ready for some heirloom tomatoes this summer, but I got to the farmer’s market too late last weekend. Shoot. I love this recipe, Dorothy! I could see serving it as a party appetizer, maybe in individual cups or mason jars.
Lori,
Love the individual servings idea!
I love the croutons! And thanks for adding to my vocabulary.
Shelby,
Ha! It’s not exactly a food word, eh?
Haha, your “croutons” are super cute and so clever! 🙂 Love the presentation too, Dorothy!
Thank you Alice!
This is awesome! Heirlooms are just coming into season where I live (still a tad mushy – boo) so I’m really looking forward to using them in a few more weeks! I’ll have to try this adorable lunch salad!
Julie,
Here they’ll be even better come August/Sept. Cannot wait!
Simple tomato salads are the best–but adding grilled cheese croutons–this is killer good!!
Kristen,
I don’t know why this simple idea didn’t occur to me earlier. D’oh…
The croutons are such a great idea! Did you really have to buy 1,000 picks?! What are you going to do with the rest of them :)?
Sara,
I probably have about 100. I agree, 1,000 would be A LOT! Unless you owned a catering biz or a restaurant, in which case you would whip through them.
I love those little croutons, but I’d probably not get them all the way cut up before I ate them all.
Michelle,
I did feel that I had to eat all the little ugly end pieces, lest they ruin my photo. 🙂
This is so cute and a great way to encourage kids to eat their veggies! Personally, I would not want to share it with my daughter because it looks THAT good, haha. But I guess I could share a little…
Thank you Kacey. Make 2 bowls!
This looks delicious, perfect for summer gatherings!
Thank you Florian!
Oh @Melaniemakes, thank you so much!
RecipeGirl,
Thank you!
Barb,
I know the feeling. It is hard to keep away from the heirlooms…