For the last few years there has been an explosion of different gourmet toast recipes. However, it seems like at least 50% of them revolve around an Avocado Toast Recipe and from there is expanded into a multitude of different types of toasts. The latest craze has been sweet potato toasts where the toast is actually a slice of fresh sweet potato, not a dough made with mashed sweet potatoes. Crazy I know, but we now live in a world of mash-ups where anything goes. While I think this has drawn a lot of attention to the creative food world, I also believe in many cases that there is no balance of flavor in a lot of these dishes and they simply become pretty pictures. I make a lot of food every week and whether or not we eat something, give it away, or unfortunately throw it away, my rule has always been that it must taste good. Heck if we only take a taste and eat nothing, it still better taste good. That means every step of the way things are seasoned and what comes out of my oven is exactly what will come out of your oven if you follow my directions!! Ok, food rant over and avocado toast recipe time has begin.
As you can see from the pictures I created 8 different toasts, but don’t tell anyone 2 of them are pretty much the same just different colors. Can you guess which ones those are? For all of the recipes though I used two different types of breads which I picked up from Whole Foods. You can 100% make fresh bread or buy and loaf of bread that you like, it’s all about what you want to do for this portion of the recipe. The two types of bread I used were ciabatta and a 12-grain whole wheat, which honestly was fantastic!
The first recipe is of course an Avocado Toast Recipe on toasted ciabatta bread. My advice to you is to find a nice ripe avocado, not a hard one or it will taste like you know what, and mash it with a fork along with some lemon juice, a dash of cumin, salt and pepper. The acid from the lemon will not only help keep the color of the green avocado but also will enhance the flavor. After we spread the mashed avocado on the toast we topped off with cotija cheese and pomegranate seeds for a nice Latin touch. Super delicious and incredibly easy!
Since I teased you before with the “two recipes being the same,” thing let’s get into that one. If you guessed both have beets but one uses golden beets while the other uses red beets, then you were right! Beets are so easy to cook and are just so good eaten by themselves, with maybe a touch of salt and pepper. I peeled them, sliced them thin and placed them on a spread of lemon whipped ricotta. So simple and so good.
Let’s move on to another really easy toast, besides the avocado toast recipe, which has thinly sliced Bartlett pears over softened crème fraiche with honey, chopped pecans and crumbled blue cheese. If you are looking for an oral explosion of flavor and deliciousness, then look no further than this one. It would be wonderful for an appetizer or dessert, does not matter. This guy was one of my favorites to say the least.
Since we are in the winter months I wanted to use all seasonal ingredients. If you’re familiar with gourmet toasts, then you have inevitably seen berries on toast with some sort of cheese. Sorry, it’s November and fresh berries are long out of season. However all of the things I used are in season and since sweet potatoes are hot I decided to bake some up, then peel and mash and spread it all over toast with crème fraiche and rosemary. This thing was so tasty and honestly was only 5 ingredients. BOMB!!
I’m going to wrap up the last 3 in the last paragraph because they are pretty dang easy, but don’t let that fool you because they are dang good. One is a traditional smoked salmon with whipped cream cheese, sliced cucumber and radish. That’s it, no hassle no nothin’. Next is sautéed spinach with crispy prosciutto bacon and a hard-boiled egg. If you want a killer breakfast every morning, then this fella is for you. Lastly a simple lemon whipped goat cheese with fresh arugula. Tasty and simple.
All of these different gourmet toast recipes and avocado toast recipe are just so good and so easy. The possibilities are endless with gourmet toast recipes and I challenge you to get creative with them! Let me know if you make some will ya? Happy cooking!
- 1 peeled, seeded and mashed avocado
- juice of ½ lemon
- 2 tablespoons of pomegranate seeds
- 1 tablespoon of crumbled cotija cheese
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- 2 toasted slices of gourmet bread
- 2 golden beets
- 2 red beets
- 1 cup of whole milk ricotta
- zest of 1 lemon
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- 2 toasted slices of gourmet bread
- ½ cup of crème fraiche
- 1 thinly sliced Bartlett pear
- 2 tablespoons of chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoons of crumbled blue cheese
- 1 tablespoon on honey
- 2 toasted slices of gourmet bread
- ½ cup of whipped cream cheese
- 2 ounces of smoked salmon slices
- 10 thin cucumber slices
- 10 thin radish slices
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- 2 toasted slices of gourmet bread
- 1 large sweet potato
- ¼ cup of crème fraiche
- 10 rosemary leaves
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- 2 toasted slices of gourmet bread
- ½ teaspoon of olive oil
- 1 packed cup of baby spinach
- 2 crisp cooked prosciutto slices
- 2 hardboiled eggs
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- 2 toasted slices of gourmet bread
- ½ cup of goat cheese
- 1 tablespoons of heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- ½ cup of arugula leaves
- Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
- 2 toasted slices of gourmet bread
- micro greens
- lemon zest
- orange zest
- sliced chives
- crushed red pepper flakes
- Kosher salt
- fresh cracked pepper
- Avocado Toast: combine the avocado, lemon juice and salt and pepper and mix. Spread on the toast and top off with pomegranate seeds, cotija cheese and micro greens.
- Beet Toast: Cut the ends off of the beets and place them in a pan with ½ cup of water and cover in foil. Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes or until tender. Remove the beets and peel, and slice thin.
- Whip the ricotta with the lemon zest, salt and pepper and spread on toast and top off with the sliced beets. Garnish with lemon and orange zest.
- Pear Toast: Spread the crème fraiche on the toast and top off with sliced pears, honey, blue cheese and pecans.
- Salmon Toast: Spread the cream cheese on toast and add on smoked salmon slice with sliced cucumbers, radishes and chives.
- Sweet Potato Toast: Bake the potato at 375° for 60-70 minutes or until soft. Remove the peel and mash with salt and pepper. Spread the mashed sweet potato on toast and add on crème fraiche and rosemary leaves.
- Egg Toast: In a sauté pan over medium-high heat with olive oil add the spinach and sauté until it is slightly wilted. Season with salt and pepper and add it to toast with crisp cooked prosciutto slices and a hard-boiled egg cut in half. Garnish with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes.
- Goat Cheese Toast: Whip the goat cheese with lemon juice, and salt and pepper in a standing mixer with the whisk attachment until light and fluffy. Spread on toast and top off with arugula leaves and lemon zest.