Grilled blue cheese sandwiches, coconut carrot spiced soup, kale slaw

Soup, sandwiches and salad are the holy trinity needed to get through winter weeknights. But sometimes you want some variation among those usual suspects, so I tried this trio of recipes from "Grilled Cheese Kitchen," by Heidi Gibson. The book offers up options in each of those three categories, with a bonus section on savory spreads that make such a vital difference between a fine sandwich and a mighty fine sandwich.

While this was a weeknight meal, I freely confess I didn't just whip this up after work. None of these recipes is particularly time consuming, but the sum of it would be too daunting and I would just bail on the idea when faced with doing it all at once. So instead I made the soup and balsamic onion marmalade on a weekend, and mixed up the slaw dressing the night before. Assembling the sandwiches and the salad greenery while the soup heated up was totally doable.

Roast beef and blue cheese grilled cheese sandwiches with balsamic onion marmalade

Adapted from “Grilled Cheese Kitchen” by Heidi Gibson

Butter for spreading on bread, softened

White country or sourdough bread slices

Balsamic onion marmalade (2 T. per sandwich)

Muenster cheese slices (2 per sandwich)

Thinly sliced roast beef (about 3 ounces per sandwich)

Crumbled blue cheese (1½ tablespoon per sandwich)

Method

Heat nonstick skillet or griddle over medium low heat or preheat panini press.

Spread a bit of butter on one side of each piece of bread. Place buttered side face down on a cutting board. Spread the top side with onion marmalade, using 1 tablespoon per slice. Top one of the bread slices you’re using for the bottom layer with a slice of Muenster cheese. Top with beef, then blue cheese. Top with another slice of Muenster cheese and then with the top slice of bread. Two slices of cheese along with blue cheese might seem excessive, but it helps with the structural integrity of the sandwich.

Which brings us to the next bit: Carefully transfer prepared sandwiches to pan or panini press. Cook until bottom is browned, about four minutes and then flip and cook for another 3 minutes or so until the cheese is melted. (In a panini press, just remove when the cheese is melted. Not having to flip them in a pan was very helpful.)

Balsamic onion marmalade

Ingredients

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

2 medium red onions, diced

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup sugar

6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Method

Heat oil over medium low heat in a small saucepan. Add onions, salt and pepper, and cook until onions are soft and translucent. Stir in sugar and cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is reduced. Add vinegar and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring often, until liquid is absorbed and the jam is spreadably thick. Remove from heat and cool. Can be made well ahead. This cooks down quite a bit to make slightly more than a cup, which is enough for several sandwiches.

Rating: Very nice combo of flavors between the balsamic onion marmalade and the blue cheese. We used the roast beef leftover from the sauerbraten, so that probably didn't hurt either. And that marmalade is worth a certain amount of futzing time.

Spiced coconut-carrot soup

Adapted from “Grilled Cheese Kitchen” by Heidi Gibson

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

1 large yellow onion, diced

1½ pounds carrots, peeled and diced

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon dry mustard powder

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup canned coconut milk

½ fresh orange juice

Method

Heat butter in a medium saucepan. Add onions and carrots and cook, stirring often, until the onion is translucent and the carrots have softened a bit.

Add garlic, ginger, curry, coriander and mustard, cooking until fragrant. Mix in stock and coconut milk. Cook about 30 minutes or until carrots are very tender. Remove from heat and stir in orange juice.

Use an immersion blender to puree soup. Or you can use a food processor or blender, but it’s best to let the liquid cool a bit first in that case. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serves 6 as a side dish.

Rating: I expected something called spiced coconut carrot soup with that ingredient list to be a bit spicier and perhaps it would be if I had what the recipe referred to as “Thai-style” coconut milk, something I didn’t find on the local shelves. So possibly this is supposed to be spicier. As it is, it’s a very subtle warmth, but it is tasty. Not too time consuming as soups go.

 

Kale slaw

Adapted from “Grilled Cheese Kitchen” by Heidi Gibson

Ingredients

½ cup Greek yogurt

1/3 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon celery seeds

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ bunch dinosaur kale, washed, tough stems removed and leaves cut into thin strips

¼ head green cabbage, grated or run through a mandolin

½ red bell pepper, seeded and sliced or chopped

½ of a small jicama, peeled and cut into matchsticks

1 cup thinly sliced fennel bulb

Method

Combine yogurt, mayo, lemon juice, vinegar, sugar, celery seed, salt and pepper. Mix well. Can be made a day or so ahead and refrigerated until needed.

Mix kale, cabbage, red pepper, jicama and fennel in a large serving bowl. Mix in dressing a bit at a time, right before serving. I found I didn’t really need all of the dressing and kept it for another use.

Rating: Very much a winter salad, featuring sturdy crops that serve us until spring greens return. The flavors meld together well and complemented the soup and sandwiches nicely. Not sure why the dressing tastes a bit like honey, but it did. Obviously you can mix up whatever salad ingredients you have on hand, but it will take sturdy greens to stand up to the fairly thick dressing without collapsing into mush.