Red Leicester Cheese and Red Onion Toastie

Red Leicester cheese and red onion toastie is served with a simple salad

A toastie is both an incredibly simple and versatile creation. While they can of course be made in dedicated sandwich toasters and probably look better when they are prepared this way, it is just as easy to make them under an overhead grill or broiler. This red cheese and red onion toastie was made from and accompanied by ingredients I already had to hand in the house, so they can also be a great way of using up odds and ends to prevent them from going to waste.

Salad ingredients are variable but here I have used lettuce, tomato and spring onion

Ingredients per Serving

1/2 small cos lettuce
4 or 5 cherry tomatoes
1 spring onion/scallion
2 slices of bread
2oz Red Leicester cheese or similar
2 or 3 slices from half a peeled red onion
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sliced basil leaves to garnish

It's easier to prepare and plate your salad before you make your toastie

Start by preparing your salad. Roughly shred the lettuce leaves, half the tomatoes and slice the spring onion. Season with salt and pepper and mix together. Lay the salad on one half of what will be your serving plate.

Red Leicester cheese and red onion is sliced

Toast one slice of the bread on one side only. Separate the onion slices in to strands and lay them on the untoasted side, followed by the slices of cheese. Toast to melt the cheese and at the same time, toast the second slice of bread on one side.

Red onion is laid on the untoasted side of a slice of bread

Red Leicester cheese is placed on top of the red onion

Season the toastie with black pepper before you place the untoasted side of the second slice of bread down on top of the cheese, pressing lightly to seal, and slice in half diagonally.

Cheese is melted over the onion under the grill or broiler

Plate the toastie with your salad and scatter over the sliced basil immediately before service.

Toastie plated with the salad ready to be garnished and served