This garlic bread grilled cheese is the ultimate garlicky sandwich recipe. This easy lunch recipe is made with Toum, a lebanese garlic dip, sourdough bread, and havarti.
Why You'll Love it
If you're looking to elevate your grilled cheese game, swapping out butter for toum could be the game-changer you never knew you needed!
Toum is a Lebanese garlic sauce that is out of control delicoius. This tasty condiment brings a whole new dimension of flavor and creaminess to this classic comfort food.
Sure, mayo and butter are always the go-tos while making a grilled cheese, but this lebanese garlic spread really turns up the flavor.
I also love that the creamy texture of toum makes each bite even more creamy and decadently rich and satisfying.
You can either make the toum yourself using my friend The Lemon Bowl's recipe. Or you can buy TOOM at your local grocery store! I love this spread so much and they make a ton of flavors that make it even more exciting.
You also might have seen my Cava inspired Garlic Dressing recipe which is inspired by this tasty dip!
One thing to note: Since toum is made of mostly garlic, it has a tendency to burn. To avoid this, just make sure to cook the sandwich slow and low!
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Bread: I'm using sourdough bread but you could use white bread, wheat bread, rye bread, or even a roasted garlic bread. The world is your oyster - as long as you can slice it, you can grill it.
- Cheese: Havarti is my cheese of choice for a grilled cheese these days but there are tons of options. Some of my favorites are sharp cheddar cheese, white cheddar, pepperjack muenster, swiss or another easily meltable semi-firm cheese. I also recommend shredding the cheese as it melts better this way. But if you have cheese slices, that's fine, too!
- Toum: Toum is my secret ingredient for making this garlic bread grilled cheese. You can make it yourself with my friend The Lemon Bowl's toum recipe. Or you could buy Toom at the grocery store. It's one of my favorite garlic dips to have on hand and it makes the best grilled cheese. Or if you had some of my Cava Garlic Dressing on hand, you could use that, too! And if you wanted to make it without the garlic sauce, you could always just use salted butter and a few shakes of garlic salt.
Detailed Instructions
Making this garlic bread grilled cheese with toum is a total breeze!
Build the Sandwich: Smear half of the toum on two slices of bread. Add cheese on top of one of them then add the other piece of bread, sauce down, on top. Smear the top of the sandwich with half of the remaining toum.
Cook the Sandwich Slow & Low: Place the toum smeared side of the sandwich down on a frying pan over low heat. Since the garlic spread is mostly garlic, you have to cook it at a much lower heat because it can burn pretty quickly. While the one side is cooking, smear the remaining side with the rest of the toum. Cook for a few minutes on each side until golden brown and the cheese has melted - making sure to cook slow and low so the Toum spread doesn’t burn.
Rest & Serve: Once the sandwich is done, remove it from the heat and let it rest for one minute before serving.
What sides go with a grilled cheese?
I love serving this garlic bread grilled cheese with some of these tasty side dishes:
- The Best Easy Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup Recipe
- Shaved Carrot Salad with Cranberries & Feta
- Easy Greek Appetizer Platter (Mediterranean Mezze Spread)
- The Best Crunchy Coleslaw Recipe (for BBQ Pulled Pork)
- Southern Cornbread Salad Recipe with Herby Buttermilk Lime Dressing
- Perfect Pasta Salad Recipes
Recipe
Garlic Bread Grilled Cheese with Toum
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 slices Sourdough Bread
- 2 tablespoon Toum or use TOOM Original Garlic Dip for a shortcut
- ½ cup Havarti Cheese shredded (or another one of your fav cheesy easy melters)
Instructions
- Smear half of the toum on two slices of bread. Add cheese on top of one of them then add the other piece of bread, sauce down, on top.
- Smear the top of the sandwich with half of the remaining toum then place that side down on a frying pan over low heat.
- While the one side is cooking, smear the remaining side of the sandwich with the rest of the toum. Cook for a few minutes on each side until golden brown and the cheese has melted - making sure to cook slow and low so the garlic spread doesn’t burn.
- Once the sandwich is done, remove it from the heat and let it rest for one minute before serving.
