A new take on a familiar favorite pairs grilled cheese with a BLT for a luscious veggie-packed sandwich that feels like an indulgence. Serve with zesty dill pickle spears. If you have extra room in your budget, pair with a sweet-tart hard cider.

Grown-Up Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Cooking spray

vertically sliced red onion

garlic clove, minced

(4 ounces) shredded reduced-fat sharp white cheddar cheese (such

(1 1/2-ounce) slices hearty white bread (such as Pepperidge Farm)

spinach leaves

tomato

bacon,

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1 cup onion and garlic; cook for 10 minutes or until tender and golden brown, stirring occasionally.


Sprinkle 2 tablespoons cheese over each of 4 bread slices. Top each slice with 1/2 cup spinach, 2 tomato slices, 2 tablespoons onion mixture, and 1 1/2 bacon slices. Sprinkle each with 2 tablespoons cheese; top with the remaining 4 bread slices.


Heat skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Place sandwiches in pan, and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown and cheese melts.


 Made these for a quick dinner and it tasted great. I will increase the amount of cheese next time and put it on both pieces of bread so everything sticks together when flipping and eating. 

Pretty tasty.  We used our panini press and it went together in only a couple of minutes.  One could easily substitute any cheese or bread choice here.

Haven't tried this, but my question is; where are all the carbs coming from? It seems pretty high for this.  Thanks!

Love it!!!  This was one of the best sandwiches I have ever made!!  I used Trader Joe's sourdough bread, added a touch of dijon mustard, and added the spinach to the onion mixture after it was cooked.  My husband is still talking about it.  Served the sandwich with tomato soup for a quick and easy dinner.

I have been making these for several years. They are the best sandwich I have created for my family as of yet. The onions and garlic are delicious, yet mild after cooking, and the tomato brings out the brightness in the sandwich. The only thing I changed was using sour dough bread instead of white. I have requests to make these for friends and family.

Pretty darn good!! I didn't have sharp white cheddar but did have garlic white cheddar. I think I failed in that. A sharper cheese definitely would've been better. I believe I'll try a gruyere next time, for sure. However, the concept of the sammy was perfect!! Loved the tomato, onions, bacon and spinach. I think kid grilled cheeses are in my rear view mirror, nothing but X-rated... ooops, I mean adult grilled cheeses from now on!!

This is a keeper. My family loved it. I served it with tomato soup.

Very good sandwich.  I couln't find center cut bacon so just used regular but it was great.  My kids loved it! I added a fruit salad. Nice summer supper.

Deelish!  The onion/garlic/vermont sharp cheddar is a very flavorful combination.  I didn't alter the recipe at all except to cook the onion and garlic in a little bacon fat as opposed to cooking spray.  Will definitely make again!

Basically made to direction except discarded the bacon fat and cooked the onion in that pan for about 10min then added the garlic and cooked a bit longer -- this got us a bit more bacon flavor in the sandwich.  Used sourdough and very lightly sprayed the outside of the slices with oil, rather than spraying the skillet.  We put a plate atop the sandwiches and kept it there until the flip &amp; that seemed to be enough to weigh them down without squishing them.  Pretty good summer sandwich.  Served with Thomas Keller's gazpacho.  (if we're using raw, we almost always put sliced or chopped onions in water to soak, then drain and repeat -- if you think red onions are too much even when cooked, you might try soaking them first, just a thought)

Quick, easy, filling without that "heavy" feeling.  Switched out the cheddar for smoked gouda, used a sourdough bread, and grilled them in a panini press.  Served with tomato quinoa soup and a cherry lambic.  Great, simple meal.  I also think that maybe a dijon mustard or a pesto spread might add a nice flavor.

This is a keeper. I assembled the sandwich in the pan and let it start cooking as I did. The garlic-onion mixture needed more heat to cook in 10 minutes.

Great as a panini! I have done with a light coating of dijon mustard (besides flavor it helps the cheese stay in place) or with sourdough bread.

These were great. I used a blend of shredded cheese bc i already had in the fridge.  The caramelized onions really add alot of flavor.  Used fresh whole wheat bread from the bakery. Delicious!!

I really liked this recipe a lot.  I didn't have a red onion on hand, so I used yellow -- worked fine for me, as I think red onion is too strong.  But the onions added nice flavor and a bit of crunch.  I also added more tomatoes.  Served with Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup from Pacific Foods.  We had one sandwich leftover, so I just packed it for lunch.  It was even good cold.

I thought these were ok. I ended up not including the onions, because I thought they were too strong with the garlic and didn't compliment the other flavors. I don't think I will make these again.

What a great grilled cheese for meme and papa.  I used wheat bread ~ great.

Very nice change from the typical grilled cheese or BLT for that matter.

These were tasty and easy to make.  I cooked the onion and garlic in a little of the bacon grease and I used whole wheat sunflower bread.  I also used regular (not low fat) sharp chedder and cooked the sandwiches in cast iron with a little butter.  I served the sandwiches with white bean chili and they went great.  They're definitely a keeper in our house.

I agree that this sandwich got messy when all of the ingredients were piled on before the spinach wilted. The flavors were really good though.  This would be much better with a panini press. Next time I make it I will wilt the spinach in with the onion mixture.  Also, sliced cheddar would have been much easier than the shredded, but my store did not carry it in reduced fat.

I really liked this recipe, although I thought they were a little labor intensive for Sunday lunch.  I also thought the addition of a little bit of coarse Dijon mustard would add a little more zing.  Overall, really delicious, and a good way to get a few servings of vegetables in!  I definitely will make it again!

I loved this for all the flavors, however my son didn't like everything in it so I had to modify his.  It was messy as it was piled high in the pan but once the cheese melted it helped to keep it together.

grown-up grilled cheese sandwiches

Servings: 2.5

Author : Jennifer Martinkus

Ingredients

Instructions

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