Categories: Food

Summer Toast

I call this summer toast. It’s the result of a couple things in my life colliding into a really good lunch option. Here’s what we’re looking at. Slices of homemade sourdough bread rubbed with olive oil are broiled until golden and toasted. Each slice is smeared with Greek yogurt that has been absolutely loaded with grated zucchini and carrots, toasted walnuts, smashed garlic, and herbs. Tons of good stuff. The finishing touch comes from a scan of my late-summer refrigerator which always has roasted cherry tomatoes, olives, and basil. It’s the perfect easy lunch.

The Inspiration: Summer Toast

There have been some amazing cookbook releases this year and I’ve been cooking regularly from a short stack of them. One of my absolute favorites has been Sebze: Vegetarian Recipes from My Turkish Kitchen by Ozlem Warren. I checked it out from the library, then immediately bought my own copy. There’s a yogurt-based meze she shares on page 102, where she loads yogurt with sautéed vegetables, herbs and nuts. It is fantastic, no notes. But as the temperature kept climbing here in LA, I started doing a version of it with raw, shredded zucchini and carrots (or whatever else I need to use up).

I make it on the weekend, and use it smeared on, in, and under all sorts of things all week. It dovetails with my baking a couple loaves of sourdough each week (even when it’s hot omg) for the A+ combo you see here. For the sourdough geeks, the bread pictured is 20% whole wheat flour, 30% high-extraction flour, 50% bread flour with wild rice, toasted walnuts, and lots of lemon zest folded in.

Pro-tip

The one piece of advice I have here is to use a box grater, or something similar. Skip the microplanes for grating the zucchini and carrots. Old school for the win here because you end up with hearty, well defined flecks of vegetables. I have a flat, wooden Japanese grater that is a dream to use, so keep your eyes peeled for one of those.

An Alternative to Avocado Toast

As much as I love avocado toast, this is a nice, substantial alternative. For the vegans out there, use a dairy-free yogurt. Or, for a brunch, you could set up a toast bar with this and avocado, and a few other spreads and compound butters.