Vegetarian Croque Madame



A croque monsieur is a French sandwich traditionally made with ham. When an fried egg is added to the top, the croque monsieur becomes a croque madame. I had previously made a vegetarian version of the croque monsieur so I put together this vegetarian, grilled cheese version of the madame for this month.

This is the kind of food that you want to eat as comfort food, the bechamel sauce makes this incredibly rich and the gruyere cheese is also rich.

Ingredients:
Bechamel Sauce: 
-1 tablespoon butter, plus another tablespoon to spread on the bread
-1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
-1/2 cup milk
-1/2 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, grated
-1/8 teaspoon salt & pepper each

Sandwich
-2 slices French loaf
-1 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
-2 tablespoon whole grain mustard
-Chives, minced

To make the Bechamel sauce, melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Add in the flour and stir together for about thirty seconds. Add the milk and stir until a thick sauce forms. Stir in the parmesan cheese as well as the salt and pepper.
To make the grilled cheese, coat two slices of bread in the whole grain mustard.
Top with shredded gruyere cheese.
Brush each outer-side of the bread with butter and grille the sandwich in a skillet until golden brown. 

Place the sandwich on a foil lined baking sheet.
Pour the bechamel sauce over top.

Top with additional gruyere cheese.

Bake at 350 for 5 minutes.
Broil for 5 minutes with the oven door open. 

While the sandwich bakes, fry one egg. 

Serve topped with minced chives

This sandwich was very, very rich. This counted as my lunch and dinner because I was so full from eating the sandwich during lunch, I couldn't eat dinner. This is a good grilled cheese for a winter day comfort food paired with a bowl of tomato soup. The only issue I had with this was that the top piece of bread got a little chewy from having the bechamel sauce layered on top of it (I was disappointed that it didn't stay crispy, but I'm not sure how I would have done anything differently). I would also recommend eating this with a knife and fork!

Comments

  1. I appreciate the pictures, it makes the steps easier recipe to follow.

    ReplyDelete

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