Good things on toast

This week our toaster has started only toasting on only one side. In a bid to buy less new stuff we are hoping we can fix it. With all things going well might happen in mid 2025. So we are going for the flip technique. We eat a lot of toast.

Breakfast toast gets done in the toaster. But much like (also nothing like) an Italian who won’t drink a cappuccino after 11 am, toast after breakfast moves from the toaster to the stove. Either frying pan (olive oil toast) or griddle (char). Toast that makes it into our lunches or dinners is done on the stove, sometimes in a pan with oil (read high end fried bread) other times on the griddle NO OIL EVER on the griddle. For toast, to top I prefer the char/toast you get in a pan or a griddle and somehow the middle of the bread seems to stay softer as the edges and the face of the bread toasts.

Radish, butter and mint
Mix a little butter with flaky salt and spread on toast as thickly as you dare. Top with sliced radishes, their leaves and some torn mint leaves.

Peas and preserved lemon
Mash or blitz cooked peas with olive oil, Turkish chilli pepper flakes (or dried red chilli) and the chopped rind of a preserved lemon. Top the toast with feta and then the pea mixture.

Avocado on toast, reinvented
Mash an avocado with a squeeze of lemon juice, a teaspoon of red-wine vinegar, a teaspoon of grainy mustard and half a teaspoon of honey or maple syrup, then stir in some chopped dill, season and pile on to toast.

Soft egg and Persian cucumber
Boil an egg for six and a half minutes, then cool under cold running water, peel and slice. Top the toast with egg, olive oil, slices of cucumber, chopped capers and cornichons, a few chopped soft herbs and some lemon zest.

Ricotta, strawberries and basil
Slice a spring onion, squeeze half a lemon over it, then set aside. Spread the toast with ricotta, then top with sliced strawberries, the lemony spring onion, basil leaves and lemon zest.

Turkish greens on toast (click for full recipe)

In Turkey, there is an array of bitter greens and herbs, and for me the wilder and more flavourful they are, the better. I like to leave the stalks on too. If Turkish bread is hard to come by where you are, sourdough or pitta would work here, too.