Goat Cheese Apricot Panini

This goat cheese apricot panini is a delicious alternative to a standard grilled cheese. If you’re getting bored of having the same lunches every week this is a great recipe for you to try.

The panini is topped with goat’s cheese, toasted walnuts and apricot jam and flavoured with honey, thyme and chilli. This creates a perfect, crispy toasted panini with gooey sharp goat’s cheese melting out. The sharpness of the cheese is beautifully balanced by the sweetness of the apricot jam and honey to create a delightfully delicious sandwich.

Inspiration for this recipe

This recipe is inspired by a delicious panini I ate whilst I was in Madrid recently. The restaurant, called Plenti, served a range of breakfast and brunch options including toasts, baked eggs, granola bowls and cakes. We tried two of the baked egg options and the goat’s cheese, walnut and apricot toast and they were all absolutely delicious.

This café was just a couple of minutes from the Prado museum and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Madrid. My version of their toast is very similar, I have added honey for extra sweetness and some chilli flakes to cut through this sugary taste.

Goat cheese apricot panini: ingredients

This panini has just 7 ingredients:

• panini, or bread of your choice
• walnuts
• goat’s cheese
• apricot jam
• thyme
• honey
• chilli flakes

Bread

With the panini I used a simple panini I found in the bakery section of Tesco. These cost me just £1.20 for 4 and worked perfectly in this recipe. Many types of bread, however, would work well with the fillings. My second choice would be to use white sourdough bread.

Goat cheese

I love all cheese and goat’s cheese is no exception. I used Tesco Finest goat’s cheese which was delicious. Any good quality, soft goat’s cheese would taste lovely with the other ingredients.

Walnuts

It is a well known fact that walnuts pair amazingly with cheese, especially goat’s cheese. I toasted my walnuts as this greatly improves their flavour and texture. Alternatively, you could roast the walnuts in the oven for 5 minutes for an even better flavour. I, however, toasted mine simply because it is quicker and uses less energy.

Honey and jam

Apricot is another flavour which pairs wonderfully with walnuts and goat’s cheese. When I made this panini for the first time I decided the balance between sweet and savoury was a little off. For this reason I added honey. This makes the panini clearly on the sweet side of the spectrum which, in my opinion, is the correct side to be on.

Flavours

I chose to flavour the panini with thyme and chilli. Thyme is an excellent choice as it increases the flavour complexity of the panini without being overpowering. The chilli, alternatively, helps to cut through the sweetness of the honey and apricot jam. If you prefer, feel free to use some fresh thyme and fresh chopped red chilli.

Goat cheese panini recipe: similar recipes

If you liked this recipe why not try my pesto and mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich with roasted peppers and tomatoes? For more cheesy recipes try my kimchi and cheese Korean dumplings, my comforting Christmas pasta bake or my pesto pasta bake.

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Goat Cheese Apricot Panini

5 from 2 votes

Toasted panini filled with goat's cheese, apricot jam and toasted walnuts. Flavoured with honey, thyme and chilli.

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 7 minutes mins

Total Time 12 minutes mins

Servings: 1

Course: Main Course, Snack

Cuisine: British

Calories: 706

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 28g/1oz walnuts
• 1 panini or 2 slices of sourdough
• 2 tbsp apricot jam
• 70g/2.5oz goat's cheese sliced into 4 or 5 pieces
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme or a few sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 pinch chilli flakes

Method

 

1. Heat a small frying pan on a medium-high heat. Toast the walnuts on both sides for around 2 minutes. Keep an eye on them so they do not burn. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Slice the panini in half. On the bottom half spread the apricot jam evenly.
3. Evenly place the goat's cheese slices across the bread. Top with the toasted walnuts.
4. Drizzle over the honey and olive oil. Sprinkle the thyme and chilli flakes evenly over the goat's cheese. Top with the other half of the panini.
5. Heat a sandwich grill (I used a George Foreman grill) and place the panini inside. Close the lid and cook for 5 minutes.
6. If you do not have a sandwich grill you could use a frying pan. Heat the panini for 2-3 minutes on each side over a medium heat. You can cover the pan with a lid for a couple of minutes to help trap the heat and melt the cheese.
7. Enjoy hot with a side salad, if you like.