What to Make With Your Panini Maker
If you think a sandwich press can’t do much for you, think again. Look at what to make with your panini maker and get inspired to get cooking!
Obviously, there are sandwiches to be made. When most people think of what to make, they focus on different types of meat and cheese combinations. This is great and traditional, it’s simple, and it works. But over time, you will get tired of eating this, and become less interested in your press. But there’s still so much more you can do, so I urge you to play with it and try more ideas.
The next step is to start looking at different vegetables and spreads you can use to make sandwiches. Some really great vegetables include eggplant, asparagus, avocado, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, roasted red pepper, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, and olives. A great tip is to take some of your vegetables and press them separately before putting them on the sandwich and pressing that. This particularly applies to things like eggplant, zucchini, red pepper cut into strips, and tomato slices. For spreads, try pesto, hummus, mustard, mayonnaise, Italian dressing, and of course, cheese. Mixing together any of these items on this list will really give you a sandwich to write home about.
But this doesn’t end the ideas for what to make with your panini maker, there is still a lot more you can do.
For breakfast sandwiches you can go sweet or savory. Beginning with savory ideas, you can look at any of these suggestions, using either bread for a normal sandwich, or stacking these items in between waffles, or wrapping them up in a tortilla. So, for filling suggestions, try eggs, crumbled tofu, grated carrots or zucchini, onions, mushrooms, asparagus, avocado, and/or black beans. For something a little sweeter, look at bananas, apples, honey or agave, peanut butter, and jam.
Now that you’ve got food ideas for your breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it’s time to think about the best meal of the day-dessert! This is probably not something you’d think about using your panini maker for, but you’ll be surprised what you can do! For your sandwich ends, you can use bread of course, or you can look at graham crackers, brownies, or waffles. For fillings, look at many different types of fruit (think blueberries, strawberries, mango, peaches, apples, bananas, or cherries–if you don’t have fresh, you can use frozen!), chocolate spreads (or just chocolate, it will melt in the press), peanut butter, cinnamon, honey, agave, syrup (try different flavors!), cream cheese, jams, hazelnut spread, marshmallow fluff (and marshmallows cut in half), and pie fillings. For an extra touch of something special, when your sandwich is done, drizzle on some chocolate syrup, or other types of syrup or honey or agave, and dust with cinnamon and/or powdered sugar.
Mixing together any of these ingredients can make you something truly great that will impress guests, without a whole lot of work! Hopefully these ideas for what to make with a panini maker have inspired you to get into your kitchen, spend ten minutes, and make a great meal.
