Week 14: Spinach + Chicken Paninis!

Published by Emily, April 7th, 2014

Omnivores rejoice! I know of at least one friend that MIGHT actually start reading my blog now that there are non-vegetarian posts (hi, Chau!). To those visiting on similar terms, it’s nice to meat you! ;)

I need to think of a super cool name for this little creation because it was incredible. My mouth is watering just looking at the photo. But let’s be real here, paninis are like Ryan Gosling movies; I’ve yet to encounter one that I disliked. So I didn’t mind going to the grocery store this morning (there are a lot of old people at the grocery store at 9am) without a grocery list. It felt a little weird heading into a dishaweek entry without a recipe to guide me... which probably explains why I ended up buying shallot more ingredients than I was able to stack without the focaccia buns tipping over.

Strangely, this was my first time ever cooking spinach. I’m ashamed to admit that my aversion to spinach may be influenced by an episode of Arthur I watched as a kid. But spinach has really grown on me, especially on pizzas. I also recently discovered that the mystery vegetable my mom puts in one of my favourite soups is actually spinach. That’s one of the biggest problems with speaking a relatively unknown dialect of Chinese (Teochew) at home; we identify all leafy vegetables as “Chai", so there are a lot of vegetables I’ve assumed were native to Asia before seeing them in western grocery stores.

Anyway, I’ll let you all in on the [not so] secret wow factor in this week’s dish: I caramelized some shallots then sautéed the spinach and mushrooms before assembling+pressing the panini. Delicious! For those of you without a panini press, try this recipe with a grill pan or toaster oven.

RECIPE

Ingredients

1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 shallot, sliced

1 cup spinach

2 white mushrooms, sliced

Black pepper

1 sliced multigrain focaccia bun (or bread of choice)

3 slices of roasted spiced chicken breast

1 Roma tomato

Hot peppers

2 tsp organic mayonnaise

2 slices fresh mozzarella cheese (not Kraft singles!!)

1 tsp goat cheese

Directions

Heat a skillet and toss the sliced shallots in olive oil until they are translucent and golden.

Add spinach and mushrooms, and sauté until the mushrooms are cooked. Season with black pepper and salt to taste. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Preheat panini grill to highest setting.

Place mayonnaise chicken, tomatoes, hot peppers, and goat cheese on the bottom focaccia bun.

Top with the sautéed spinach and mushrooms and cover with mozzarella cheese, and the top bun.

Press the panini until the mozzarella cheese has melted into some gooey goodness (about 4 minutes).

Ka-pow! There you have it. A dreamy panini sandwich. Enjoy!