Vegan Bon Appetit: Grilled cheese with apple salad

This edition of Vegan Bon Appetit comes from the magazine's September 2012 edition.  There was a really simple recipe that appealed to me under RSVP,  a column in which editors pick their favorite most crave worthy dishes from iconic restaurants.

The recipe is for a Gruyere Grilled Cheese with Apple Salad from the L.A. restaurant, Lucques. Thanks to an unexpected delivery from Farm Fresh to You (I forgot my CSA box was getting dropped off today!) and a fresh batch of my favorite cashew cheese spread in the fridge to take the place of the gruyere, I had all the supplies on hand for a tasty and delicious lunch.

Lucques has a specific technique for making the grilled cheese to make the bread as golden and delicious as possible (read: pan fry, then bake).  The result was definitely a perfectly crisp sandwich with a warm and gooey filling (yes, the cashew cheese did seem almost gooey, even though it was not melted like a dairy based cheese). I recommend go heavy on the cashew spread. I went a little lighter handed than I should have and was wishing there was more! For the arugula salad, I opted to lightly saute the greens to cut their bitterness. The Fuji apple made such a great sweet compliment to the bitter greens and paired amazingly well with the cashew cheese in the sandwich.  If you don't happen to have cashew cheese on hand or time to make it (it does take two days!), your favorite commercial brand vegan cheese would work great, but would definitely be missing some of the tang that the fermented nut cheese provides.

Grilled Cheese with Apple Salad
4 T Earth Balance vegan butter, divided
3/4 C shallots, thinly sliced
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, or 1/2 dried
salt and fresh ground pepper
4 slices of thick bread
1/2 C or more cashew cheese, or equal amount favorite vegan cheese
1/2 apple (Pink Lady or Fuji), thinly sliced
1 C fresh wild arugula
2 T fresh lemon juice
2 T olive oil

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Heat 2 T butter in a small sauce pan over high heat, until butter begins to bubble. Add shallot, thyme and salt pepper and cook, stirring often until shallots begin to soften and caramelize, about 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat a large heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat. Melt 1 T butter in the pan and coat well. Add 2 slices of bread tot he pan and cook until golden brown and crisp on the bottom, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a baking sheet, toasted side down. Repeat with remaining butter and bread. Divide cheese evenly among bread slices and top evenly with shallots.

Place baking sheet in oven and bake for about 5 minutes (or until cheese is melted if using a vegan cheese that melts).

Combine arugula, apple, lemon juice and oil in a large bowl; toss to coat and evenly distribute. Season with salt and pepper.

Press 2 pieces of bread together, cheese side in (Bon Appetit clarifies this in case readers aren't able to use common sense) to create sandwiches. Cut in half on a diagonal. Serve each sandwich on a plate alongside salad.