Arugula Bruschetta

Welcome back to QCK!

How are you this week? For the past six months, the world has been incredibly overwhelming, more and more each day. Life has been changing significantly for everyone, not all bad changes, just changes. It’s been tough to say the least. This weekend I took a break from posting and social media. I needed to unplug, I was able to safely visit my family and eat some really delicious food that didn’t have to be perfectly plated or photographed. It was a nice break.

Anyways, being home reminded me of this appetizer I used to make when I was a kid, arugula bruschetta. Kind of like a salad except it’s served on bread, which is the best way to eat salad in my opinion. I must have been 11 or 12 when I came up with this recipe, and have since tweaked it slightly. It’s a summer favorite because all of the vegetables were from my parents garden. It’s so fresh and delicious, perfect appetizer, snack, or light lunch.

I’m not sure is bruschetta is the right name, I think both dishes are just tomato based and served on bread. But it’s a really great way to switch up a traditional dish. Besides the obvious difference being the arugula, I’ve also switched out basil for cilantro and added cumin. That combination comes from my dad, I guess you could call this Sudanese Bruschetta.

The cilantro and cumin pair perfectly with the acidic tomatoes and peppery arugula, then it gets topped with some flaky sea salt for a little bit of texture and served on grilled or toasted bread.

Substitutions and Add Ons

Ciabatta can be replaced with baguette.
Cilantro can be replaced with parsley.
Cherry tomato can be substituted with Roma tomatoes.
You can grill or oven toast the bread.
You can also add bell peppers, feta, goat cheese, diced yellow or red onion.

Recipe

Prep: 10 Min

Cook: 10 Min

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 Loaf Ciabatta or Baguette, sliced
5 oz Arugula, roughly chopped
1/4 Bunch Cilantro, roughly chopped
10 oz ( 1 package or about 20) Cherry Tomato, sliced in half
1 Medium Clove Garlic, grated or minced
1 tsp Lemon Juice, about half a lemon
1/4 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
Flaky Sea Salt, for serving
Butter, for toasting bread, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Slice bread and butter one side, optional.
Place the bread on the sheet tray, butter side up, and bake for 10 minutes or until toasty and edges are golden brown.
In a medium bowl. combine chopped arugula, chopped cilantro, sliced tomato, grated garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and cumin.
Mix, cover and rest at least ten minutes.
Remove bread from oven and cool for 3 minutes.
Spoon bruschetta onto the bread and sprinkle with a little bit of sea salt.
Serve immediately.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this recipe! If you tried it out let me know in the comments. For more recipes check out my homepage and follow along on Instagram. Don’t forget to like, follow, comment and share. Thanks for reading!