Vegan Molletes

Growing up I ate a lot of molletes. I mean A LOT! If you're not familiar with this particular meal, I will explain.

A mollete is a single piece of bread buttered up and grilled. It has a layer of beans spread on top and shredded cheese. The bread is turned on to the cheese side on the griddle and it gives you this delicious melted and almost crispy layer of cheese on top when done right.

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Originally, this is done on a "bolillo" or a sub like bread. The beans can be black or pinto (growing up, I think my mom used mostly black beans.) The cheese used on top was always "queso fresco." I suppose you can use a swiss or monterrey jack if you prefer the flavor. Anywho, I'm getting away from the vegan version!

Now that my diet is very different from the one I grew up with, some adjustments to the recipe had to be made!

Ingredients:

Sliced bread (Your fave vegan option works here)
Daiya shreds (I love using the Pepperjack version!)
Refried Pinto or Black Beans (I used fresh made beans and blended them in my Nutribullet)
Vegan Margarine (Optional)

Take your sliced bread and spread some vegan margarine on both sides. Set your sliced bread on a hot griddle (about 300 degrees works well.) Once you have a nice golden brown going on both sides, remove bread.

Spread some beans on each slice of bread and sprinkle as much of the Daiya shreds as you prefer on top of the beans.

Drop your bread back on the griddle (Daiya Shred side down.)

Give the griddle a few minutes to get those shreds melted and almost a little crisp. I would say 3 minutes will do (for my taste) but you can easily check by lifting a corner of your bread to see what you have under there. Once you are ready to remove your molletes from the griddle, do so quickly with a nice big spatula. You want to slide that spatula quickly to avoid creating a mushy mess haha... If your "cheese" has a nice crisp to it, the spatula should have no problems sliding and picking up your bread beautifully!

Allow the mollete to cool if you can stand not eating it right away and enjoy! Now I have to admit, my version is not nearly as good looking as the original... But it taste pretty darn good!

This is one of my favorite quick lunches! When the kids get a little wired and I run low on time to "cook" myself a hot lunch, I can always count on just enough time to put this little meal together. You have your grains, and legumes all in one. For a busy mom, this is just enough to get me going for a few more hours hahaha!

~Norm