Goat Cheese Grilled Cheese with Pear and Arugula
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclosure.This mouth-watering goat cheese grilled cheese sandwich is the perfect lunch or light dinner! Creamy goat cheese is the star of the show, and it goes beautifully with freshly sliced pears and a drizzle of honey. Ready in less than 20 minutes, with 5 simple ingredients, you can’t help but fall head over heels in love with this sandwich.
Having a lot of different tasty sandwich recipes is a must in our house. We are always so busy running around that it’s great to have a variety of sandwich recipes on hand to mix things up for lunch or dinner. It’s a super easy vegetarian meal done in under 30 minutes.
This goat cheese grilled cheese feels super decadent, but thanks to a few simple swaps is actually healthy for you!
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If you pick the right bread you’ll have the perfect consistency of crispy and creamy textures in your sandwich.
It’s great for a light dinner or hearty lunch, and is easy to scale up to feed a crowd! My kids especially love this recipe, so this goat cheese sandwich is perfect for sneaking in some veggies for kids who are pickier eaters.
Tools and Equipment You’ll Need
How To Make A Goat Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Recipe Ingredients and Notes
5 simple ingredients is all you need!
Fresh arugula/baby spinach, Goat cheese, a freshly made loaf of whole grain bread, honey, and sliced pears.
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1: Slice your baguette into 1/2-3/4 inch thick slices. Freeze any slices you’re not going to use – they heat up great in the oven or toaster oven! Top one slice with goat cheese, pear slices and drizzle the honey on top.
Step 2: Top with arugula, season with salt & pepper.
Step 3: Top with the second slice of bread. Spray a grill pan or panini press with olive oil cooking spray. Grill the sandwich in a panini press or on a grill pan until the outside is crispy and golden brown (about 3-5 minutes on a panini press, slightly longer on a grill pan).
What Makes This Goat Cheese Grilled Cheese Healthy?
- Low Calorie: Most grilled cheese sandwiches will run you over 400 calories and will have over 18 grams of fat. This goat cheese sandwich has under 300 calories and only 8 grams of fat!
- High Protein: You’ll find almost 14 grams of vegetarian friendly protein in this recipe!
- Vitamins and Minerals: Thanks to the arugula, whole grain bread and pear, you will get iron, folate, potassium, magnesium, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin k in every bite.
Will Kids Enjoy These Grilled Cheese Sandwiches?
This goat cheese sandwich is super kid friendly! Some kids may not like the taste of goat cheese, in which case I recommend substituting it for mild cheddar cheese and you’ll have a bunch of happy kids on your hands!
How to Store and Keep
While you can save the leftovers, they will tend to get soggy if you try to keep them in the fridge for longer than 1-2 days.
If you have any leftover grilled cheese sandwiches, you can store them wrapped in aluminum foil in an airtight container and place them in the fridge. They will keep for up to 2 days.
To reheat, I recommend warming it up in the oven, toaster oven, air fryer, or stick it back in the panini press. You wanted to have a crispy exterior and not be soggy when it’s time to eat it.
Recipe Variations
- Change Up The Fruit: Try apples, peaches or different varieties of pear!
- Try Different Cheeses: Instead of goat cheese, try brie, feta, mozzarella, cheddar or gouda.
- Try a Different “Drizzle”: Instead of drizzling honey on top, you could try maple syrup or agave, or leave off the sweet drizzle altogether.
- Make it Spicy: If you want a little extra spice you could sprinkle on some red pepper flakes.
- Make it Gluten-Free: Just use a store-bought gluten-free bread, or a homemade gluten-free bread!
Top Tips For Making Goat Cheese Grilled Cheese
- Lightly spray your grill pan or panini press with olive oil cooking spray before grilling your sandwiches. This will allow you to get that crispy, crunchy exterior without needing a ton of butter or oil.
- If using a grill pan, press down on your sandwich with a spatula or another pan while it’s cooking to get that “pressed” feeling without an actual panini press.
- Keep a close watch on your panini press as you’re grilling the sandwiches so that they don’t burn. Take them out when they are a little bit golden brown and slightly crispy on the outside.
Check Out These Other Incredible Sandwich Recipes!
- Gourmet Banana Peanut Butter Sandwich
- Grilled Cheese With Pickles
- Vegan Reuben
- Greek Pita Sandwich
- Garlic Bread Grilled Cheese
- Kale and Caramelized Onion Veggie Panini
- Sourdough Grilled Cheese Sandwich
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🎥 Watch How to Make It
Goat Cheese Grilled Cheese with Pear and Arugula
This mouth-watering goat cheese grilled cheese sandwich is the perfect lunch or light dinner! Creamy goat cheese is the star of the show, and it goes beautifully with freshly sliced pears and a drizzle of honey. Ready in less than 20 minutes, you can’t help but fall head over heels in love with this sandwich.
Servings: 1 serving
Calories: 285kcal
Ingredients
Per Sandwich:
- Handful of Fresh arugula/spinach
- 1 oz Goat cheese
- 2 slices crusty whole grain bread
- Drizzle of honey
- ⅓ Pear sliced (Bosc or Barlett both work well)
- Salt & pepper to taste
- olive oil cooking spray
Instructions
- Slice your baguette into 1/2-3/4 inch thick slices. Freeze any slices you're not going to use – they heat up great in the oven or toaster oven!
- Top one slice with goat cheese, pear slices and drizzle the honey on top.
- Top with arugula, season with salt & pepper.
- Top with the second slice of bread. Spray a grill pan or panini press with olive oil cooking spray. Grill the sandwich in a panini press or on a grill pan until the outside is crispy and golden brown (about 3-5 minutes on a panini press, slightly longer on a grill pan).
Notes
Recipe Variations
- Change Up The Fruit: Try apples, peaches or different varieties of pear!
- Try Different Cheeses: Instead of goat cheese, try brie, feta, mozzarella, cheddar or gouda.
- Try a Different “Drizzle”: Instead of drizzling honey on top, you could try maple syrup or agave, or leave off the sweet drizzle altogether.
- Make it Spicy: If you want a little extra spice you could sprinkle on some red pepper flakes.
- Lightly spray your grill pan or panini press with olive oil cooking spray before grilling your sandwiches. This will allow you to get that crispy, crunchy exterior without needing a ton of butter or oil.
- If using a grill pan, press down on your sandwich with a spatula or another pan while it’s cooking to get that “pressed” feeling without an actual panini press.
- Keep a close watch on your panini press as you’re grilling the sandwiches so that they don’t burn. Take them out when they are a little bit golden brown and slightly crispy on the outside.
Nutrition
Serving: 1sandwich | Calories: 285kcal | Protein: 13.7g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 4.1g | Cholesterol: 13mg | Sodium: 542mg | Potassium: 76mg | Fiber: 5.6g | Sugar: 9.6g
this looks so good! I’ll go months without thinking about sandwiches and then as soon as I have one, they’re all I can think about. Currently sandwich crazy and this looks like a great one.
Yay!! I can’t wait for you to try it – I’m sure you will love this recipe Priya!
Delicious, cheesy and yum. Such a lovely meal option. Best Tiffin Box option too.
Totally!! Enjoy Veena!
This panini is so easy and delicious! I made it for my husband for lunch since he’s working from home, and he loved it! The creamy cheese, and honey are a great combo!
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that Alison! Thanks for letting me know!
goat cheese is my favorite – but i need double that amount! haha – and i have to peel the pears – but definitely making it! yum!
Haha! You can totally double up on the goat cheese – that’ll be even more decadent and delicious!
Ohhh yum such a great combo with the goat cheese, pear, and arugula! Might need to make this for breakfast this morning because I’m not sure I can wait until lunch. 🙂
This is the perfect breakfast or brunch idea for sure! 🙂
I have never used goats cheese in a grilled cheese. Such a great idea.
Thanks Dannii! I’m sure you will love this recipe!
Hi! This recipe sounds so yummy! I had a question, I don’t eat honey, do you think this will taste ok without it?
Thanks Sweety! And yes – I think this will taste ok without the honey — it just gives it a bit of extra added sweetness that tastes nice — but if your pears are super sweet that will still work well. Let me know how it turns out!
Oh my gosh – a panini press is something I don’t have, but I definitely have been thinking that I NEED 🙂 I love the sandwich combo – it includes so many of my fave flavours! My husband is a meat eater and I think I could add a little smoked turkey to his so we’d both have our perfect sammies!!
Totally – the panini press (along with my immersion blender) are my two favorite time-saving kitchen appliances ever! Smoked turkey sounds like the perfect addition to this sandwich for meat-eaters 🙂 Hope you both enjoy this recipe!
What a delicious recipe! From one picky eater to another, you sure have some great & diverse recipes! Thank you so much for sharing your love of food with us!
Thank you so much!! It’s always nice to meet a fellow picky eater 🙂 Hope you enjoy my recipes!
Lovely, this is the kind of panini I adore, it’s just a bit different from the normal and totally delicious.
Me too – I love mixing things up with traditional panini/sandwich ingredients. Hope you enjoy it!
This looks so delicious, love the pears! 🙂
Pears are one of my favorites too! 🙂
I’m so excited it’s the time of year to break out my panini press – this looks fabulous!
Awesome! For me, I’m always breaking out my panini press – I even used it as a grill pan one time! 🙂
I love this – so simple but the flavors just meld – peppery, sweet and tang! Perfect!
That is EXACTLY what this combination of flavors is like! I’m sure you’ll love this recipe!