Quick and easy cheese garlic bread.

Use one of my favourite convenience foods to make this simple but delicious garlic bread. It’s so easy to make, it fills your home with the gorgeous aroma of freshly-baked bread and it makes any meal into a special occasion.

It goes well with so many meals as an accompaniment but often we make this the focus of our dinner — with a bowl of delicious homemade soup it makes a scrummy and filling  meat-free meal. It’s almost a sophisticated version of ‘soup, salad and a sandwich’ so it’s fabulous for lunch too.

The dough is formed into a circle and the centre is piled with salad — you can choose whatever salad ingredients you like. See the ideas below. You can also vary the type of cheese you use. Use just one or a variety — this dish can be different every time you make it!

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Festive Cheese and Garlic Bread

Rating  5 from 1 reviews

Prep time:  10 mins

Cook time:  25 mins

Total time:  35 mins

Ingredients

• 1 tube ready-to-bake French loaf dough
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
• 3 - 4 ounces cheese, thinly sliced
• Black pepper
• Salad ingredients of your choice (In the photograph here I used lettuce and tomato only)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Unpackage the French bread dough
3. Arrange in a circle on a cookie sheet (see image below)
4. Made slashes on the dough with a sharp knife (again, see image)
5. Place in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes
6. Mix together the garlic, oil and pepper in a small bowl
7. Take the bread from the oven and cut where you'd marked the slashes. Cut almost to the bottom, keeping the circle intact
8. Spoon some of the garlicky oil into each slit
9. Add sliced cheese to each slit and return it to the oven until the cheese melts
10. Allow to cool slightly, then fill the centre with the salad of your choice

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Salad filling ideas:

You can choose whatever ingredients your family prefers but for special occasions:

• Use green and red (fresh salad leaves and tiny cherry tomatoes) for the holidays
• For Halloween fill the centre of the loaf with orange cantaloupe balls and black grapes, or carrot strips and black olives
• At Thanksgiving, add a cornucopia of your favourite harvest vegetables
• For Easter, use a fresh green salad with yellow edible flowers

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jackie Jackson, also known online as BritFlorida, is a highly experienced designer and writer. British born and now living in the USA, she specialises in lifestyle issues, design and quirky stories. You can see a wide range of articles here, or visit her website Tastes Magazine. See The Writer’s Door for more information.