Garlic Herb Waffle Toasts & Croutons
By: Layla Pujol
Posted on: June 23, 2014
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Tapas are small, bite-sized appetizers that are perfect for warm summer days when you don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking a big meal. I love serving a selection of small bites like these when we have friends over. Our family also really enjoys having what we call an appetizer or tapas dinner; we essentially share several appetizers instead of having a full regular meal. The kids love it, they like trying several small bites of different food.
All the preparation and cooking for these tasty tapas or small bites can be done ahead of time. It removes the stressful part of entertaining when all you have to do is pull out prepped dishes, assemble and add last minute touches. Tapas are also very customizable and easy to adapt to your food preferences. For example, you can easily leave the tuna fish out of the garbanzo salad for a vegetarian option. I used the garbanzo salad as a topping for the garlic herb waffle toasts. For a regular meal, you can serve each person an entire garlic toast waffle topped with the salad. For a smaller tasting size bite, you can cut each waffle into quarters and then top with a spoonful of the salad.
I served the chilled cucumber soup in glasses garnished with garlic herb waffle croutons, some cebollas encurtidas or lime pickled red onions, a drizzle of olive oil, and some cilantro leaves. Other garnishes or topping ideas for the soup could include a bit of crème fraiche, smoked salmon, leftover grilled shrimp or grilled fish, or a fresh tomato salsa.
Ingredients
Assorted fresh herbs, I used:, 10 basil leaves, Leaves from about 8-10 sprigs of parsley, Leaves from about 8 sprigs of thyme, ¼ to ½ teaspoon of salt, adjust to taste, 3-4 garlic cloves, ½ cup of olive oil, Gluten Free Waffles Original,INSTRUCTIONS
Place the herbs, garlic cloves, olive oil, and salt in a small food processor and mix until you have a pesto-like sauce.
Toast the waffles as you would regularly, but on the lightest setting.
To prepare the croutons, cut the lightly toasted waffles into small pieces.
Brush the waffles and crouton pieces with the garlic herb oil and place them on a baking sheet.
Place the baking sheet under a hot oven broiler for about 4-5 minutes, then turn them over and broil for another 2-3 minutes, or until nice and crispy. If you have any leftover garlic herb oil you can brush them a little when they come out of the oven.
