Recipe: Orange Blackberry Granola Toast (Vegan)

 

Sometimes I think I've had all the interesting toast combinations there are. And then I find a new one. Toast is like smoothie bowls: They were a fad I couldn't let go.

But to be fair (putting on my historian hat), all this stuff on toast is an intermittent fad, and hardly altogether recent. It was really popularized by the invention of pre-sliced bread and the electric toaster, which made it possible for people to start making lots of toast and lots of easy meals to go with toast. Before that, if you wanted toast, you had to slice bread and stick it in the oven or heat it in a pan, and you probably would have baked that bread the day before. This is all fine if you have bread on hand and if you already have the oven on or a pan going, but it wasn't necessarily simple food in the way we think of it now. People of the 1920s were super excited about toast.

People of the 1950s were into toast, too; I have a 1950s cookbook that seems to consist almost entirely of stuff to serve on toast. But that reflects the post-World War II wave of interest in fussy food made with electric appliances, both a marketing ploy to sell the appliances and a sociological effort to make women feel happier giving up their 1940s jobs for 1950s housewifery by inspiring their creativity.

This, on the other hand, is a more modern toast. I made it based around what I had after being inspired by this omnivore recipe, and it was truly delightful, as well as turning out to be quite pretty, so I had to share it with you. As I note in the recipe, I used Cara Cara oranges, which is why mine are pink, but you can use any orange you have.

Orange Blackberry Granola Toast
Serves: 1

1 slice bread of your choice
2 tablespoons soft non-dairy cheese (I used Violife feta, but cream cheese would also work here)
1 teaspoon of your favorite liquid sweetener (I used Bee Free Honee, but you could use agave, rice syrup, or whatever you usually use for liquid sweetener)
A small handful of blackberries
1/4 of an orange (mine are pink because they're Cara Cara oranges, but any orange will work)
1 tablespoon granola

Toast the bread and allow it to cool so it doesn't melt your cheese. Spread cheese over the toast and drizzle liquid sweetener over the top.

Zest the orange quarter and reserve the zest. Peel and section the orange, then cut each section into thirds.

Arrange the orange slices and blackberries on top of the prepared toast. Sprinkle with granola and finish with orange zest.