Vegan Parmesan Crostini with Bruschetta
Christmas is coming and that means my "big fat Italian Christmas" for this girl (married into an Italian family). The night is filled with lots of seafood, meatballs, red sauce, noodles (some low pro, some regular of course), and bruschetta. I do my best to have modifications of all the meals there and if I am unable to modify a dish, *ahem seafood salad*, then I make sure to have something that I look forward to. I plan to deep fry meatballs because vegetable oil is the one PKU indulgence that is totally free. Everyone else looks forward to the meal, why shouldn't we? Of course, I will serve over my favorite red sauce, noodles and even pick up some Follow Your Heart vegan Parmesan (the best low pro cheese there is). I will make a low pro bruschetta as an appetizer to start because in Chicago, the words vegan and bruschetta do not mix. They love their cheese out there. Therefore, I had to go to the test kitchen for this bruschetta recipe so I am well-prepared for Christmas.
The key to a good bruschetta is of course, the fresh veggies, but also the crispy, crunchy carb it is served over. I was playing around with Flavis's Crostini, which is a small, toasted piece of bread, that is dry like a cracker. I have never experienced "crostini" so as you can imagine (total PKU moment) couldn't wait to try a new product. I love the Flavis products because they are staples I am unable to find this cheap or low in protein through any other vendor. For example, their ciabatta rolls or rigatoni come to mind, which I can't find anywhere else (dying try both)! Click here for their website and to order.
For this post, I expected the bruschetta to be the pièce de résistance but these little parmesan crisps are just out of this world. I actually LOVE them. The flavor is everything a PKU'er looks for in a snack or meal- salty, garlicky, and (low pro) cheesy. You can do a lot with these delicious morsels. I brought them in a baggie to work the next day and served them with my salad for lunch. I loved them so much I made another batch and plan to bring them with me on the plane next week for a savory, low phe snack. Below I serve them with a fresh bruschetta.
Bruschetta:
Total recipe: 116 mg phe, 4 gm protein, 206 calories
2 cups pitted and diced tomato
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
2 tbsp fresh chopped basil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 teas salt
1/4 teas pepper
Chop and remove the "guts" from the tomatoes. Add all ingredients to the tomatoes and mix together.
Crispy Parmesan Crostini:
Nutrition per 3 parmesan crisps: 13 mg of phe, 0.4 gm protein, 190 calories
Flavis Crostini
Olive oil
Follow Your Heart Parmesan
Fresh pressed garlic
Preheat oven to 350 bake. Spread Crostini on cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Put a small amount of minced garlic on each Crostini. I was able to use about one whole pressed clove for half the bag of Crostini. Put two teaspoons of parmesan on each Crostini (more or less depending on your liking). Bake in oven for 10 minutes. Then, serve hot with fresh bruschetta. This is just at good cold on it's own or as a side. Drizzle with balsamic reduction and garnish with fresh basil.
