Avocado Toast With Marinated Tomatoes & Goat Cheese | Taste Of EPCOT At Home

Spring has just about sprung. . . . . in some places more than others. . . . . which means it’s time for the Taste of EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival to kick off for 2021. Recently, we talked about some of the offerings that festival goers can enjoy between now and July 5th and many of the options sound and look amazing! One option that both of us here at 2 Foolish Mortals have been waiting to try is the Avocado Toast from Sunshine Griddle in Future World East.

Unfortunately, it’s not in the cards for us to be at the Flower & Garden Festival this year. That doesn’t mean we still can’t have some fun though! In fact, we’re bringing a little bit of the festival right into our home and we’d love if you’d join us. So what do you say? Up for a little bit of festival fun right from the comfort of your own home? Let’s do this!

One of the things that I think is particularly fun about the Festivals at EPCOT is the foods that are available to try around World Showcase. Sure, there are foods from the festivals all over the park, but World Showcase gives you the opportunity to experience something new . . . and who doesn’t love that!? I know I sure do!

Food items, as it turns out, are also much easier to reproduce at home than topiaries. This is why today, in an attempt to bring some Flower & Garden Festival cheer to our dinner table, we’ll be making a dish inspired by one available at the festival. Of course, you already know what it is. You already clicked on this post! Needless to day, we’re making the Avocado toast.

Now, before we really get into it, let’s start off by making one point perfectly clear. You absolutely do not need to be a “good cook” with loads of time and money to make something like this. I mean, I know we’re talking about avocado toast here today, but we could be talking about anything. Is it fun to make an entire meal from scratch with no assistance from anything that has been packaged or manufactured? Sure. . . for some people. But even for someone like myself [who possesses all the skills of a housewife from 1810. . . and then some] it’s nice to just enjoy the meal without having spent 3 days preparing it. Of course, if you’ve got the time and motivation, unleash it and have some fun!

With that out of the way, let’s get to it!

First thing’s first, let’s talk a little bit about what exactly it is we’ll be making today. According to the menu at Sunshine Griddle, what we’re aiming for is avocado toast with marinated toybox tomatoes and fresh goat cheese on toasted ciabatta. The photograph also shows that there is a garnish of watermelon radishes and edible flowers. Of course, there are a few unknowns here. For example, I’m not sure what the tomatoes are marinated in nor do I know exactly what has been put in the avocado. We can make a pretty good guess though and that’s good enough for us.

Speaking of tweaking the recipe, we’ve also gone the route of grabbing some items that are a bit easier to find for us and leaving out a few we’re not big fans of. In this case, we’ve gone for grape tomatoes rather than toybox and eliminated the watermelon radish since neither of us like it much. We also made the decision not to spring for the edible flowers. Although there’s no denying that they’d make the image of our avocado toast that much more Instagram worthy, it didn’t seem like it was worth trying to hunt them down. We also didn’t get “fresh” goat cheese. . . . . we went for the prepackaged stuff.

As far as where we got the ingredients, everything we are using today came from our local Super Target. Admittedly, this is not the most cost effective place to get some of these items nor is it the best. With these items being fairly standard, you likely won’t have any trouble getting them from your local grocery store. If you’re hoping for something a bit more unique, you may even want to give your local farmer’s market a try. . . . if that kind of thing is happening in your area. Again, the sky is the limit here. I simply was at Target anyway and so here we are.

Now that we’ve covered that, let’s take a minute to go a bit more into the ingredients that we used for this recipe, some alternatives you might want to consider and how much you’re going to need of each to recreate this on your own.

Ingredients

🥑 Avocado - We like lots of avocado on our toast, which is why today we’re using 2 large ripe avocados. This will be enough to make roughly 2 and a half good size servings with plenty of avocado on each.

🥑 Grape Tomatoes - We used about a handful grape tomatoes between the two of us. Frankly, I grabbed what was on sale. You can use any tomatoes you’d like or whatever you happen to have on hand.

🥑 Goat Cheese - Today, we’re using Good & Gather Honey Goat Cheese. Now, I recognize that not everyone likes goat cheese. It does have a taste that can be a bit much for some people. This is why today I decided to get the Honey Goat Cheese rather than a regular. The flavor is a bit more muted than regular goat cheese and the sweetness adds something to this dish that is . . . . . we’ll get to that later. One thing I will recommend though is that if you spend a few extra bucks on anything, make it the goat cheese. I’m not saying break the bank here, but don’t just grab the cheapest thing on the shelf. It makes a difference!

🥑 Ciabatta Bread - We’re using ciabatta bread today, because it’s what the item we’re recreating uses. We opted for a take & bake loaf from our local Target, but you can get something that’s sliced and ready to go. You can also make your own if you’re feeling up for it. You can also swap out ciabatta for a sourdough bread. Between the two of us, we’re going to use about half of this loaf for today’s recipe.

🥑 Salt

🥑 Pepper

🥑 Garlic Powder - We’re using garlic powder today, because I prefer it when making this dish. [I think it mixes in better and I prefer that to chunks of fresh garlic in this particular dish.]

🥑 Extra Virgin Olive Oil - We’re using extra virgin olive oil here today, but you can use any neutral oil that you have around. You can also use an oil based salad dressing here, but we’ll talk more about that when the time goes.

Like I mentioned above, there are also other items you can add to your avocado toast that would make it more on par with what EPCOT is serving up for Flower & Garden. Edible flowers can be found at some grocery stores as can radishes. Watermelon radishes may be a bit more difficult to find, but if you’re wanting to make something more close to what they’re serving at Sunshine Griddle you can check a local co-op or specialty grocery store.

Now that you’ve got all of your ingredients let’s get to the fun part! Look out Sunshine Griddle. . . . ‘cause here we come! 👩‍🍳🧑‍🍳

Bake The Bread. . . . if you have to.

If you’ve made the decision to get take & bake bread, like we did, then the first thing you’re going to want to do is bake it. We are knocking this out first for a few reasons. First, it’s one less thing to do later. Second, slicing bread while it’s still hot is less than ideal.

Your fingers can thank me later.

For this particular variety of bread, it’s going to take something like 10 to 15 minutes in the oven before it’s done. Then, we’re going to let it cool down completely before cutting it. [This contributes to the texture of the bread, not only the ease of handling.] You can bake the bread whenever you want and/or have the time to do so. This can be while you’re preparing the other ingredients or it can be a few days in advance. We did ours the day before and let it rest on the counter covered in a kitchen towel overnight.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to read the instructions on whatever take & bake bread you’re using. Not all brands and types will be prepared in the same way.

Marinade The Tomatoes

According to the menu at Sunshine Griddle, the avocado toast in question has marinated tomatoes on it. As we talked about earlier, we don’t know exactly what that means. It could, quite literally, mean anything. That said, since the theme of this festival is Flower & Garden, we decided to go with something basic that would enhance the flavor of the tomato rather than mask it. That’s why we’re using a bit of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

To prepare the tomatoes, we’re starting off by cutting them up into quarters. We’re doing this so that the dish is a bit easier to eat and we get more tomatoes in every bite; you can slice them however you’d like. Then, in a small bowl, the tomatoes are then drizzled with the oil before being sprinkled with salt and pepper and left to sit while we make the rest of the dish.

Like I mentioned, we’re wanting to enhance the natural flavor of the tomatoes, but you can use other flavors that appeal to you as well. For example, a salad dressing like a balsamic or strawberry vinegarette would be a great choice here. You can also add different herbs, especially if you have something fresh lying around your house, and that would be a great addition as well.

Whether you’re using small tomatoes like we are, diced larger ones or even slices, the process would still be the same.

Slice & Toast The Bread

At this point, if you’re baking your own bread, it should be out of the oven and cool to the touch. If you’re working with a store bought loaf, it’s time to think about slicing your bread.

When it comes to how you choose to slice your bread, there’s no right or wrong way to go about doing it. Personally, I think it really depends on the shape of the loaf you’re using and the people you’re trying to feed. For example, with a round loaf you’re probably fine to slice regularly. If you’re using a long narrow loaf, you might want to slice it lengthwise [like a French bread pizza]. If you’re slicing your own bread, thickness is also something you’ll want to take into consideration. The more stuff you plan on piling on your bread the thicker you may want to make your slices.

Today, because I was going for a particular look, I chose to make regular slices. Because this is a long and narrow loaf, the slices turned out to be a bit smaller than I would have preferred. It’s all good though, we’ll roll with it! I also went ahead and sliced the pieces in half lengthwise to make them easier to eat. This would be a good option if you have an extra crispy loaf, are serving kids or are using lots of toppings and want to avoid messes.

Now that the bread is sliced it’s time to pop it in the toaster! For today’s recipe, we decided to put the bread in our regular old toaster to crisp and warm it. However, if you’ve feeling epic and have some extra time on your hands, this could be an opportunity to take your avocado toast to the next level! Toasting the bread in a skillet or the oven brushed with oil and sprinkled with herbs. . . . yum!

Prepare The Avocado

Finally, now that everything else is pretty much ready to go, it’s time to work on the avocado. We’ve decided to save this step for last because it’s very easy, quick and we want to prevent the avocado from browning. Yes. There are ways to avoid your avocado from browning. I’ve chosen to not go the route of adding anything extra into today’s dish though. So here we are. . . .

After slicing the avocado, remove the pit and put the flesh into a bowl. I have chosen to sprinkle in a bit of salt, pepper and garlic powder. For me, these are good additions, but don’t overpower the flavor of the avocado. In fact, that’s why I’ve decided to go with garlic powder rather than fresh garlic. The flavor is easier to despurse and it gives a better flavor in a dish like this.

With everything in the bown, mix until all of the ingredients are combined and the texture is where you want it to be. I prefer my avocado to be a combination of smooth with some chunks, but you can fix it however you like.

Put It All Together!

Ah. . . the moment we’ve all been waiting for! It’s time to put our avocado toast together. . .

Naturally, we’re starting with our toasted bread and spreading on some of our avocado mixture. You can use as little or as much as you’d like here. As you can see, we love it so it’s piled on. Once your base layer is in place, it’s time to put on the goat cheese. Goat cheese has a bit of an odd consistency when it comes straight out of the package. It’s not firm, but it’s not too soft to handle either. You can, if you so chose to, spread it on the toast before your avocado, but because I was going to a certain presentation I put it on top. The best way to do this is to grab some cheese, with clean hands, and tear chunks apart placing them where you want ‘em.

Next up, we’ve got the tomatoes. We gave them one more mix before spooning them on the top of the toast. We didn’t drain them, but we didn’t spoon too much of the oil over either. We just let what landed on there stay and add a bit of extra flavor.

. . . . and just like that, you’re done!

🌻

Of course, we can’t be sure of what exactly the version of this dish would taste like at Taste of EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival, but we sure did like it either way! Because we kept things fairly simple, the avocado toast was light and refreshing while also filling enough to stand alone as a meal. Though, we did serve it up with a small side salad. Even better, the ingredients for this one are fairly simple and it’s no sweat to make!

We hope that you’ll give this one a try and get a taste of EPCOT right from the comfort of your own home! As always, if you do be sure to let us know what you thought and join the 2 Foolish Mortals Jamboree to share your pictures!