My Mom’s 1-Ingredient Upgrade for Grilled Cheese Sandwiches Makes Them “Wowsers!” Delicious

Comfort food does more than stick to your ribs. Its familiar flavors and satisfying textures bring us out of whatever bad day, emotional turmoil, or physical sickness we might be mired in. The sensory experience grounds us in the present and eating becomes an anchoring, calming, soothing act that goes well beyond filling our hunger. 

When you think of comfort food, you may think of the usuals: mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, your mother’s chicken soup. But I’d like to suggest that grilled cheese is one of the ultimate comfort foods. It has carbs and butter and gooey hot cheese. The textures of the craggy crispy bread and the thick soft melty cheddar, especially in combination, are tantalizing. Add to this dipping the grilled cheese sandwich (sliced diagonally, obviously) into piping tangy tomato soup that juices up that brittle bread. The combination is sure to elicit sighs of satisfaction. 

The best thing about grilled cheese as a comfort food is how quick and easy it is to make. Simply spread butter on slices of bread (generously), slice thick slabs of cheese, and fry in a medium hot pan. In minutes you have comfort on a plate, for you or a whole crew. I love to use the Trader Joe’s Organic Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup for the accompaniment and sometimes add a side Caesar salad. It’s also one of those meals you can keep on hand and whip up when there’s “nothing to eat.” 

But I have a secret from my mom for how to make it even better, a magical sprinkle that gives your already delicious grilled cheese the something-something that kicks it up a notch to unforgettable: garlic salt. My mom LOVES garlic salt. She used to put it on cottage cheese and I had no idea that this wasn’t a normal thing that everyone did until I asked for some garlic salt for my cottage cheese when I was with some friends and they looked at me like I was insane, ha! Another garlic-salt centric dish my mom used to make for me is a tomato, avocado, mozzarella sandwich with — you guessed it — a hefty sprinkle of garlic salt. 

Adding garlic salt to grilled cheese sandwiches transforms them from merely familiar and comforting to wowsers! delicious. The extra saltiness of the salt enhances the flavor of the butter and the cheese (go lighter if the cheese is particularly salty), and the savory umami layer of the garlic powder complements the richness of the cheese. Anybody you serve it to who’s never had it like that is sure to raise their eyebrows and ask what you did to it, and become an instant convert. 

Garlic salt on grilled cheese, which I like to call grilled cheese à la mom, elevates a typical sandwich to something truly special and, once you try it, you’ll never make it any other way.