Overstuffed bagel toast – this is so much more than a toastie!

A golden sesame bagel toast, stuffed with a host of delicious fillings. 
A wonderful quick and indulgent lunch!

A toast to bagels…

Bagels are surely one of the most widespread and recognised Jewish breads. They’re delicious with classic fillings like smoked salmon and cream cheese, but really their chewy crust and delicious flavour will elevate pretty much any sandwich fillings you care to use.

Bagels are also fantastic toasted. Sliced in half and popped into the toaster until golden, then slathered with butter…. yum!

But, if you want to really go wild, you need to combine the sandwich with the toasting, to create BAGEL TOAST. Oh my.

Cast your mind back…

Bagel toast is a really nostalgic treat for me. If you frequented Israeli bus stations in the 1990s (and who didn’t?!) you’ll probably remember them too.

The delicious aroma of toasting bagels filled the air, as hungry hordes of bus travellers sought out a filling snack.

For there, alongside the falafel, bourekas, burgers and miscellaneous other street food, there was always a bagel toast stand – where giant sesame bagels were overloaded with a combination of delicious fillings and grilled in a toastie press till crisp, hot and golden.

What type of bagel?

I’m not sure why the bagels I remember were always sesame bagels. Maybe other kinds of bagels just hadn’t been invented yet, or maybe the sesame ones were always the most popular. Or maybe, there were other kinds of bagels for toasting, and I just didn’t notice. We’ll never know.

In any case, when you make your own bagel toast at home you can choose whatever kind of bagel you like – plain, sesame, poppyseed, onion, or even an everything bagel.

Bagel toast fillings

Bus station bagel toastie stands offered all manner of different options to go inside your toasted bagel sandwich, including (but not limited to):

• tomato sauce – think pizza rather than ketchup
• yellow cheese – a bit like cheddar
• white cheese – bland
• ‘salty’ cheese – vaguely like feta
• humous – ubiquitous
• grilled aubergine
• olives and pickles
• tuna – plain or with mayo
• spicy tuna – mixed with a fiery tomato sauce
• sliced hardboiled egg
• sliced tomato
• harissa/schug/hot sauce
• amba – a sweet-spicy fermented mango sauce, a bit like mango chutney

Basic, or extra

The basic filling for your toasted bagel was tomato sauce and cheese, but it was much more fun to get carried away and overstuff the bagel. The end result would be a hot, oozy, drippy mess and VERY delicious. Licking cheesy, spicy goo off your fingers was an essential part of the bagel toast experience!

Bagel toast fillings – more is definitely better

Despite the diversity of filling options, I can’t remember ever putting together a bad bagel toast combination.

Tuna + cheese + olives + hard boiled egg? Delicious!
Humous + white cheese + aubergine + schug? Yum!

The example in the photographs here was filled with humous, hot sauce, cheddar, feta, sliced tomato, olives and mango chutney (we were all out of amba). It was absolutely gorgeous!

Toasting equipment

To properly toast your bagel sandwich, you will need a sandwich toaster/toastie maker/panini press. I bought one quite like this in the January sales a few years ago, and DH berated me for wasting money on yet another kitchen gadget that would never get used…

Well, I’m delighted to tell you that this machine comes out frequently to make cheese toasties (that’s “grilled cheese” for the Americans), quesadillas, cheesy pita bread, and of course this delicious overstuffed bagel toast. So there, DH!

Time to experiment! Give bagel toast a whirl!

So, dig out your sandwich toaster and give bagel toast a whirl. It’s SO MUCH BETTER than a boring cheese toastie.

What’s your favourite filling combo? Let me know in the comments!

Serves 1 – but you can easily make more.

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📖 Recipe

More ideas involving toast

If you’re looking for more lovely toasty lunch ideas, how about avocado toast with smoked mackerel and lime, easy pear and stilton toasts, or ‘love apple’ soup with cheesy toast hearts.

This post was first published in April 2018. It was updated and republished in January 2023.