Cheese fondue with bread and vegetables
A pot of silky, garlicky melted swiss for dunking bread, potatoes, broccoli and apples, a cozy dinner that turns any night into an occasion.
- 40 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $3.61 a serving
- 800 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 lb baby potatoes
- 1 broccoli, cut into florets
- 1 French bread
- 1 apple
- 12 oz Swiss cheese, shredded
- 1 clove garlic, halved
- 1 cup dry white wine
- ½ lemon, juiced
- ½ tsp Dijon mustard
From your pantry
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 800 calories, 39 g protein, 87 g carbs and 29 g fat, and costs about $3.61 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No baby potatoes? Red potatoes or Yukon Gold potatoes work.
- No broccoli? Frozen broccoli works.
- No French bread? Sourdough bread works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Put the potatoes in a pot of cold water with the salt and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cook until , 12 to 15 minutes, adding the broccoli for the last 2 minutes.
Fork-tender. Fork-tender means cooked until a fork slides in with almost no push. It’s how you know potatoes, carrots or slow-cooked meat are soft all the way through.
How you’ll know: The fork slides in and out easily, and meat pulls apart with very little effort.
High heatTimer: 13 min 30 sec
.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Cut the bread into 1-inch and the apple. Arrange everything on a platter.
Cube. Cubing means cutting food into chunky, even squares, usually three quarters of an inch to an inch. Same-size cubes cook at the same speed and brown on every side.
How you’ll know: Your pieces look like a handful of sugar cubes, a little bigger than diced, all close to the same size.
Slice. Slicing means cutting food into flat pieces of about the same thickness. Even slices cook evenly, so none are raw while others burn.
How you’ll know: Lay a few side by side: they’re close to the same thickness from one end to the other.
the shredded cheese with the cornstarch in a bowl.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Dolly’s tip: The cornstarch coating is what keeps fondue smooth instead of stringy and oily.Rub the inside of a medium with the cut sides of the garlic. Add the wine and lemon juice and heat over medium until steaming and just starting to bubble.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: No wine? Use 1 cup vegetable broth and an extra squeeze of lemon.to low and add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring in a zigzag until each handful before adding the next, about 6 minutes in all.
Reduce the heat. It means turning the burner down, usually to medium-low or low, so food cooks gently instead of hard. Electric burners cool slowly, so lift the pan off for a moment if it’s bubbling hard.
How you’ll know: Within a minute the bubbling calms to a gentle simmer, or the sizzle turns quiet.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Low heatTimer: 6 min
Dolly’s tip: Patience here. Dumping it in all at once makes one big clump.Stir in the mustard and pepper. The fondue should be smooth and coat a spoon; if it’s too thick, stir in of wine.
Splash. A splash is a small, quick pour, about a teaspoon to a tablespoon. It’s there to loosen or brighten a dish, so the exact amount doesn’t matter.
How you’ll know: The dish looks a little looser or tastes a little brighter, not soupy.
Low heat
Set the pot on a trivet at the table and dip away with forks. If it starts to firm up, warm it over low heat for a minute.
Low heat
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
