Making A Rainbow Grilled Cheese Sandwich Is Easier Than You Might Think

Some trendy dishes, like Texas-style smoked brisket, involve a great deal of time and effort. Even some quirky TikTok trends, like DIY chamoy pickles, need seven days or more to marinate. But there's one impressive dish that shows up all over Instagram and TikTok that is actually easier to make than it looks: the rainbow grilled cheese sandwich.

If you're unfamiliar with this colorful twist on the traditional cheesy lunchtime treat, it's pretty much what it sounds like. This features a griddled sandwich filled with shredded cheese, in brilliant, and very un-cheesy colors, like red, blue, and yellow. Slice it just right, pull it apart, and you'll be rewarded with a long, stretchy rainbow of melted cheese. 

Most sources agree the trend started a few years back at a Hong Kong spot called Kala Toast, though Le Shiner, in Harajuku, Tokyo is famous for them, too (along with rainbow potato corn dogs, rainbow soft serve and other technicolor-hued treats). Eventually, it made its way Stateside, showing up at trendy eateries in L.A., Chicago, and Seattle. But the cheesy, gooey sandwich is easy to make at home, and only requires one extra ingredient: food coloring.

Essentially, you're making a basic grilled cheese sandwich. The key distinctions are, of course, the color of the cheese and its stretchiness. The best options are shredded or grated mozzarella or gouda. The white cheese (as opposed to yellow) accepts the food dyes better. If you decide to grate your own, avoid aged cheeses, as increased acids formed during aging breaks down the connected proteins, which will limit the stretchiness of your cheese.

To replicate the Le Shiner experience, you'll want a soft white bread, like Japanese milk bread. Store-bought white bread, arguably the best bread for a classic grilled cheese, works well too. But you can get fancy here if you like and use thicker, hand-sliced breads, multi-grain, or whatever you prefer. As long as it toasts and is easy to slice through when it grills.

Now the good part. Separate your cheese into as many bowls as you have colors. Liberally add food coloring to about a cup of cheese and mix each batch till well blended. Go for as bright a color as you can get. Butter your toast and load up each color of cheese in a line. The trick is that you want to lay the lines perpendicular to the bread's top and bottom (from side to side), so when you cut the sandwich in half and stretch, you'll get the rainbow effect. Fry up your sandwich, and slice both sides so you're cutting through the bread, but not the cheese. Pull apart and enjoy.