Amy: My sister in law, Virginia told me about a recipe for a salad with goat cheese that she had tried and loved. It sounded so delicious and I knew from how she described it that I was going to like this salad. I couldn’t wait to tell Sister about it and get in the kitchen and make our own. As far as salads go, we would have to rate this as the Mercedes Benz of salads. This salad has everything in it to please all of your taste buds. You get the bitter taste from the salad greens, the sweet from the cranberries, the sour from the vinegar, salt from the almond slivers, and our favorite the umami (savory) from the goat cheese. It just doesn’t get any better than this. All of these ingredients come together and get an E for excellence in the works well together section.
What you will need-
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons champagne vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
Pinch Salt
Fresh ground pepper
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon basil, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
4 ounces goat cheese, cut into 4 rounds
10 ounces mixed salad greens
¼ cup toasted almond slivers, lightly salted
¼ cup cranberries
Make it-
We use to give our mother such a hard time because she always saved jars and containers from the food she bought. When we left home and started cooking we started doing the same thing. They come in handy for all sorts of things. Like for this recipe, you will need a jar with a lid. So get it out and combine the first 6 ingredients for the dressing and shake until ingredients are mixed. Set aside. Get that oven going and heat it to 425 degrees. Put your bread crumbs, basil, salt and pepper in a recycled pie pan and toss. You can always use a shallow bowl but you see what we mean. You can really use those things. Place the bread crumbs in the center of the pie pan. Get you a pastry brush and brush the cheese rounds lightly with olive oil on both sides. If you don’t have a pastry brush you can use paper towels or your fingers. Next put the cheese rounds in the bread crumbs and coat with the bread crumbs. Place the cheese rounds on a greased baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes. While the cheese rounds are in the oven toss the greens with the nuts and cranberries. Then you are going to lightly toss with the dressing. Don’t overload the greens with the dressing; you want to be able to enjoy all of the flavors. Pack the greens in a pint size container. See, again we get to use a leftover food container. Mother always knows best! Invert the container on the plate and gently lift the container off. Ta da, that looks like a pro made that salad. Gently place a cheese round on top of the salad greens. Don’t be dumb, go on and get you some. You want to serve it while the cheese is warm and the greens are crisp.
Sass! 