goat cheese salad

My posts have been infrequent lately. My day job has been spreading into the evenings (and nights), which it looks like might continue for a while. So lately, this means either someone else is making dinner (earlier this week, JR made a fantastic dinner - we'll see if I can get him to write a guest post at some point; last night dinner was made by the local pizza place) or it has to be quick and mindless (as I'm rather brain-dead by the time I get home!).

This salad (along with the vinaigrette that tops it that I posted earlier in the week) has been a recent staple. It uses the fresh greens from the garden (or, like tonight, from the CSA delivery). It's quick. It's super tasty. Here's how it goes:

Goat Cheese Salad

Serves 2

3 oz. goat cheese

a handful of walnuts, chopped

olive oil

spinach (or lettuce)

leaves from 3 sprigs fresh oregano

a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

balsamic vinaigrette

freshly ground black pepper

Make vinaigrette and set aside. Put spinach, oregano leaves, and tomatoes in a large bowl. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. Set aside.

Cut the goat cheese into 4 rounds (about 1/4 inch thick each). Take each round and set it on your pile of chopped walnuts, pressing lightly so the walnuts stick. Turn over and repeat on the other side.

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Once hot, add the cheese rounds. Allow to cook for about 2 minutes, then flip and cook about 2 minutes more. The ideal you're aiming towards is for the walnuts to brown slightly and the cheese to start to melt, but not totally fall apart. The colder the cheese, the easier this is, so I recommend taking it out of the fridge right before you slice and cook it.

While cheese rounds are being heated, toss the balsamic vinaigrette with salad. Put servings in individual bowls or on individual plates. When cheese rounds are ready, remove them from the pan and place two on each salad.

As I mentioned, this has been a staple lately (I'm serious - tonight is the third time I've made it this week!). I've been playing with variations - added some thinly sliced red onion last time, it's also good with a big leaf of thinly sliced kale mixed in. Tonight's version substitutes fresh strawberries from the CSA delivery for the tomatoes (and omitted the oregano). Let me know if you have other ideas!