Warm Goat Cheese Salad (Salade de Chèvre Chaud)
A French classic chèvre salad found on many bistro menus around France yet so easy to make at home. Use quality ingredients and add a bay leaf to each toasted goat cheese slice and your chèvre chaud is taken to another level with toasted crunchy walnuts.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 baguette cut into small slices (3-4 per person)
- 2 tablespoon olive oil extra virgin
- 240 g (9oz) firm goat's cheese Crottin de Chavignol (1 @ 60g/2½oz per person, one slice on each toast)
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried herbes de provence or chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 handful walnuts
- 1 lettuce of your choice leaves washed and dried
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped (first clove cut in half initially - see first step)
- 1 tablespoon bacon bits (lardons)
Chèvre Salad Dressing
- 3 tablespoon olive oil* extra virgin (SEE NOTES)
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon fresh flat parsley finely chopped
Instructions
How to Warm the Goat Cheese for Salad:
- Slice the baguette or bread or your choice into medium chunks and rub each top with half a clove of garlic. Place directly on a baking sheet topped with parchment paper.
- Dribble a little olive oil on each baguette slice, add half a bay leaf then top with a slice of goat's cheese. Add a walnut and a little more olive oil on top and sprinkle on the herbes de provence (or chopped fresh rosemary/thyme).
- Place under a hot grill for about 5 minutes, or just enough to melt the goat cheese, toasting the extra walnuts around them.
- Meanwhile, in a saute pan over a medium-high heat, fry the garlic and bacon bits/lardons (if using) for about 5 minutes in the rest of the olive oil.
Salad Dressing
- Whisk together the oil, vinegar and mustard (in a small bowl or shake in a jam jar) with some fleur de sel salt and a few turns of black pepper. In a large bowl, toss the salad leaves with the fresh parsley and coat well with the dressing. Arrange the salad leaves on each plate. Top with the garlic, bacon, the toasted goat's cheese slices and extra toasted walnuts.
Notes
Vinaigrette: For the oil, I like to use a little walnut oil (speciality of the Dordogne/Périgord region) - use half walnut/olive oil. For the vinegar, you could also use red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar but please avoid balsamic vinegar as it's too sweet.
Don't forget to remove the bay leaves just before eating each toasted cheese slice. The taste is so fragrant.
To make this recipe vegetarian, simply omit the bacon bits and add a dusting of smoked paprika before grilling the cheese to get that flavour sensation.
Nutritional Information daily value: 25g protein, 18% Calcium, 20% Iron, 9% Potassium, 14% carbohydrate, 33% sodium.
Nutrition
Calories: 700kcal
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