Grilled Goat’s Cheese Salad
Posted: 06 July '10 by Niall
Goat's cheese salad with roast peppers and rocket
Even with the changeable weather, it’s far to warm to even think about those casseroles and stews that were such a feature of our winter menu.
Grilled Goat’s Cheese Salad is a great Summer-time option and good as either a starter or a light main course. This recipe comes from our cookery class at La Cucina Caldesi last year – a delicious, flavoursome combination of tangy goat’s cheese and sweet roast peppers.
Serves 4 as a starter, or 2 as a light main course
You can see the photos here:
Ingredients
- 150g x 2 of Goat’s cheese (we used Fivemiletown Cooneen Goat’s Cheese here)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- A handful of fresh parsley, minced
- 2 red peppers
- 2 yellow peppers
- 1 lemon
- 80g packet of Rocket
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Good olive oil
Method
- If you are using a gas stove, skewer a pepper and place over the flames, rotating the pepper until the skin blisters and chars. If using a grill, grill the peppers until you get the same result. As soon as the pepper has blackened, place the pepper in a cellophane bag and seal it, setting the bag aside. Perform this process for each pepper.
- After 10 minutes, open the first cellophane bag and remove the pepper. The pepper should be soft and the stalk/seeds easily removed. Using your fingers rub the charred skin from the flesh and set the cleaned pepper aside. Repeat this step for each pepper.
- Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3.
- Slice the roasted peppers into tapering 2cm-wide slices and place these segments into a deep bowl.
- Add the minced garlic, the zest from a lemon, the minced parsley and enough olive oil to cover the peppers in oil.
- Set the covered, marinating peppers aside for the duration of the recipe.
- Remove a thin slice from the top and bottom of the goats’ cheese log to reveal the creamy cheese.
- Slice the remaining goat’s cheese into 2cm deep discs (we just cut the Coonen log into two).
- If you are using a blowtorch, place the discs in an oven-tray and flame the top of each disc until the cheese has a deep brown crust. Alternatively you can use a non-stick frying pan to brown one side of the cheese – if cooking the cheese like this, no oil is needed in the pan.
- Place the goats’ cheese into an oven tray, brown-side upper most, and place in the oven. Be careful at this point – watch the cheese as it cooks – you want a soft cheese but not a runny one. When the goats’ cheese begins to bubble at the base of the cheese, remove the tray from the oven.
- Place a handful of the rocket onto your plate and arrange the roasted pepper segments on top of the salad leaves, making sure that you get plenty of the minced garlic, lemon and olive oil.,/li>
- Using a spatula, carefully lift a disc of goat’s cheese on to these pepper slices.
- Sprinkle the dish with some freshly ground black pepper and serve.
Enjoy!
Other information
I think that either the Domaine Sainte-Eugénie Corbières Rosé 2009 or the Picpoul de Pinet would be perfect with this tasty salad. Just wait for the sun to come back and get the corkscrew out!
Tags: recipe, salad, summer, vegetarian
Categories: Recipes
This sounds delish! Will have to try it out when the weather brightens.