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Goat Cheese Salad with Peaches, Strawberries, and Poppy Seed Dressing

This salad is one of our very favorites and the goat cheese discs are heavenly!

Course Main Dish, Salad
Cuisine American
Author Janssen Bradshaw

Ingredients

For Goat Cheese Discs:

  • 1 cup pecans
  • 12 ounces goat cheese slightly softened
  • 2 T chopped fresh chives or the green part of a green onion
  • 1 t minced fresh or dried thyme
  • 1 egg
  • 1 T water

Poppy seed Dressing:

  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp dry mustard
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup white vinegar
  • 1 1/2 T white onion chopped
  • 1 cup oil
  • 1 1/2 T poppy seeds

To assemble salad:

  • 6 - 8 cups salad greens I like spinach or red leaf lettuce
  • 6-8 strawberries sliced
  • 1-2 peaches sliced thinly
  • Candied nuts optional

Instructions

For goat cheese discs:

  1. In a food processor, grind the pecans until finally chopped. Place on a small plate. Add the goat cheese, chives/onions, and thyme to the food processor and run until well combined.
  2. On a second small plate, beat the egg with the water until smooth.
  3. Spray your hands with some cooking spray, and scoop out about 2 T of the goat cheese mixture, roll it into a ball and then dip it in the egg mixture and then roll in the pecans. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  4. Repeat until all your goat cheese is gone.
  5. Spray the bottom of a drinking glass or measuring cup with cooking spray and flatten each goat cheese ball until it's just over 1/4 inch thick.
  6. Freeze for two hours.
  7. If you're baking them immediately after freezing, preheat the oven 475 and bake for 8-10 minutes. Otherwise, transfer them to a tupperware or other container for freezing (I've kept mine in the freezer for over a month with no problem).

For dressing:

  1. Put first five ingredients in a blender and blend until the onion is pulverized. With the blender running, slowly add oil. Stir in poppy seeds.

To assemble salad:

  1. Wash and dry the salad greens. Place on a plate or in a bowl, arrange sliced peaches on top, scatter the strawberries on the peaches and top with the candied nuts, if using them. Finish the salad off with the warm goat cheese discs and serve with poppy seed dressing.

Recipe Notes

(adapted from Perry's Plate)