Salade Chèvre Chaud

Salade with Grilled Goat’s Cheese

Peter Flynn

Salade de chèvre chaud 🔗

This is a popular French bistro menu item, found in many different styles, so this is a domesticated version that you can do at home. The trick is to have the dressing and salad made and plated before you start on warming the cheese.

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Serves 4. Prep time: 30 minutes. Cooking time: 10 minutes.

Ingredients

Salad

  • 200 g lardons | cooked and let go cold (or a dozen streaky rashers, or pancetta)
  • 16 walnuts | halved
  • 1 whole butterhead lettuce (or mix with other leaves like baby spinach, watercress, or lamb’s lettuce)
  • 4 tbsp honey [optional]

Dressing

  • 8 tbsp olive oil (or substitute 2 tbsp with walnut oil)
  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 dsp mustard powder
  • 1 pinch salt (see tip)
  • ¼ tsp white pepper | finely ground
  • ½ tsp sugar

Cheese

  • 16 slices goat cheese [easiest is the round ‘log’ type]
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 16 slices bread | cut or cooked to be just a bit bigger than the slices of cheese (or dropscones or mini-galettes)

Method

Salad

  1. Fry the lardons and set aside.

  2. Grill the walnuts for a few minutes either side until hot but not darkened, set aside to cool.

  3. Tear or shred the lettuce and arrange between the plates.

  4. Scatter the lardons over each plate (if using rashers or pancetta, leave them whole and arrange them instead, three per plate).

  5. Break the walnuts into quarters and scatter them over each plate.

Dressing

  1. Add all the dressing ingredients (olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, mustard powder, salt, pepper, and sugar) into a jug or bowl or blender.

  2. Mix or whisk thoroughly and pour over the plates of lettuce or serve separately according to people’s tastes.

Cheese

  1. Beat the egg in a shallow bowl, and put the flour and bread crumb in separate bowls alongside.

  2. Coat the slices of cheese in the flour, dip them in the egg, and dust lightly with the bread crumb.

  3. Fry in the vegetable oil for a few seconds both sides until very lightly coloured.

  4. Make or toast the rounds of bread, distribute them on the lettuce (ie four per person), and lay a slice of warmed cheese on each one.

Serving

  • Drizzle with the honey or put it in a jug for each person to use.

Any timings underlined in red are in addition to the preparation time (eg waiting time)

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