Warm Herb-Crusted Goat Cheese Spinach Salad.

March 10, 2010

I have a huge confession.

I only recently started eating goat cheese. I’m sure some slipped by my lips in previous years without me knowing when I have ordered some sort of salad loaded with bacon and fries.

But, I just lately purchased it myself. It was difficult to bring myself to eat something with the word ‘goat’ in it. I just think of hairy, dirty animals with horns. Goats have horns, right? Or something like it.

Anyway, I’m in love.

And even better, I highly doubt Mr. How Sweet has the sophisticated taste buds to eat goat cheese. In fact, I doubt he would eat anything with the word ‘goat’ in it either, unless it involved massive amounts of meat. And that is just gross.

So, as usual, this means more for me.

Something else strange has been happening in my world lately.

I’ve had this odd craving for . . . salad. Like, a salad full of vegetables.

I know. It is weird.

So I’ve made some of these strange looking things, these salads as you call them, and of course, 2 bites in, I am totally disgusted.

Tastes like grass. And tastes like something else that rhymes with grass.

Just when I thought my taste buds were maturing, were willing to accepts veggies in all colors of the rainbow, I was shot down.

Alas, there is still a tiny bit of promise.

This salad gave me some hope.

Warm, gooey, melty goat cheese coated in crispy whole wheat panko. I could probably eat a pound of this in one sitting, it was that desirable.

Combined with the crisp spinach, the sweet strawberries, and the salty walnuts, it almost turned my love for vegetables around.

Then I realized that there weren’t many vegetables in the salad.

Oh, well.

I still ate a salad, and a might fine and tasty one at that.

Warm Herb-Crusted Goat Cheese Spinach Salad

2 cups baby spinach

1/4 cup strawberries, sliced

1 oz glazed walnuts, chopped

1/8 red onion, sliced thin

1 oz goat cheese

1/4 cup flour

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs

pinch of rosemary & thyme

I tablespoon olive oil

Arrange spinach, strawberries, and onions in a salad bowl.

Heat olive oil in a small skillet on medium heat. Place flour, egg, and panko in 3 separate bowls in an assembly line. Add rosemary and thyme to panko.

Coat goat cheese in flour, dip in beaten egg, and roll in panko mix. Make sure to press bread crumbs into cheese. Place in skillet and let brown on all sides, making sure the coating does not burn. As soon as the breading is golden brown and crispy, remove from skillet and lay on a paper towel for 60 seconds.

Add on top of salad while still warm.