Goat Cheese and Pistachio Salad

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Man has been making goat cheese for thousands of years.

Goats were one of the first domesticated animals in Middle East, raised primarily for their meat. The Moors took goats to France in the 8th Century AD where the French were the first to embrace and perfect the deliciousness of transforming goat milk into cheese.

Kick Up The Presentation Factor: Goat Cheese and Pistachio Salad

Typically when goat cheese is added to a salad, it’s in crumbles. That’s because goat cheese has a pesky tendency to crumble. You know this well if you’ve ever tried to use a knife to spread goat cheese on a cracker (and thus, why it’s so very often crumbled into every dish it adorns).

But there are no crumbles in our Goat Cheese and Pistachio Salad. The crumble factor is overcome with a bit of cling film and some time in the freezer before and after rolling the goat cheese log in the pistachios.

The log is sliced into medallions fresh out of the freezer and are laid on top of the salad greens. It may still peel off a crumble or two, but the presentation factor is worth the effort.

Health Benefits of Goat Cheese

Goat’s cheese is lower in lactose than cow’s milk cheese. So if you’re lactose intolerant, it may be a good cheese to try.

In addition, goat’s cheese may help you feel fuller longer which can help with weight loss; improve digestion; improve bone health with its calcium content; and it’s also a great source of selenium that helps the body break down DNA damaging peroxides.

Goat Cheese and Pistachio Salad: All The Looks of Fancy Yet Simple

“Fromage de chèvre” is the fancy, smancy way to say “goat cheese”.

The word chèvre simply means “goat” in French.

So if you want to impress your friends and family, tell them you are making a “Fromage de Chèvre and Pistachio Salad” instead of the plain ‘ole American way of saying, “Goat Cheese and Pistachio Salad”.

Either way you play it you and your guests are going to love this fun and delicious Goat Cheese and Pistachio Salad.

Looking for another way to use goat cheese? Try my Goat Cheese and Sage Stuffed Mushrooms.

Goat Cheese and Pistachio Salad

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No crumbles here! Goat cheese is rolled in diced, toasted pistachios and sliced into medallions that provides a fancy look, but is super simple to prepare.

• Author: Life At The Table

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 4 oz log fresh goat cheese
• 3 tablespoons pistachios, toasted and finely chopped
• 8 slices of Roma (or other) tomato
• 4 cups spring mix greens
• herb vinaigrette

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Instructions

1. Tightly wrap the goat cheese and freeze for 10 minutes.
2. Remove the wrapping and roll the goat cheese log in two tablespoons of chopped pistachios until coated.
3. Wrap the pistachio coated goat cheese log in a fresh piece of plastic wrap; freeze for 20 minutes.
4. Remove the goat cheese from the freezer and slice into 1/2-oz medallions.
5. To assemble, place 1 cup of salad greens on a plate topped with two slices of tomato.
6. Drizzle the tomato-topped greens with the herb vinaigrette.
7. Add 1-2 slices of goat cheese medallions on top of the tomatoes.
8. Garnish with the reserved chopped pistachios.

Notes

• If you don’t use all of the goat cheese to top the salad, repurpose it into a goat cheese spread by mashing it with olive oil, lemon juice, and red pepper flakes.
• Find my herb vinaigrette recipe here.