Salad With Fried Goat Cheese

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If you are looking for a versatile, elegant, and easy salad, this Salad with Fried Goat Cheese is here for you! This salad brings together the best of everything. Crunch, sweet, sour, and savory. It is a meal all by itself!

Warm Goat Cheese Salad

If you’re reading this and feeling skeptical, you really have to trust me on this one! This crusted goat cheese salad is so good! A salad with goat cheese is a divine way to not only eat salad, but goat cheese as well. How could you make it even better? Frying the goat cheese of course! 

The champagne citrus vinaigrette compliments the flavors nicely without stealing the show, and would be great on other salads too. Rounding out this cornucopia of texture and flavor is crunchy vegetables, hazelnuts, and dried cranberries.

If you are searching for a great way to utilize a few Farmers Market finds, this salad is it! Also, it is a nice way to use up any leftovers you might have from a charcuterie board (looking at you dried cranberries, hazelnuts, and goat cheese)! 

This recipe is also a fabulous opportunity to use up garden or CSA box veggies that you have sitting around. You know I am always looking for new ways with fresh veggies!

Panko Crusted Goat Cheese

If you haven’t eaten goat cheese rounds breaded and fried, you are really missing out. It’s crunchy yet soft and tangy, and pairs nicely with the veggies, hazelnuts, and dried cranberries. 

The goat cheese medallions are coated in crispy panko bread crumbs along with egg and flour to make a sturdy crust.

What You’ll Need For This Salad With Fried Goat Cheese Recipe

• Panko Bread Crumbs
• Plain Goat Cheese (not crumbles)
• All Purpose flour
• Egg
• Olive Oil
• Grated or Julienned Carrot
• Dried Cranberries
• Hazelnuts
• Kale
• Brussel Sprouts
• Air Fried Delicata Squash
• Salt and Pepper

Be sure to use Panko and not regular bread crumbs. You won’t have as much crunch.

There are more possibilities for changing up this salad, and I have listed some suggestions further down in the post.

You can use grated or julienned carrots in this salad. Some stores even carry them already cut if you want to save time.

Ingredients For The Champagne Citrus Vinaigrette

• Olive Oil
• Orange or Blood Orange Juice
• Champagne Vinegar
• Honey
• Garlic
• Fresh Thyme
• Salt and Pepper

Either Blood Orange or regular Orange may be used. Use fresh thyme over dried, it has a much better flavor.

Equipment Needed 

• Air Fryer
• 12 inch Non Stick Skillet (if you are not using an air fryer to cook the goat cheese)
• Large Bowl
• Stick Blender and large cup to make the dressing
• Chef’s Knife
• Three containers for holding the breading components ( I use cereal bowls or loaf pans)

How To Make Salad With Fried Goat Cheese 

The hardest part of making salad with warm goat cheese is breading and frying the goat cheese, which actually is not all that difficult. Every step is worth the end result because this salad is amazing!

1. Slice the goat cheese.
2. Dredge the goat cheese in flour, egg, and panko bread crumbs.
3. Air fry (or fry in a skillet) the goat cheese.
4. Cut the hazelnuts in half.
5. Grate the carrots (if you did not buy pre grated carrots).
6. Roughly chop the dried cranberries.
7. Slice the brussels sprouts (if you didn’t buy them pre sliced).
8. Add the salad greens to a large bowl.
9. Place the salad ingredients (including the air fryer delicata squash) in the bowl with the greens. 
10. Add the remaining salad components to the bowl.
11. Make the dressing.
12. Toss the salad with the dressing, then add the fried goat cheese to each portion of salad after plating.

Why add the fried goat cheese after plating? This makes it much easier to combine the salad ingredients with the dressing, and not have those nice goat cheese rounds fall apart on you.

Alternatively, you can portion out the salad on plates, add the fried goat cheese rounds, and then drizzle the dressing on top.

How To Fry Goat Cheese

While the recommended method for this is the air fryer, I have included pan frying instructions as well since not everyone has an air fryer.

Air Fried Goat Cheese

Air fryer goat cheese? Yep! It is really easy! I’ll show you step by step how to make fried goat cheese in the air fryer.

1. Bread the goat cheese by dipping in flour, egg, and panko.
2. Preheat the air fryer.
3. Add the breaded goat cheese to the air fryer basket and drizzle with a little oil, or use an oil spray.
4. Air fry for 10 minutes.

Pan Fried Goat Cheese

Can you pan fry goat cheese? Most certainly, and it is pretty simple to do. Even if you don’t have an air fryer, you can still make these fried goat cheese rounds. 

1. Bread the goat cheese the same as you would for air frying.
2. Heat a 12 inch non stick skillet on medium high heat.
3. Add oil to the skillet, then add the goat cheese rounds. 
4. Cook for 3 minutes or so on each side, or until golden brown.

You will need much more oil to pan fry these than air fry.

How Do You Cut Goat Cheese For A Salad?

I find that using a knife makes it too crumbly. To get a nice clean cut for your goat cheese slices, try using dental floss. Simply take a long length of floss, place it on the cheese where you want to slice it, and slowly saw back and forth until you have sliced through the goat cheese log. 

No need to go back up through the cheese log, it will be cut all the way through. While you may have some crumbling of the slices, it will not be nearly as bad with this method than using a knife. 

Champagne Citrus Vinaigrette

This vinaigrette is the perfect foil for the tangy goat cheese. The sweet yet tart citrus along with honey makes the perfect flavor combo!

Orange or blood orange are equally great in this dressing. If you can’t find Champagne Vinegar, try White Wine Vinegar instead.         

Will The Goat Cheese Melt While Frying?

That’s the great part, it won’t! It will get warm but it doesn’t melt in the amount of time it takes to get that coating nice and golden brown. This is true whether you are using the air fryer or pan frying.

Can Warm Goat Cheese Salad Be Made Ahead?

Of course! I would recommend pouring the dressing on top at the last minute. You can even make the Air Fryer Delicata Squash ahead of time and have it ready and waiting.

I do however recommend that you cook the goat cheese right before serving the salad. Refrigerating the fried goat cheese would make for a soggy breading. 

Recipe Variations

There are endless possibilities with this salad. You could try cubes of roasted butternut squash or sweet potato, or dried blueberries if you can find them. 

Dried apricots or dried pears would be equally lovely. Blackberries, strawberries, pecans, roasted cauliflower, roasted beets, red bell pepper, roasted red peppers, or just about anything else you can think of can change this salad up in a number of ways, making it different each and every time.

There are all sorts of greens that would be amazing here such as frisee, spring mix, radicchio, or arugula.

Looking for a different dressing to try? Try my Basil Balsamic Vinaigrette, Strawberry White Balsamic Vinaigrette, or the maple dijon dressing that is part of my Pear and Parmesan Salad.

What Goes Well With Crusted Goat Cheese Salad?

I love this salad with most anything! It is really hearty by itself, so it tends to pair well with lighter fare such as soups or appetizers. You don’t need anything heavy with this salad.

This makes a terrific light lunch on its own, or a great dinner when paired with soup. I love eating this year round, but if you are eating this in the Fall, I recommend trying my Delicata and Carnival Squash Soup or Cream of Asparagus Soup in the Spring. 

This would be a fantastic salad as part of a brunch spread or tea party as well. It is a lovely addition to a dinner party menu, especially if you are looking to impress. This salad is elegant without being too snooty.

Salad with Fried Goat Cheese is also really nice as part of a picnic spread, with some curried chicken salad, farro salad with spring vegetables, blueberry lavender lemonade, strawberry basil lemonade, or rhubarb lemonade.

This salad is great to serve as a side with vegetable flatbread too!

Main Dishes To Pair With This Salad

This is a nice side to serve with pesto butter salmon, or roasted or grilled chicken. This salad is very filling, so you don’t want to pair it with a main dish that is too heavy.

I hope you love this warm goat cheese salad as much as I do, it’s a favorite in my house! 

If you are reading this, thank you for stopping by The Copper Table! If you have tried this salad with fried goat cheese recipe, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below, and please share this recipe with your friends on social media. 

To share with friends, you can make this and take a picture and tag me @thecoppertable in a post on Instagram, pin to a Salad or Side Dishes board on Pinterest or share on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else you like! 

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