Fried Goat Cheese Salad

Fried Goat Cheese Salad - Baby greens topped with crispy pancetta, fried goat cheese and tart green apple.  Perfect for a lunch entrée or as an appetizer salad for dinner.

Yum

I wish I could tell you guys about this salad without telling you where I got the inspiration.  Sigh.  It's so embarrassing.  I'm not proud of myself.  You're going to be so disappointed in me.

Before we get to how I got the inspiration for this salad, let me just tell you about how awesome it is, deal?  Okay, so, um,  FRIED GOAT CHEESE !!!!!  Just making sure you got that part.

As with all the salads (like this, this or this)  I make, I start with a bagged lettuce blend.  My go to mix is usually a spring mix which contains arugula, baby spinach,  baby green romaine, radicchio and a few other things that are escaping me right now.  I accidentally picked up the wrong bag this week and ended up  having to use the Mediterranean blend, which has kale in it.  Kale is basically my kryptonite, so the fact that I still devoured this salad speaks volumes about how delicious it is.

When I started out, I had no plans of adding the pancetta but when I reached in the fridge it just sort of fell out and I took that as a sign from above.  Pancetta was just meant to be in this, I'm not messing with the powers that be. I crisped up the pancetta for a few minutes and set it aside.  You could use bacon if you want.

Hey, so something I learned while making this salad - goat cheese is a pain to slice.  A bunch of mine crumbled but I just kind of mashed it back together.  So don't worry if your goat cheese doesn't stay in nice big disc like shapes, just mush it together as best as you can.  Then all I did with the goat cheese was dip it in some egg, give it a roll around in panko crumbs and fry them in a bit of oil for about 2 minutes per side.

As I was assembling the goat cheese and pancetta on top of my bagged salad, I decided that tart apple slices would really put this over the top.  Lucky for me, the kids were nice enough to leave me one lone green apple.  I sliced the apples as thin as I could with out breaking out my mandolin.

I know I should have some great salad dressing recipe to go with but I had a white balsamic vinaigrette in the fridge so I used that.  I also think any sort of honey based dressing would have gone well with I too.  I'm not huge on honey but I think it goes awesome with goat cheese.

On to the question,  where did this idea come from.  If you know me personally (lucky you, first of all), you know that I am a self loathing, reality show junkie.  I swear, I wish I didn't watch but I just can't help myself.  It's such a naughty indulgence.  I'm a huge fan of all the Housewives of {insert any city} and because of that show I got roped in to watching the spin off of  the Beverly Hills franchise, Vanderpump Rules.  It's horrible.  And awesome.  But mostly horrible.  All at once.  Anyway, there is one girl (the worst girl - Stassi- yuck) that is always ordering a salad and raving about the fried goat cheese balls on it.  I have no clue how they make theirs or anything other than the girl I can't stand orders it, but it sounded like something I had to have.  I know, this is such a ridiculous way to come up with  recipe, but every time she utters the words "fried goat cheese", I'm salivating.  How could one not run straight to the kitchen to try it?

Let's end this post today with you promising not to judge me on my television watching habits, deal?

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Fried Goat Cheese Salad

Christine

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe

Ingredients

  

• 4 oz pancetta diced
• 4 oz goat cheese sliced into discs/half moons
• 1 egg
• 1 T water
• ½ C seasoned panko crumbs
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 granny smith apple sliced thinly
• 5 oz bagged salad mix spring mix (or your own preference)

Instructions

 

• Add pancetta to a medium sized skillet over medium heat and cook until crisp, stirring often. Remove pancetta to a paper towel lined plate and set aside.
• In a bowl, lightly beat egg and water together.
• In a shallow bowl or plate place panko crumbs.
• Dip goat cheese in egg first and then panko crumbs to coat.
• Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once a crumb dropped in sizzles, it's hot enough; add coated goat cheese. Allow to cook until browned and crispy, about 2-3 minutes per side. Remove to paper towel lined plate.
• Arrange lettuce blend on a platter, top with crispy pancetta, apple slices and fried goat cheese.
• Drizzle salad w/ honey or dressing of your choice (white balsamic works very well).

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!