Fried Goat Cheese Salad

Dinner, Lunch, Salad, Salads

Crispy breadcrumbed goat's cheese rounds, fried until golden outside and just starting to melt within, served on a bed of mixed leaves with sliced pear, fresh raspberries, red onion, and toasted walnuts. Finished with a honey and mustard vinaigrette that brings the whole thing together.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Servings 4

Ingredients 

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For the goat's cheese rounds

• 2 goat cheese 150gr logs
• 50 gr plain flour
• 2 eggs
• 80 breadcrumbs fine
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil for frying

For the salad

• 150 gr mixed lettuce leaves
• 1 pear ripe
• 150 gr raspberries
• 1 red onion thinly sliced into rings
• 80 gr walnuts

For the honey and mustard vinaigrette

• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
• salt and black pepper

Equipment

frying pan

3 mixing bowl for coating the cheese

whisk

kitchen paper

Instructions

1. Bread the goat's cheese rounds

• Set up three bowls: one with seasoned flour, one with the beaten eggs, one with breadcrumbs. Working one at a time, coat each goat's cheese round in flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs. For an extra-crispy crust, pass each round through the egg and breadcrumbs a second time. Place on the lined baking tray and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. This step is important, chilling firms the cheese back up and stops it melting straight through the crust when it hits the hot oil.

2. Toast the walnuts

• Toast the walnut halves in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, shaking the pan regularly, until golden and fragrant. Keep a close eye on them, they go from toasted to burnt quickly. Tip onto a plate and leave to cool.

3. Make the vinaigrette

• In a small bowl, whisk the mustard, honey, and vinegar together. Add the olive oil in a thin stream, whisking as you go, until the dressing emulsifies. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust, it should be sharp, slightly sweet, and well seasoned.

4. Prepare the salad

• Arrange the salad leaves on four plates. Distribute the pear slices, raspberries, red onion rings, and toasted walnuts over the leaves. Don't dress the salad yet, do this at the very last moment so the leaves don't wilt before the cheese is ready.

5. Fry the goat's cheese rounds

• Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Working in batches, fry the chilled goat's cheese rounds for 2 to 3 minutes per side until deep golden and crispy all over. Don't move them around, let them sit and colour properly before turning. Lift onto kitchen paper briefly to drain.

6. Dress and serve

• Spoon the vinaigrette over each salad. Place 3 hot goat's cheese rounds on each plate and serve immediately. The contrast between the hot crispy cheese and the cool dressed leaves is the whole point, don't let it sit.

Notes

• The chilling step is non-negotiable. If the cheese goes into the pan at room temperature, it melts faster than the crust can form and you end up with a puddle. One hour minimum, two hours is better.
• Firm goat’s cheese works best here. Avoid anything too fresh or too soft, it won’t hold its shape during frying. A good Crottin de Chavignol or a supermarket chèvre log that has been in the fridge is ideal.
• The second coat of egg and breadcrumbs gives you a noticeably thicker, crunchier crust. Worth the extra 30 seconds.
• Raspberries are not the most traditional element in a French chèvre salad, but they work well, their sharpness cuts through the richness of the cheese beautifully and they look stunning.
• This salad works as a starter in smaller portions or as a light main course with good bread alongside.

About this recipe

Fried goat cheese salad is one of my favourite French salad. Most of the time I don’t breadcrumb it and grill the goat cheese on bread in the oven. But when I feel fancy, I lve to elaborate the classic and put a bit more effort in it for this fried goat cheese salad version. The combination of warm melting goat’s cheese against cool dressed leaves is a simple idea that works every time.

The fried version versus the grilled version

TAs I was saying, the traditional salade de chèvre chaud puts sliced goat’s cheese on rounds of baguette or other good quality bread and grills them in the oven until the cheese softens and colours at the edges. This fried goat cheese salad takes a different approach: the cheese rounds are breaded and fried in a pan, which gives you a proper golden crust around the outside and a molten centre. The crust holds everything together and adds a crunch that makes the contrast with the soft leaves and juicy fruit more interesting.

The cheese

Goat’s cheese has been made across France for centuries, but the Loire Valley is its heartland. The region’s chalky soils produce milk with a particular mineral freshness that gives cheeses like Crottin de Chavignol, Selles-sur-Cher, and Valençay their characteristic clean, lightly tangy flavour. These are the cheeses that work best in a fried goat cheese salad: firm enough to hold up during frying and flavourful to stand up against honey, mustard or fruit. A good supermarket goat cheese log is a perfectly decent substitute if French imports are not available.

The key to picking your goat cheese is firmness. Soft, fresh goat’s cheese is too wet to bread and doesn’t fry well. You need a cheese that has had some time to firm up, either a slightly aged chèvre or a log that has been in the fridge long enough to develop a drier surface. If the cheese is too soft, it will fall apart when you try to coat it and collapse in the pan.

The dressing

The honey and mustard vinaigrette is a standard one in French bistro. It’s sharp from the vinegar, slightly sweet from the honey, emulsified with Dijon mustard, and rounded out with good olive oil. It is also exactly the right dressing for this hot goat cheese salad because the sweetness of the honey mirrors the sweetness of the pear and raspberries, and the sharpness of the vinegar keeps everything from tipping into richness. It might sound too simple, but this dressing is in my opinion just perfect on any salad when it’s homemade.

The walnuts

Walnuts are the traditional nut for this salad. In French cooking, walnuts and goat cheese have been paired for generations, particularly in the Loire and the Périgord. Their slight bitterness and earthy richness are exactly what this fried goat cheese recipe needs alongside the sweet fruit and creamy cheese. Toast them briefly in a dry pan before adding them to the salad. It makes a noticeable difference to the flavour and takes about two minutes extra.

The right pan for your fried goatcheese

The cheese rounds need a pan that heats evenly and holds a consistent temperature throughout the frying. Any variation in heat across the base produces uneven browning: some rounds developing a deep golden crust while others stay pale. The coating is also delicate, and a pan that is too hot or unevenly heated will burn the breadcrumbs before the cheese inside has had time to warm through.

I simply use my Tefal frying pan for this fried goat cheese salad. The non-stick surface means the breaded rounds release cleanly without the crust tearing when you flip them, which matters when the golden coating is the whole point of this version of fried goatcheese. The even heat distribution gives you consistent browning across every round rather than patches of dark and pale.