A 15-minute prep Warm Goat Cheese Salad full of flavor! Crunchy lettuce topped with warm goat cheese full of sesame seeds and cranberries with a delicious sesame tahini dressing.
Holy goat! This salad tastes A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! Yes! All capitals and with pauses between the individual letters kind of amazing. Just like the other winter salad I made the other day.
It does look gorgeous but sometimes the looks deceive. I’ve eaten so many things that looked pretty but ended up tasting meh. This salad tastes even better than it looks!!
What makes the warm goat cheese special is that it contains chopped up cranberries and is rolled in hemp seeds and black sesame seeds. Plus, the dressing has sesame oil and the combo of goat cheese and sesame flavor is THE BOMB!
The secret to any salad pretty much lies in the salad dressing. So, switch it up often and mix and match all flavors for your dressing.
How to warm goat cheese
In a pan
Preheat a non-stick pan over low heat at least 5 minutes. Then add goat cheese balls and cover with a lid. Once they just start to lose shape because they want to melt, remove from the pan and add to a plate or your salad. This will only take about 3-5 minutes.
In the oven
Alternatively, you can warm goat cheese in the oven. Preheat oven to 250F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, place prepared goat cheese balls on the sheet about 2 inches apart. Once the oven is hot, place the baking sheet in the center of the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until goat cheese balls start losing their shape. Remove from the oven and immediately lift parchment paper off the baking sheet or they’ll continue melting due to the hot baking sheet.
Voilá, the goat cheese for your Warm Goat Cheese Salad is done and ready to eat!
Warm Goat Cheese Salad
Ingredients
- 5 oz baby leaf lettuce - (140g: baby spinach, baby romaine etc.,)
- 1 cup sliced red cabbage
- 1/2 cup blueberries
- 8 oz goat cheese
- 2 Tbsp black sesame seeds - or white sesame seeds
- 2 Tbsp hemp seeds
- 2 Tbsp dried cranberries
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 Tbsp tahini
- 1/2 Tbsp honey
- sea salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Finely chop dried cranberries and add to a small bowl. Add sesame seeds and hemp seeds and mix well.
- Take about 1/2 Tbsp of goat cheese into your hands and roll between your palms until a ball forms, then roll goat cheese ball in seed mix and place on a plate. Repeat until all goat cheese is in balls.
- Heat a non-stick pan over very low heat.
- For the dressing, add sesame oil, tahini, honey, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and sea salt and pepper to a sealable jar and shake until well combined.
- Once the pan is very hot, add seeded goat cheese balls and cover with a lid. When they start to lose shape immediately remove from pan and place on a plate or on the salad.
- Add lettuce and sliced cabbage to a salad bowl, scatter blueberries on top and add goat cheese balls on top.
- Add salad dressing right before serving and toss to combine.
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Min says
What type of goat cheese is suitable for warm up?
Lorena Grater says
Any type works.
Karla says
No hemp, but great!
Gail says
I only had white sesame seeds and no hemp but still out of this world delish!
Roger Mitchell says
I didn’t use tahini or sesame seeds. Oil yes. It didn’t matter. This salad was outstanding! Will make again.
Bec says
More than delicious and super easy