Goat Cheese Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Goat Cheese Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Simple, beautiful salad to serve with many meals. I wanted to include one of my favorite, easy salads that I serve quite often. You can use any combination of ingredients you want, but I am never without goat cheese or pine nuts in my kitchen. Chef's talk about their 'mise en place', well those are definitely two ingredients that would be in my mise. Pine nuts are delicious on everything from pasta to salads as I've mentioned before. The vinaigrette recipe is the same one from 'rosemary steak salad' except I use lemon juice instead of vinegar and add more mustard. When you see how simple and delicious making your own dressing is, you'll never want bottled again!

Lemon Vinaigrette
origin - Pat Ann Harris

juice of one lemon
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
1-2 tbsp honey - depending on your taste
1 small finely chopped shallot
salt and pepper to taste

I like to combine all the ingredients except the olive oil in a mini food processor for 30 seconds. Then add the olive oil and combine again. Voila! Home made dressing. If you don't want to use the food processor, combine all the ingredients except the oil with a small whisk until combined and then slowly stream the olive oil in while whisking until combined. The idea is to 'emulsify' the oil into the ingredients so you don't have separation. This dressing lasts for quite a while in the refrigerator.

Goat Cheese Salad
origin - lisa lou

Mixed greens - I really like to have a blend with Arugula
Approximately 1 tbsp goat cheese per salad
Approximately 1 tsp lightly toasted pine nuts per salad
Cucumbers chopped
Plum tomatoes chopped

Assemble each salad and top with Lemon Vinaigrette.