Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad

This past weekend, we had a little post-St. Patrick’s day celebration with some friends, and everyone was kind enough to bring something to go along with the corned beef sandwiches I made.  To be honest, I didn’t like the corned beef or the coleslaw topping enough to share the recipe, but I did get another delicious idea from this mini-potluck.  Our friends Lexi and Brad made a delicious salad with strawberries, goat cheese, almonds, and homemade poppyseed dressing.  It was so good that I have been thinking about it  since Friday!

I vowed to eat more fruits and vegetables this week, and what better way than with strawberry salad.  The part I liked the best was definitely the goat cheese. I’m a big goat cheese fan, but surprisingly enough I don’t know that I’ve ever put it on a salad.  Since it’s a very soft cheese, you can’t really chop it or shred it, but crumbling small pieces worked pretty well.  I chose to go with a raspberry vinaigrette for the salad because I wanted something super light, but the poppyseed was also delicious.  For the raspberry vinaigrette, I added Herbes de Provence, which is usually a mix of rosemary, thyme, sage, anise and lavender – but it varies a lot from mix to mix. In all honesty, at some point in the past, I was out of rosemary and in the middle of making dinner, so figured I’ve got this stuff ,and it has rosemary in it – I’ll try it.  Since then I haven’t actually  replaced my rosemary, I always just substitute Herbes de Provence – it just sounds so delightful, don’t you think?

Raspberry Vinagarette

• 3 T.  Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 T. water
• 3 T. Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar  (I even found this at Walmart)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon Herbes de Provence or Rosemary (or 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Dash of salt and pepper

Wisk all ingredients until combined.

Strawberry Goat Cheese Salad

• 4 cups spring mix salad
• 1 cup of strawberries, sliced
• 3 oz goat cheese, crumbled
• 1/4 cup Pecans or Almonds (or both)

Place the almonds or pecans on a small baking tray and sprinkle with salt. Toast them under the broiler for a couple of minutes.  Be sure to watch them the whole time!  They go from toasted to burnt in about 2 seconds (speaking from personal experience).  Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, and toss with raspberry vinaigrette.

*I don’t actually measure out how much of anything I put into a salad, so this is just a rough suggestion.