A Lemon-Maple Vinaigrette adds bright flavor to balance the rich goat cheese and fragrant walnuts. This classic salad is a welcome addition to any table.
I saw the Tina Fey American Express commercial where she's on the plane asking the guy for the last goat cheese salad. That sent me online looking for a goat cheese salad recipe and I found this one. It has all the qualities of a good salad that I like: sweet, tart, crunch and creaminess. I toasted my walnuts and added grilled chicken. Very tasty!
Delicious and effortless.
This salad is delicious! It can be improved, however, by reducing the amount of EVOO in the dressing to 3/4 cup instead of a full cup. With a full cup, the EVOO flavor is a bit overpowering. Another great improvement is to make maple-glazed walnuts for this salad, instead of using plain ones. This is really easy -- just heat your walnuts in a small pan. When hot and starting to toast, reduce heat and pour in enough maple syrup to cover the bottom of your pan, then stir constantly. The heat will cause the maple syrup to crystalize onto the nuts and it doesn't take long at all. Once the syrup begins to be more crystalized and less liquid, remove the pan from the heat and keep stirring until all the liquid is gone. You're done! (Really keep an eye on this and stir constantly, because it will burn.) These make a really tasty addition to this salad. I also like to make this an entree salad by adding sliced chicken.
Very good, the flavors as well as the textures married well together. I did not have maple syrup (very $$) for the dressing, so I subbed with a mixture of honey and pancake syrup and it was delicious. This is a keeper.
I have made this salad so much, and for so many people, that it has become a signature dish for me. I *always* have the ingredients in the pantry, and a batch of vinaigrette mixed in the fridge. I especially love that there is no vinegar in the dressing, and the sweet-tart flavor perfectly complements the creamy goat cheese and crunch of walnuts.
Made this for Christmas Eve. Now a new family favorite. The dressing is very easy and delicious. We are having it for New Year's Eve too.
