Farmers Market Salad with Fried Goat Cheese and Fig Dressing

This is a recipe I’ve been eager to share with you, as it’s been in my regular rotation all summer long.

Inspired by what I found at the farmers market and a desire to upgrade the typical goat cheese salad, this Farmers Market Salad with Fried Goat Cheese was born!

Now, for this to work, there are a few important steps. Firstly, you have to make sure you’re choosing fresh produce. Grocery store produce works great, farmers market produce is next best, and your own garden? Now, that’s the next level!

It doesn’t so much matter what goes into the salad. The point is for it to be inspired by what you find. This summer, I made friends with my neighbor, who has the most fantastic, large fig tree. So figs have been front and center in my salads!

The next thing is that, for the goat cheese to fry properly, it needs to be frozen. Believe me, we had plenty of trial and error at dinner parties where the goat cheese did not fry. It just disintegrated into the oil.

So this is a make-ahead aspect of the recipe. Roll those goat cheese balls at least three hours before you plan to fry them and pop them in the freezer.

Once you fry the breaded goat cheese balls, they will remain crispy in the oven for up to an hour, so you don’t necessarily have to do that last-minute as your guests are arriving.

Ingredients

For the Salad

● 4 cups mixed greens

● 1 carrot, grated

● 2 radishes, grated

● 1 cucumber, chopped. I like the Japanese ones right now.

● ½ Maui onion (sweet onion), thinly sliced

● Fresh figs or apples, sliced

● 1/2 cup Garam Masala Spiced Nuts

https://www.communityeats.com/post/garam-masala-spiced-almonds

● ¼ cup dried cranberries. I like the unsweetened ones.

For the Fried Goat Cheese

● 1 package soft goat cheese

● 1 egg

● ½ cup flour

● ½ teaspoon garlic powder

● ½ teaspoon onion powder

● ½ teaspoon sea salt

● ½ teaspoon black pepper

● 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs. I like to just blend up a sourdough baguette in a Vitamix and use that.

● 2 cups frying oil, such as avocado or peanut oil

For the Fig Salad Dressing

● ¼ cup fig jam

● 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

● 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

● Zest of ½ lemon

● 1 garlic clove

● Sea salt and black pepper, to taste

● ¾ cup avocado oil

Blend everything together in your blender until smooth and emulsified.

Method

For the Salad

Finely slice and combine all of the ingredients in a large, beautiful salad bowl.

For the Fried Goat Cheese

Three hours before you plan to serve, roll the goat cheese into small balls, about the size of a grape.

Freeze these on a parchment paper-lined baking tray for at least 3 hours.

When you’re ready to fry, make a little breading station: flour in one bowl, beaten egg in another, and breadcrumbs in a third.

Get your oil heating over medium-high heat. When you think it’s getting very hot, test it with a few breadcrumbs. If they sizzle immediately, your oil is ready.

Following the steps of flour, egg, and finally breadcrumbs, coat those cheese balls.

Drop them into the hot oil one handful at a time. Fry them quickly, then scoop them out with a slotted spoon and drain them on a paper towel.

Serve the crispy Fried Goat Cheese over your Farmers Market Salad and drizzle with the Fig Dressing .

Bring it to the table with a  big smile!

A Note on Oil Temperature

I don’t have a candy thermometer, so I can’t tell you the exact temperature. All I know is that you want that oil pretty darn hot so that when you drop the breaded goat cheese balls into it, they fry quickly, in about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

If the oil isn’t hot enough, they will become soggy, slowly soaking up more and more oil, and they won’t get brown quickly.