Sunday, June 20, 2010

Spring salad with cherries and goat cheese

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I think a good salad is like a wedding. What, did you think I was about to talk about the marriage of flavors? Not exactly. I'm talking about poetry. But instead of the traditional wedding rhyme...

Something old
Something new
Something borrowed
Something blue

...my ideal salad is more like...

Something green (lettuce or other greens)
Something sweet (fruit, fresh or dried)
Something cream (cheese)
Something treat! (nuts, seeds, croutons, bacon bits - something salty and crunchy)

My salads are all about juxtapositions. Bitter greens with sweet fruit. Creamy cheese with tart vinaigrette. Soft fruit with crunchy nuts. And so on.

This spring salad with cherries, goat cheese and pumpkin seeds hits all the right notes. The greens came from a friend's garden, and they were perfect. The cherries - we're drowning in them after our cherry-picking excursion this weekend, so they had to have a place in the salad. I thought feta cheese would have been better, but we had none, and in the end the goat cheese was perfect. Toasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds) added just the right amount of nutty crunch. Lightly dressed with a mustard-lemon vinaigrette, this was the first course for our Father's Day celebration. Perfect for celebrating, perfect for spring.

Spring salad with cherries and goat cheese
  • 6 cups mixed baby greens, washed
  • 1 cup sweet cherries, pitted and halved
  • 2 ounces fresh goat cheese
  • 1/4 cup pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), toasted
  • 1/4 cup French vinaigrette
 In a large salad bowl, toss together all ingredients. Add more dressing if you like. Serve immediately.


Cherry

6 comments:

SMITH BITES said...

What a pretty salad and I can only imagine the taste - juxtaposition a good thing - and this salad has it all!

Erika Kerekes said...

Thanks Smith! I wish the photo had been a little better - still struggling with my camera - but by the time I discovered that the photos weren't sharp enough, the salad was gone gone gone!

Lynne@CookandBeMerry.com said...

Erika, what a gorgeous photo! Did you crop it and send it to Tastspotting? It's worthy.

Erika Kerekes said...

Lynne - I didn't, because (don't tell) the photo is not at all in focus. I sharpened it on Picnik but it's still only mildly passable. I think I forgot to hit the Macro button. Oops.

But thanks for the compliment all the same!

Brittany said...

Doesn't Goat Cheese just make everything in life better? This looks delish!

Erika Kerekes said...

Brittany - goat cheese does indeed make life better. When I think about going back to France (on vacation, not to live), I think mostly about goat cheese!

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