Crunchy green salad with goats cheese and mixed seed praline recipe

I’m quite happy with this creation of mine because its pretty much exactly how I like to go with a salad. Loads of green leaves and green crunchy bits. Salty, creamy goats cheese adding richness and savoury flavour, and a sweet mixed seed praline bringing another element of crunch to the mix. Have I said crunch enough yet? A mustardy vinaigrette pulls it all together, and I’d whip this one out for an occassion when you are trying to impress.

I’m going through a love affair with kohlrabi at the moment and am thrilled to be finding it more often in the shops. Since my trip to Israel where it appeared on our plate quite often and in very sophisticated ways.

I’ve taken to slicing it finely with a mandolin and adding it to most of my salads. It’s a close relative of the cabbage and tastes like a cross between a sweet broccoli stem and a cabbage heart, and so far I’ve only eaten it raw because of its amazing gentle flavour and crunchy texture. I have seen of a few stunning recipe where it’s cooked, or made into chips, so I plan to do some experimenting soon.

As far as salad leaves go I like a mix of watercress, rocket and baby spinach in pretty much equal parts. These aer less watery leaves and stand up well to the other ingredients adding a good dose of healthy chlorophyl.

A few other gotas cheese recipes you might like

Roast cherries with whipped goat’s cheese dip

Caramelised onion & goat’s cheese tartlets

Goat’s cheese truffles with honey & pistachios

Dukkah baked pears with goat’s cheese & honey

This recipe serves 2 as a side

Ingredients

Seed praline

½ cup sugar
¼ cup mixed seeds pumpkin, sunflower and sesame

Dressing

½ small garlic clove minced
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
pinch of sea salt flakes
black pepper

Salad

200 gm mixed leaves – baby spinach rocket and watercress
half a kohlrabi peeled and finely cut into julienne
5 radishes very finely sliced on a mandolin
3 – 4 mini cucumbers finely sliced
2 – 3 spring onions finely sliced
60 gm goats cheese / chevin

Instructions

To make the praline put the sugar in a small pot and heat until the sugar melts and turns and dark amber colour. Working very quickly, remove from the heat and stir through the seeds. Empty this out onto a baking sheet lined with silicone paper or parchment paper. Spread it out as thins as possible and allow it to set.
To make the dressing add all the ingredients to a small jar and shake vigorously until it is emulsified.
When you are ready to serve, make up the salad on a flat platter and then cut the cheese and dot this evenly around. Break the seed praline up and into small shards and scatter these over the salad. Drizzle over the dressing and serve.