Roast Vegetable Salad with Fried Goat Cheese

Each of our CSA boxes comes with a newsletter that explains a little about each item in the box & gives a few recipe ideas. In this past newsletter they mentioned making a roast vegetable salad with the squash & peppers. I love a good roast vegetable salad & realized I hadn't made one in forever. I especially like them with goat cheese on them so I decided to try frying up the goat cheese like you often get in restaurants.

For the roasted vegetables I used butternut squash, UV roaster peppers & leeks but really this salad can be made with whatever vegetables you like & have on hand. I've used potatoes, beets, onions, beans & cauliflower in this type of salad in the past. Because I roast the vegetables with a little olive oil & balsamic the finished salad doesn't need any dressing. The goat cheese is fabulous as it melts & blends in with everything as well. You really don't even need to fry it as it will melt when it hits the warm vegetables but I really love cutting open that golden brown disc to get to the warm cheese.

Frying the cheese was easier than I thought. I had some problems getting the breading to stick especially where my fingers touched it. Those few holes in the breading didn't seem to cause any problems while cooking though & the the cheese stayed together nicely.

Roasted Vegetable Salad with Fried Goat Cheese

2 c butternut squash, peeled & cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 c red pepper, seeded & cut into strips
1/2 c leeks, cleaned & sliced
1 1/2 T olive oil
1/2 T balsamic vinegar
kosher salt
plain goat cheese log
1/2 c flour
1 egg, well beaten
1/2 c bread crumbs
salad greens (we used a mix of spinach & arugula)

Preheat oven to 400 F. Place the cheese log in the freezer.

Put the squash, peppers & leeks in a small roasting pan. Add the olive oil, vinegar & a good pinch or two of salt. Stir to coat the vegetables. Roast in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes until everything is turning brown & is tender (especially the squash).

During the last few minutes of cooking the vegetables make the fried cheese. Coat the bottom of a skillet with a little olive oil & heat over medium heat. Remove the cheese log from the freezer & cut into 1/4-inch slices (we got 9 from our log). Place the flour, egg & bread crumb in 3 different bowls. Dip the cheese in the flour, then egg & finally the breadcrumbs. Place carefully into the hot skillet. Let cook about 2 minutes until brown on the bottom, carefully flip over & cook the other side another 2 minutes.

Divide the salad green between two plates. Top with the roasted vegetables & then the fried cheese.

Serves 2

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