If you've tried some of my other salad recipes, then you know how delicious a bunch of greens can taste. Making a side salad with dinner is one of the easiest ways to create a balanced meal, full of fiber, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Forget the pre-made salads sitting at the grocery store in plastic containers with questionable soggy ingredients. Instead, make your salad fresh with items found in your fridge!
I had leftover strawberries in my friends from the pancakes I made on the weekend. These paired nicely with the goat cheese purchased during my Sunday grocery shop. As for the greens and pecans, both of these items are kitchen staples, meaning, I always have some sort of leafy green in my fridge whether it's kale, arugula, spinach or mixed greens and nuts! These four ingredients were everything I needed for a yummy vegetarian dinner salad.
Goat cheese is smooth and creamy with a slightly sweet and sometimes salty undertone. You can find it in any health food store and now even most grocery stores.
It is a great choice for cheese because it's not homogenized, meaning the structure of the fat globule has not been changed, which makes it more digestible.
Most cow's milk (unless labelled non-homogenized) is always homogenized, otherwise the fat would rise to the top. However, many experts agree that lipase (your fat-digesting enzyme) has greater difficultly digesting fat when milk has been homogenized, making goat's milk products preferable to cow's milk for digestibility. You can learn more about the difference between goat's milk, cow's milk and sheep's milk-derived products over here.
Digestion aside, goat cheese is a favourite of mine because it tastes so darn good. It is a source of the amino acid tryptophan, plus calcium, phosphorus, potassium and vitamin B2, which is most known for its bone-building ability. Many parents use goat milk as an alternative for their kids who don't like cow's milk or have trouble digesting it.
I hope you enjoy this Goat Cheese Strawberry Pecan Salad as much as I did! It's delicious all year round, but especially in the Summer months!
Goat Cheese Strawberry Pecan Salad
Serves 2-3 people.
I would recommend trying this salad with any of these three delicious and healthy salad dressings!
What are some of your favourite salad toppers?
