The Secret to Making This Tricky Ingredient Easy to Handle
Trust us, it's genius.
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I love goat cheese in a salad, especially when paired with beets. It’s one of my favorite summer combos on top of fresh mixed greens. I have one complaint about it, though. Soft and creamy goat cheese sticks together really well and doesn’t disperse evenly throughout a salad. It’s hard to get a bite of the tangy cheese in each forkful.
But now, thanks to one of my Instagram account obsessions, Chef Thomas Straker, I may get to have my goat cheese on salads and eat it in each forkful, too. I first became interested in Straker through his many compound butter creations that he posts to his account. He makes over-the-top butter creations to pair with specific dishes, and I plan on making his burger sauce butter the next time I fire up the grill for burgers.
Over the weekend, Straker posted a quick recipe for a peeled tomato and frozen goat cheese salad, and I had to do a double take. Frozen goat cheese? But when I saw him take his cheese grater and grate the goat cheese over the salad, I thought, “Genius!”
He coated the top of the peeled tomato salad with a thin layer of microplaned goat cheese that didn’t clump together. I imagine that when the cheese is grated onto it, every inch of the salad has a tangy bite.
How to Freeze Goat Cheese
In the video, it looks like Straker has a whole four-ounce log of goat cheese frozen, and he grates the frozen cheese just as you would grate a portion of a full wedge of Parmesan or other hard cheese.
Freezing goat cheese is simple. Follow these instructions:
Divide the goat cheese into portions, if desired. You can freeze an entire log or freeze portion-sized parts of the log. It’s up to you.
Wrap the log or portions in freezer-safe plastic wrap. Then either add to a freezer-safe zipper top bag or wrap in a layer of foil for extra protection from freezer burn.
Place in the freezer. If you’re storing the goat cheese in the freezer long term, write the date on the packaging and use within 3 months.
Recipes to Use Grated Frozen Goat Cheese
Not every recipe qualifies for the grated frozen goat cheese technique. You wouldn’t want to use grated goat cheese in dishes like Strawberry Goat Cheese Bruschetta because you want the cheese soft, creamy, and spreadable.
But I can see trying this method with dishes like these:
Roasted Asparagus with Herb Goat Cheese (I’d add grated goat cheese 2 minutes before the dish is done instead of the entire time as advised for large crumbles of goat cheese.)
I’m really looking forward to trying this method. The next time I buy goat cheese, I’m definitely cutting off a portion and freezing it for future salads and more.
