Composed garden salad with goat cheese - country living

8 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 medium (about 1/2 lb) sweet orange pepper
1 medium (about 1/2lb)
Sweet yellow pepper
2 Large (about 1 1/2 lb) sweet red peppers
1 Large (about 1 1/4 lb) purple eggplant
1 medium (about 3/4 lb) white eggplant
3 mediums (about 1 1/2 lb) zucchini
3 Small (about 1 lb) yellow squash
1 8-oz log herb goat cheese
1 4-oz log plain goat cheese
Olive oil
Salt and ground black pepper

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400'F. Line a 2-quart shallow oval baking dish with plastic wrap, allowing additional wrap to extend over rim of dish.

Set aside.

2. Place whole peppers on ungreased rimmed baking sheet. Roast 30 minutes or until skins blister and wrinkle, turning every 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, cut off and discard stem from purple eggplant; cut eggplant in half lengthwise, then in half crosswise to make quarters.

Cut each quarter lengthwise into ¼-inch-thick slices. Cut off and discard stems from white eggplant, zucchini, and yellow squash; cut each lengthwise into ¼-inch-thick slices.

4. Remove peppers from oven. With tongs, place peppers in brown paper bag; close bag tightly. Set aside about 20 min- utes to allow peppers to steam and cool. On same baking sheets, arrange sliced vegetables in single layer. Brush vegetables lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper as desired. Roast 15 to 20 minutes or until vegetables are lightly browned. Set aside to cool.

5. When peppers are cool, peel, halve, stem, and seed; cut lengthwise into 2-inch strips. Cut both goat cheeses into ¼-inch- thick rounds.

6. Assemble Composed Vegetable Salad: With hands, press orange pepper strips flat against side of oval dish; tightly pack purple eggplant slices against orange peppers. Continue packing vegeta- bles into dish using yellow squash, herb goat cheese, red pepper, zucchini, white eggplant, yellow pepper, purple eggplant, and plain goat cheese. Repeat until the dish is full. Fill any gaps with some of the leftover vegetables.

7. Place any remaining vegetable slices across top; using spatula, gently press to form an even, flat surface. Pull plastic wrap extending over vegetables to cover top. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled -at least 2 hours or overnight.

8. Remove salad from refrigerator about 1 hour before serving. Pull back plastic wrap from top of salad. To unmold salad, place serving platter upside down over dish and, holding platter and dish, carefully invert both. Lift off dish and carefully remove plastic wrap. While salad is still cold, cut into 8 serving-size portions using sharp serrated knife. Cover salad loosely with plastic wrap and let stand 30 minutes to come to room temperature before serving.

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