Five-Cheese Salad with Nuts and Greens

Five-Cheese Salad with Nuts and Greens

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In many countries, appetizers made from all kinds of cheese are very popular, served with not-too-strong drinks. Each drink traditionally gets its own kind of this dairy product. A cheese salad is often made and served in portions or on a large platter. Given how rich and high in calories such appetizers are, they are served in small portions, or one or two dishes per table.

Depending on which varieties you have, a cheese salad can be made from different products. One important point: do not use soft or very hard cheeses. The former will simply run, and very hard ones will stand out too much, so semi-hard varieties are ideal.

Cheese salad is best made right before serving. By the way, cheese goes into many appetizers. Mimosa is often made with processed cheese, Greek salad gets cubes of feta, and the famous Shopska salad is unthinkable without its snow-white “cap” of brined brynza. In Italy, Parmesan is very often sprinkled over dishes.

A cheese salad is easy to make. What simplifies the cooking even more is that you can use several kinds of cheese with different flavors, preferably very different ones. Herbs and various nuts are worth adding. The dressing is usually very simple: olive oil with wine vinegar.

There is a special knife for slicing cheese, with wide holes in the blade. Lightly chilled semi-hard cheeses can be grated perfectly well. Softer ones are better cut with a cheese wire.

For this recipe I chose soft mozzarella together with a mix of torn lettuce, which is laid out on the plate and serves as the base for serving. I added almonds and a few walnuts to the appetizer. To give it a pronounced flavor you can use a soft blue cheese. Besides that I took Edam, Emmental and Gouda. I dressed the mix with olive oil, a few drops of wine vinegar and a pinch of dried oregano. Note that this appetizer is very high in calories.

Ingredients

4 servings

For the salad

  • Dorblu 100 g
  • Mozzarella 100 g
  • Edam 75 g
  • Emmental 75 g
  • Gouda 75 g
  • Almonds 1 tbsp (11 g)
  • Walnuts (shelled) 1 tbsp (8 g)
  • Boiling water to cover the almonds

For the dressing

  • Olive oil 1-2 tbsp
  • Wine or balsamic vinegar 0.5 tsp
  • Dried oregano a pinch

For serving

  • Green lettuce leaves to taste

Step-by-step recipe

Cheeses and nuts

Edam fit in very well. It is a traditional Dutch cheese, inexpensive, yellow and slightly pale. Its taste is mildly piquant and very delicate. Dutch Gouda also has a delicate, piquant taste. Its high fat content and yellow flesh with noticeable holes are its distinguishing features. It often contains various additions such as nuts, seeds and spices. Swiss Emmental is sweetish and firm, with large holes. It can be replaced with Italian provolone.

Cheese slices for the salad.

  1. Grate the semi-hard cheeses: cut Emmental, Edam and Gouda into matchsticks or grate them on a coarse grater. It is better if the cheeses are chilled, as they are then a bit firmer and grate well. Put the cheese in a small bowl in which the salad will be mixed.

    Grated cheese.

  1. Prepare the almonds: cover them with boiling water for a few minutes and peel them; after soaking, the skins slip off easily with your fingers.

  2. Slice the blue cheese and mix the salad. Cut the noticeably sharp Dorblu, Danablu, Gorgonzola or a similar cheese with a cheese wire or a small knife. Pieces stick to the blade and lose their shape, so do it carefully. Break the walnuts coarsely with your fingers. Add the blue cheese, almonds and walnuts to the bowl and gently mix the cheese salad.

    Nuts and almonds in the salad.

Dressing

  1. Make the dressing: in a cup, mix 1-2 tbsp of olive oil, 0.5 tsp of wine or balsamic vinegar and a pinch of dried oregano. Whisk with a fork; the mixture emulsifies well.

    If you like, add the chopped fillets of a few anchovies to the dressing, which improves the taste.

Serving

  1. Lay out the base: on a large plate, arrange green lettuce leaves torn into pieces. Add mozzarella balls around the edge, or a sliced piece. The anchovies can also go right on the mozzarella.

  2. Pile the prepared cheese salad in a mound, drizzle with the dressing and serve right away. For individual servings, put small portions on separate plates.

    cheese salad

    Sometimes the appetizer is also chilled before serving, so that it soaks up the dressing.

Calories and macros

445 kcal

Serving ≈ 120 g

  • Protein26 g24% of kcal
  • Fat37 g74% of kcal
  • Carbs3 g2% of kcal

100 g381 kcalProtein 22.4 gFat 31.5 gCarbs 2.2 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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