Tags

, , ,

I love goat cheese. No seriously — L.O.V.E. It’s creamy, tart, and smooth and can add a huge amount of flavor to any dish. For this recipe, I chose to steam green asparagus, but any hearty vegetable would work well. In fact, I served a pan-seared steak along with the asparagus (the goat cheese sauce might even be better than melted, crusty bleu cheese on the steak, although Nicole would beg to differ…).

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. asparagus, cleaned and trimmed
  • 2 oz. goat cheese, softened (rest on counter for at least 1 hour)
  • 1 tablespoon dried basil (or 1/4 cup fresh chives)
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup water (to desired consistency)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Directions

First, clean and prep your asparagus. Rinse the stalks under running water, then let them dry.

Remove the woody ends of each stalk. Although you can simply snap each stalk to break off the end, with so many thin pieces, slicing them at once saves some time.

I prefer working with thin asparagus because it saves you from having to peel them. With thin asparagus, simply removing the woody, rough ends is enough to prep them for cooking. TIP: If you happen to have the thick asparagus, my suggestion is to remove the woody ends, then use a vegetable peeler to remove the outer layer of the bottom half of each stalk (the top half nearest the floret does not need to be peeled). Doing this to thick stalks will help them be tender after cooking.

To steam the asparagus: Pour about 1/2 inch of water in a pot and set the pot to boil on the stove. Once the water is boiling, place the asparagus stalks in a steaming basket, put it in the pot, and cover for 5-8 minutes (the more time you steam, the more tender the stalks).

Now, prepare the goat cheese sauce. Crumble the softened goat cheese into a bowl.

Whisk the goat cheese until smooth.

Add the olive oil, salt, and pepper to the bowl and mix well. After everything is incorporated, add water a couple tablespoons at a time until the sauce reaches the consistency you like. I added about 1/4 cup of water.

Spoon as much of the sauce over the asparagus as you like (I like quite a bit).

Feel free to stick your finger in the finished sauce and lick it off. It’s what I do. I won’t judge.

Advertisement