Goat Cheese Sauce
A Simple Tangy Side for Fish or Vegetables
- Servings: Makes about 3/4 cup.
Sometimes we want a flavor accent to add the simple foods we often cook. Such as a plain piece of poached salmon or a sheet pan of roasted vegetables or a bowl of steamed asparagus.
Hollandaise sauce or a flavored mayonnaise are traditional and popular, but a lighter and easier to make choice is crumbled goat cheese, thinned into a sauce with yogurt or cream. You can cut calories and fat by using non-fat yogurt and half-and-half or add calories and creaminess with full-fat yogurt and heavy cream. Grated onion and a generous addition of chives add complexity, the result being an appealing white and green-flecked thick but creamy flavor addition for a variety of simply cooked foods.
This recipe is a good way to use up older goat cheese that may be about to get too tangy to eat by the piece because combining it with these other ingredients will mellow its flavor. If you're going to buy goat cheese specifically to make this sauce, one of the lesser expensive little logs, such as those made by Coach or Crottin, will work perfectly. Save the better and more costly artisanal and aged chevres like Boucheron or Chevrot for eating by hand or crumbled.
Ingredients
- 1 3.5 to 4.0 oz. log of goat cheese, about 2/3 cup when crumbled
- 3 tablespoons grated yellow onion or shallot
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 2 to 3 tablespoons of snipped chives (reserve a few pieces to sprinkle on top as a garnish when the sauce is finished)
- 4 tablespoons heavy cream or half-and-half; an alternative could be low fat plain yogurt
Directions
- In a small bowl, crumble the goat cheese.
- Using the large holes on a box grater, grate about 3 tablespoons of a yellow onion. Add about 2 tablespoons to the crumbled cheese, saving the rest to gradually add later as you adjust the sauce's taste.
- Add the salt and cream and with a fork, mix to combine. If you want the sauce more liquid, just add more cream or yogurt until you get the consistency you want.
- Add the chives and combine. Taste and adjust for seasoning, including adding more grated onion, salt or chives to taste.
- When the sauce is ready to serve, sprinkle a few snipped chives on top as a garnish and so that others will know what flavors to expect.
This sauce keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for a day or two. However it tastes better if you let some of the chill come off of it before serving. Also, give it a stir before serving as the sauce may separate a little while it chills.
Tip: The easiest way to snip chives is with a pair of scissors. Just hold a bunch of chives together in one hand and work your way down with a sharp pair of kitchen shears.
