What Is The Best Cheese For A Salad Topping?

The best cheese for a salad topping depends both on the other ingredients in the salad and your own personal tastes. With the variety of cheeses available, any number of them makes a great topping for salads served on the side of a meal or as main dish salads. There are classic pairings as well as innovative combinations that you may never have tried.

Cheeses Used As Salad Toppings

Bleu cheese, such as stilton and Roquefort, are creamy, strong flavored cheeses that add a nice touch to simple greens. They are also a nice complement to salads contain sweet elements, such as apples, pears, or berries. Greek Feta cheese has a salty flavor that pairs well with many different salad ingredients. Parmesan cheese, with its nutty, salty flavor, is commonly used on pasta dishes as a topping, but is equally good when topping a salad. Cheddar cheese, with its rich, buttery flavor is another excellent choice for pairing with salad greens. Mild, savory Swiss cheese shredded on top of greens is also a delicious choice of salad toppings. Goat cheese, often served warm on top of salads, has a tangy taste that also complements a number of salads.

Green Salad

A simple green salad made with mixed lettuces, tomato, and cucumber can be topped with several different types of cheeses. Grated cheddar is a traditional pairing, but you can experiment with a combination of cheeses to add some variety. For example, some shredded Swiss cheese in addition to shredded cheddar make a nice combination. Depending on the type of dressing you use, you may want to try another cheese, such as feta with a simple vinaigrette dressing. Warm goat cheese or flavored feta is delicious on its own as well, so you can eliminate any dressing at all.

Spinach Salad

Spinach salad is also quite versatile and is delicious with a variety of cheese toppings. Paired with walnuts and a drizzle of olive oil, goat cheese is an excellent topping. A bit of crumbled bacon, along with a red wine vinaigrette and goat cheese is another delicious combination. Feta cheese can be used as well. Berries can also be added to a spinach salad with goat or feta cheese for a delicious touch.

Greek Salad

Feta cheese is traditionally used in this Mediterranean delight. Tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives, red onion, green pepper, seasoning, red wine vinegar, and olive oil topped with squares of feta cheese make up this classic treat. You can add or eliminate ingredients to suit your tastes, as the feta will complement variations.

Chicken Salad

Fresh grilled chicken strips over a bed of greens are delicious when topped with nonfat yogurt, tarragon, and crumbled bleu cheese, such as stilton, Roquefort, or gorgonzola. The strong flavor of the bleu cheese complements the simple flavors of the chicken and yogurt. It lso goes very well with aged Cheddar or Swiss.

Steak Salad

Thinly sliced steak over a bed of spinach or lettuces, along with some tomatoes and cucumbers is another salad that pairs well with bleu cheese. The bleu cheese brings out the richness of the meat for a delicious main dish salad.