This Garlic Goat Cheese Souffle makes a lovely light lunch or dinner. It is perfect with a side salad or some green vegetables. The goat cheese and broiled cheese topping complement the sides as well.
The recipe is adapted from a recipe in The Dave Nichol Cookbook. The cookbook used to feature the President's Choice Brand of various products. They used to have hundreds and hundreds of products but it seems they have discontinued a large number of them and just kept the best selling items. Too bad...they were quite adventurous and good quality products.
No one flavour is overpowering here. Both the garlic and the goat cheese end up being quite subtle. The creamy tomato sauce is also a nice touch.
I make this recipe often. Souffles have a bit of a reputation for being difficult but this one isn't. It isn't designed to double or triple in size and tower over the souffle dish. I make and freeze individual portions for future lunches. It is better when first made but it is quite forgiving after being frozen and reheated in the microwave.
When you are making this fresh you need to factor in an hour for the roasted garlic. I often roast 2 or 3 bulbs at a time and freeze them. You can rewarm them in the microwave and they are ready for any recipe.
This would make about 6 appetizer servings or 4 lunch servings. Serve it with a green salad and you have a wonderful lunch.
Update 14 May 2018
As I was updating the recipes for the nutritional values I decided I should figure out a way to lighten this dish up.
- You can easily reduce the oil in the roasted garlic to 1 tsp.
- You could also reduce the cream in the tomato sauce to a half or even a quarter cup of 5% cream or whole milk.
- You can use light cheese for the topping or only use the parmesan. You will still get a flavour accent.
Wine Pairing for Garlic Goat Cheese Souffle
This is a fun dish to pair for wine. The creaminess of the soufflé and the brightness of the tomato sauce would call for a fairly high acid wine to cut through the cream and stand up to the sauce.
For White I would lean toward a clean and crisp Chardonnay either unoaked or lightly oaked. A Chenin Blanc, also known as Vouvray, or a Muscadet Sèvre et Maine (Melon Blanc) would also go well.
A medium bodied red would go well. Think Barbera or Primitivo from Italy or a Southern Rhone blend.
Garlic Goat Cheese Souffle
Ingredients
Roasted Garlic
- 2 bulbs garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon dry white wine
- salt and pepper
Souffle
- 2 Tbsps butter
- 3 Tbsps flour
- ¾ cup milk
- 6 oz goat cheese crumbled
- 3 large eggs separated
- Roasted garlic
Sauce
- 1 cup passata tomato sauce
- 1 cup light cream (I use 10% but 5% would work too)
- ¼ cup fresh parsley minced
Topping
- 3 Tbsps fresh parmesan grated
- 3 Tbsps shredded Gruyere cheese
Garnish
- Basil and/or cherry tomatoes for garnish
Instructions
Roasted Garlic
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Slice the top off the bubs of garlic just so clove tips are shaved. Set each bulb on a piece of tin foil big enough to eventually wrap up the bulb. Drizzle olilve oil and wine over top of the bulbs. Season with salt and pepper. Close up foil so bulbs are sealed.
- Roast garlic packets about 45 minutes. When cool enough to handle squeeze the garlic out the top of the bulb. Garlic should be a light brown, creamy paste consistency. Mash the paste with a fork to smooth it out as much as possible.
- Leave the oven on for the souffles.
Souffle
- Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat. Whisk in flour and cook 1 minute. Whisk in the milk slowly and bring to a simmer. Keep whisking so you don't have any lumps of flour.
- Add the goat cheese and stir until melted. I twill only take 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.
- In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks. Take 1 cup of the cheese mixture and whisk into the egg yolks. Be careful that the cheese mixture is not too hot or it will curdle the egg yolks. Next whisk the rest of the yolk/cheese mixture back into the sauce pan with the rest of the cheese mixture. Put back on low heat and stir until mixture is incorporated and thickened. this will only take a half minute or so.
- Transfer cheese mixture back into the large bowl and incorporate roasted garlic paste. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap right on the surface of the mixture so it doesn't develop a skin.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixture until stiff but not dry.
- Fold the egg whites into the cheese mixture.
- Spray 6 ramekins with cooking spray and divide mixture evenly among the ramekins.
- Place the ramekins in a large baking pan. Pour boiling water into the bottom of the pan until ramekins are half submerged.
- Bake in center of the oven for 25 minutes. Cool in the water pan for a further 10 minutes then remove ramekins.
- Heat passata and cream in a small sauce pan or microwave until warm through.
- Set the oven to Broil setting. Carefully unmold ramekins onto a clean baking sheet. Sprinkle with cheeses.
- Broil until cheeses are melted and tops are golden. Watch carefully so they don't burn.
- Spoon tomato mixture onto individual plates and arrange souffles on top of sauce. Garnish with parsley, basil and cherry tomatoes.
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