Herbed Goat Cheese Fondue

Hope your week is off to a good start! My Monday consisted of getting work done, heading to the dog beach with Adam and Harley, and getting a workout in. After being sore all weekend from my gym session on Friday, I was happy to not feel so achy today and headed to the gym for what turned out to be a great workout. I felt fabulous afterwards. 🙂

Last Saturday, Adam and I had a laid back night hanging out at home. When coming up with a dinner idea, I thought it’d be a perfect night to indulge in something fun and new. I had ripped a recipe for goat cheese fondue out of Vegetarian Times magazine, and decided to give it a go. I made a few changes to their original recipe, such as using Fontina instead of Swiss cheese. (As big of a cheese lover as I am, I don’t enjoy Swiss at all.) I cooked using a regular saucepan since I don’t own a fondue pot, but if you have one, use it!

Note: this makes a lot of fondue! Adam and I had this as our dinners and barely made a dent in it.

Herbed Goat Cheese Fondue

Serves 8 

Ingredients:

• 1 c lightly packed fresh parsley leaves
• 1 c lightly packed fresh basil leaves
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 1 c of white wine (Chardonnay)
• 8 oz crumbled goat cheese
• 8 oz reduced-fat cream cheese, cubed
• 2 TBSP cornstarch
• 1 c soy milk (regular or other types of milk work too)
• 1 c grated Fontina cheese

Finely chop parsley, basil and garlic. Place in a bowl and set aside.

Bring wine to a boil in a medium saucepan. Simmer until it’s reduced by half, around 5 minutes. Whisk in the goat cheese and cream cheese, and cook until melted.

In a bowl, whisk the cornstarch into the milk. Add the milk mix to the goat cheese mix, and cook about 3 minutes or until it thickens, whisking constantly.

Add in the Fontina cheese, and whisk it frequently until all the cheese has melted.

Stir in the herb mixture, then pour into a serving bowl. Eat with dippers of your choice. We had our fondue with skewers of cherry tomatoes and soft pretzel pieces, slices of red bell pepper and Triscuits.

Nutrition stats: 230 calories, 15 g fat, 9 g protein, 6 g carbs