Substitutions for goat cheese
So many recipes call for goat cheese but some members of my family don't like it. What can I substitute?
Goat cheese is like cilantro: People either love it (count me in) or they don't. On the plus side, fresh goat cheese is easy to produce on small farms, making it a darling of the local-food movement.
On the minus side: Some people don't like the slightly chalky texture and astringent flavor.
The trick to substituting any ingredient is to aim for a similar texture. Obviously, the flavor will be different, but you want something that has a similar feel in a recipe. Cream cheese is a little too dense to be a good stand-in for fresh goat cheese.
One substitute that I think works well is boursin, available in tubs in the cheese section of most supermarket delis. It's a mixture of cream cheese and butter, so it has a lighter, fluffier texture.
