In this pear walnut salad, slice pear, shallots, blue cheese and walnuts top leafy romaine and is drizzled with the most amazing pear vinaigrette!
Didn’t I just posted a salad that had sliced pears in it?
In my defense, that salad only triggered this nasty chain reaction to make more salads, and more salads with pears, and pear salads drizzled with a delicious pear vinaigrette. Overkill? I think not!
Someone please tell me that I’m not the only one who dreams about making a pear salad dressing? Can I be? Hello?
Have you ever had a pear vinaigrette? I haven’t… well, until this afternoon. While some devilish brownies baked in the oven, it only felt right to balance my chocolate lunch dessert out with a little salad. And since pears are all over the place these days, I picked a few up, nabbed some pear vinegar and juice, then (fingers crossed) sought out to make me a pear vinaigrette. Before I show you the goods, I first want to cover a few “salad basics”.
There are three major things that make up a good salad.
1. Good lettuce. I’m talkin’ bout romaine, spinach or arugula etc… Iceberg is aiiight, but to me it tastes.like.nothing.
2. Toasted nuts or seeds. Throw your favorite nuts in a dry pan and toast until they’re fragrant… and by fragrant I don’t mean burnt. mmm k?
3. Cheese. Really any will do, like feta, brie, any form of blue cheese, oh and Parmesan. Just to name a few I’m really not picky. It cheese… ya know?
To Make This Pear Walnut Salad You Will Need:
for the vinaigrette:
- pear juice
- pear infused vinegar
- olive oil
- fresh thyme leaves
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
for the salad:
- baby romaine lettuce leaves
- red pear
- shallot
- toasted walnuts
- blue cheese
- coarse sea salt, to taste
I saved you the trouble by not posting the whole rigmarole of slicing a pear, toasting walnuts. However, you can get the gist by reading this post.
Then in a medium bowl add 3 tablespoons of pear juice.
Next add 1 tablespoon pear vinegar.
Then while whisking like a crazy person, slowly stream in2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Yes!
Next, add the leaves of a few sprigs of thyme and then add in some freshly ground black pepper. Whisk some more.
Finally, it’s ready to serve.
I quickly poured it over top my salad of baby romaine, sliced shallots, toasted walnuts, pear slices, blue cheese and then delicately sprinkled with coarse sea salt. I died.
And it looked like this. Ohhhh… this pear walnut salad was good, and it wasn’t because I skipped breakfast, had two cups of coffee, made brownies and had some severe-low-sugar-mixed-with-too-much-coffee “shakes”. I promise, because I made it the next day and it was equally just as awesome.
Enjoy! And if you give this Pear Walnut Salad recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
Pear Walnut Salad with Pear Vinaigrette
Ingredients
FOR THE VINAIGRETTE:
- 3 tablespoons pear juice
- 1 tablespoons pear infused vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 sprigs thyme, leaves removed (discard stem)
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE SALAD:
- 5 ounces romaine lettuce leaves
- 1/2 red pear, cored and thinly sliced
- 1 medium shallot, sliced thin
- 2 tablespoons toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons blue cheese
- coarse sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- In a medium bowl add the pear juice and vinegar.
- While whisking, slowly stream in the olive oil.
- Scrape the leaves off of two sprigs of thyme and add in the black pepper. Whisk to combine
- Assemble romaine leaves and top with sliced pear, shallot, toasted walnuts, blue cheese and season with sea salt to taste. Drizzle with desired amount of the pear vinaigrette and enjoy!
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THANK YOU in advance for your support!
you know, i can never have too many salads with pears…and walnuts are PERFECTION with them.
go ahead, post more pear salad recipes…dare ya 😉
Oh, but pears are so perfect in salad! To be honest, I really don't like them on their own. I need the tang of a good vinaigrette to make them appealing, so I agree with Heather above, post away!!
This sounds so yummy! Love this idea 🙂
I love everything in this salad! The pear dressing sounds absolutely wonderful- can't wait to make it.
This sounds heavenly. I love all of the flavors and textures, and your photos are beautiful! So fresh and vibrant!
This looks delicious! I have been obsessed with making salads with sweet elements for about a month now. I don't normally use pears because I get impatient waiting for them to ripen, but they are so good on salad!
Giiiiiiiirl this looks so pimp!
Oh YUM. I second your thoughts on lettuce! Cant stand iceberg…
I am not as huge on nuts in my salad, but I'll take a few for the accent 🙂 The vinaigrette looks fabulous, and who doesn't love pear and apple in their salad? 🙂
WOW this salad looks amazing! You had me at pear vinaigrette! 🙂
yummy…tasty one..Bookmarked laurie
Aarthi
http://yummytummy-aarthi.blogspot.com/
Such a classic pairing, looks delicious!
It's a work of art, I am hooked on Strawberries in salads.
Not over kill at all! Keep 'em coming!
I've never had pear vinagrette before, but it sounds amazing! And it's totally making me crave a huge bowl of this salad!
Have you tried roasted pears in a salad with blue cheese and nuts? Because shut up. I die. (I've been missing The Rachel Zoe Project and have taken to using her catch phrases. I don't always talk like this.) Its ba-nan-uhs with some bitter greens. Ugh. I'm done now. I'm off to find pear vinegar.
I'm on a bit of a diet lately, so this salad is right up my alley! I've been getting bored with my salads, so this comes at the perfect time for me!
now this is a salad i want to eat!!
This vinaigrette sounds awesome. You are right about iceberg too, tastes like nothing! Love this salad!
Yum, it sounds sounds delicious. Anything with pear is great! You have awesome pictures too.
I dream about marvelous looking salads. This one certainly fits that title. I love the posts since I am still trying to eat as many veggies as possible to get some of the extra sugar out of my system.
Need to buy Pear Vinegar NOW!!! I love vinaigrettes, and this one sounds amazing! Totally ok as a side to a Brownie lunch 🙂
This looks like my kind of salad-yum!
Bee – a – utiful! Love the colors!
Beautiful! LOVE salads with nuts, cheese and fruit!
ADORE your blog! I'm protesting all the January cleanse biz that people are on and trying to find healthier January food so will try your lime-baked tortilla chips & homemade salsa YUM
Stellar ingredients! I never knew that there was such a thing as pear vinegar! What a dressing to top off those fresh ingredients!
I, too, am a bit pear obsessed. Thanks for sharing this! I need a good winter salad!
Hey! This looks delicious…can i substitute the pear olive oil with something else? Lovely photos :-).
Hi Flavor Carousel! By chance did you mean pear vinegar? If you want a substitute for that try a tablespoons apple cider vinegar 🙂 hope this helps!
I love these sort of winter salads. I make a lot of variations – pears and walnuts are two of my favorite ingredients for them!
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