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This refreshing pear and walnut salad is perfect for any season—but especially late summer early fall. It’s easy, tasty, and healthy!
They say you don’t make friends with salad, but this Pear and Walnut Salad disagrees.
My favourite way to eat salad is to combine either bibb lettuce or spinach with a fresh fruit, a dried fruit, a nut, a crumbly cheese, and a light and delicate dressing. This method doesn’t just leave room for a ton of variety, but loads of creativity too. It also guarantees a flavour and texture profile that will blow everyone’s minds – even those who are known to typically curl their lip at a salad. I’m not just saying this – my younger cousin and his fiance came over for lunch yesterday afternoon and this was the starter. A proud carnivore, my cousin admitted that if every vegetable dish tasted like this one, he would contemplate vegetarianism. HIS WORDS GUYS, not mine. Just passing along the message.
In short, serving this salad the next time you have guests over for lunch or dinner is probably a great idea.
Pear and Walnut Salad
Ingredients
- 1 head of bibb lettuce, chopped
- 1 large pear, cut into spears
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries, Craisins
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese, or more
Instructions
- Toss all of the salad ingredients into a bowl.
- Serve with balsamic dressing.
Love it with spinach, bibb, and/or romaine but am not a feta cheese aficionado so I used some diced mozzarella…and I Paul Neuman’s balsamic dressing, dribbling it into the bottom of my salad bowl and then giving it a light movement (too light to call it a toss). Oh…and pecans are great with it too!
Yup – I basically have a system with salad that goes like this: spinach or bibb + feta/goat/fresh shaved parm + a fresh fruit + a dried fruit + a nut + a vinaigrette. I find that I can get so many great combinations with that system and I’m never disappointed! A lot of great textures, too.