Pear Harvest Salad

By Chef May 21, 2023 3 Mins Read

I really don’t think we eat enough salads around here, sure, during the Summer when there is a bounty of vegetables from the gardens we’ll focus on dinner salads or a big chef salad. Yet during the colder months of the year, salads seem to get pushed aside for one reason or another, whether it be in favor of a hearty stew or we just don’t equate salad as a meal when it’s cold.

That is our loss because there are so many flavors that can be combined and made into a salad that represents all of nature’s bounty. I adapted this recipe from one I stumbled across on Taste of Home. I wanted a salad we could enjoy as a meal, either lunch or dinner but realized I didn’t have enough of one of the ingredients. It all worked out in the end and it really worked well by blending additional flavors together.

Let’s get cookin’…grab a 2 quart bowl and combine together the Nakano All Natural Rice Vinegar, olive oil, green onion, sugar, salt, and cayenne pepper. Whisk in the milk and heavy cream, I used 2% milk but you can adjust for whatever you like, also you could certainly replace the milk and heavy cream with 1/2 cup of half & half. I just used what I had in the fridge.

While the flavors are coming together in the vinaigrette grab a small pan and over medium heat melt the butter and then add the nuts and sugar and stir together until they are coated with the melted sugar and toasted. Spread the coated nuts onto a paper towel and allow to cool.

We’re almost there…while the nuts are cooling cut the pears and tear the leaf lettuce. The recipe called for the pears to be thinly sliced but I chunked them.

To finish up take a large bowl and combine the lettuce, pears and cooked nuts. Add 1/3 of a cup of the vinaigrette and toss to coat.

Serve as a dinner salad or as a meal by itself and you could certainly add more vinaigrette or serve as additional dipping sauce.

The Nakano All Natural Rice Vinegar helps add a little more zing along with the cayenne pepper and even though I had to adjust the types of nuts it worked well and I liked the differences you could taste. This salad works great as a dinner salad yet is also hearty enough to make it an entire meal.