Pear Salad with Pistachios, Bacon, + Maple Red Onion Vinaigrette

14 November 2012

I get put on salad duty a lot for family dinners.  It might be the homemade dressings, it might be the crunch of some kind of nut, and it might be the fact that I own a bowl big enough to accommodate salad enough for twenty.

It’s probably the bowl.

I try to make it match the season as much as possible.  Strawberries + sunflower seeds in the spring, grilled peach + pecan for summer, anything with apples or pears for the fall and a wedge or a cobb thrown in here and there to mix it up.

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For this one, I coupled my mom’s love of pistachios with fall pears, and crumbled bacon.  Then, I topped it all off with a red onion, maple vinaigrette… if you haven’t ever made your own salad dressing, this one has the blender do all of the work.

For the Salad:

  • Salad greens {I am lazy, I just pick up whatever organic lettuce mix looks good that day, today it was a baby romaine mix}
  • 1 – 2 pears depending on how many people you are serving, I plan for 1/3 pear per person
  • pistachios {you can substitute pecans or walnuts here}
  • cooked bacon, optional
  • bleu, goat, or cheddar cheese, optional

For the Maple Red Onion Vinaigrette:

  • 1/4 – 1/3 cup red onion, roughly chopped
  • 3 Tablespoons of real maple syrup
  • 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 2/3 cup olive oil
  • juice of half a lime
  • pinch salt, pinch of black or red pepper

Throw all of the vinaigrette ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth and a little frothy.  Allow to sit while you prep the salad ingredients. 

Chop the pears, you can slice if you want a pretty presentation or if you are going to individually plate.  When I’m making it for twenty, I just chop into bite sized pieces.  Crumble the bacon.

In a large bowl, dress the salad greens, tossing to coat evenly.  {You will NOT pour on all of the dressing, just use what you need and coat the leaves well.}  Then top with the pears, pistachios, bacon, and cheese if you’d like.

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2 comments:

Unknown said...

I will need to try this! I am loving the maple/onion sweet/hot thing.

Just A Normal Mom said...

Okay, I do this salad, but a different dressing. Your dressing recipe looks amazing! Yum. Stealing now!

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