This is one of my favorite salads for this time of year. It features seasonal ingredients (pears and pomegranate seeds), as well as blue cheese, and it looks wonderfully festive in the bowl and on the plates.
On the occasion when these photos were taken, I used romaine lettuce because I had it in my Full Circle organic produce delivery, but I normally use a combination of spinach, arugula and endive. I also served the cheese on the side, because the host did not like blue cheese.
Once you’ve made this salad for the first time, I encourage you to experiment with different greens–and perhaps you’ll include it on one of your holiday menus.
Fall Salad
4 ounces spinach, washed and dried
4 ounces arugula, washed and dried
1 head endive, sliced into 1-inch slices
1 ripe pear
Seeds of 1/2 pomegranate
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
Basic Vinaigrette, to taste (recipe below)
Tear the greens into bite-size pieces and put into a large salad bowl. Dress the greens lightly with vinaigrette. Slice the pear into quarters, cut each quarter into 1/8-inch wedges, and toss with a small amount of dressing in a separate bowl. Then add the pear to the greens, sprinkle pomegranate seeds and blue cheese crumbles over the top, and serve.
Tina’s Tip: My favorite blue cheese is currently from Oregon’s Rogue Creamery.
Basic Vinaigrette
2/3 parts oil
1/3 part vinegar
Dijon mustard
Sugar
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
This is my favorite all-purpose dressing “recipe.” With salad dressings, you don’t need to be exact–everything is to taste, so start with the right proportions of oil and vinegar and then add small amounts of mustard, sugar, salt and pepper, adjusting until it is as you like it.
Thyme with Sage 