Arugula with pear & blue cheese
This Arugula with Pear & Blue Cheese salad was a fun exercise. It proved everyone can change, which is a good thing I hope 🙂 .
My lovely wife has never been a fan of eating what she calls weeds. Arugula would have fallen into that category, but one Arugula with Pear & Blue Cheese Salad changed it all.
Now, I’m not suggesting she’ll be eating Frisée anytime soon but it’s a start.
Honey,
I Love you like a mouse Loves Cheese 🙂
Salads can be as simple as a dressing and some leaf greens, or they can have 16 different ingredients. Some fine dining restaurants might take a couple hours to make a salad. On the other hand I can throw a Salad together in about 5 minutes for lunch, who has time lol.
This Arugula with Pear & Blue Cheese Salad is on the easier side but with a few extras. If you decide to add these special touches I’m sure your guests will notice.
special touches your guest will love
One special touch is the addition of Candied Pecans with Turmeric. These little pockets of spice will add a surprise punch of flavour to the salad.
The second is a Vinaigrette that works wonderful with this salad. Pear Cider Vinaigrette is a nice crisp accompaniment, loads of sweet Cranberries and Pear in the Salad balance the light acidity of the Vinaigrette.
All in all there isn’t much to putting an Arugula with Pear and Blue Cheese salad together. Find yourself a nice serving bowl and add everything except the dressing.
Dried Cranberries, Candied Pecans with Turmeric, Pear and Blue Cheese create a nice balance of sweet and acidic. The spiciness of the Turmeric is just an added bonus for your taste buds.
Presentation hints
Do you ever look at beautiful pictures of food and say mine doesn’t look like that. Or go to a restaurant and say that looks incredible, because of that I’ll let you in on a little secret about presentation.
Except for the Arugula, hold a small portion of the other ingredients back in a small bowl. The reason those pics look so good is because they garnish after it has been plated.
For serving the Family in one bowl, dress the Salad with a Vinaigrette and sprinkle the reserved ingredients, garnish, on top for a fuller look.
If you’re serving guests on individual plates, hold off on the dressing. Toss the Salad together without the Vinaigrette first. Portion the Salad onto the plates, garnish then drizzle the dressing over the top, much fancier.
Little touches like this make food more appetizing to the eye, and we all say things like ” that looks incredible ” or ” you should have seen it “. So now is your chance to show off to Family and Friends.
Arugula with Pear & Blue Cheese
Ingredients
- 142 g Arugula That is the size of the packages where I shop
- 1 large Pear whatever is in season
- 1/2 C Radicchio Optional but adds nice colour and bitterness
- 1 C Candied Pecans with Turmeric See notes:
- 1/2 C Sultan Raisins
- 1/2 C Blue Cheese Use a dry one so it crumbles easier
- 1/2 C Pear Cider Vinaigrette or Vinaigrette or your choice
Instructions
- This is how I cut the Pear but anyway you want, just keep it visually interesting. I keep the skin on the Pear, cut it into quarters, core and slice into thin strips.
- Similar with the Radicchio, cut a chunk that's a 1/2 cups worth. Slice it into thin sheds similar to the way you might slice a Cabbage.
- If you are using the Candied Pecans with Turmeric great skip past here, if not give the Pecans a little toasting over low heat in a pan. Don't walk away from the pan, they can go from toasted to burnt very quickly.
- Before you get to tossing the salad set aside small portions of Blue Cheese, Raisins, Pear and Pecans for garnish later.
- Add the Arugula to a mixing bowl and add the Radicchio, Pecans, Raisins and give a quick toss. Add the Blue Cheese and lightly toss again.
- If you're serving in one bowl start by adding the Dressing and tossing the Salad again. Sprinkle the reserved garnish around the top and serve.
- If you're serving individual plates, start by repeating step 5 but don't add any dressing yet. Portion the Salad on to each plate, try to add some height to the Salad for more visual appeal.
- Add the reserved garnish and finally drizzle the Dressing over the top. The glistening of the Dressing will look yummy.Enjoy!!