Pomegranate Pear Salad
There’s simply no excuse for a boring salad.
Today I’m sharing a winner of a salad recipe I’ve personally tested with three different groups on three different occasions with overwhelming success each time. It’s an inventive crowd-pleaser, and I suggest you tuck it into your back pocket so you’re armed and ready the next time you’re asked to be the salad guy or gal for a gathering.
The first time I made this Pomegranate Pear Salad was for a holiday celebration on my dad’s side of the family. Let’s just say we have lots of “conventional American eaters” in this group – peeps who load up on meat and dairy and go light (or totally skip) the veggies and anything else they deem “new or exotic.” This group wants their food familiar, hearty, and not necessarily healthy. But at least half of the group tried my salad and loved it. Several of my cousins and aunts asked for the recipe after commenting on the bright, interesting flavors – the ultimate compliment. Success!
Since then I’ve made it for two distinctly less fussy groups of friends, all of whom strive to eat healthy. I was pretty confident they’d enjoy it, but even so you can never be sure that salad is going to go over well on a cold winter’s day. I’m happy to report it ended up being a delicious complement to chili one day and to roasted chicken and sweet potatoes another day. I think the palate cleansing flavors and the natural sweetness in the fruit and dressing hit those taste buds that didn’t get satisfied by the spicy and savory flavors in the rest of the meal.
The original recipe came from the Salad Girl blog, a resource I share with all my clients. If you tend to think of salads as boring, your assignment is to browse that lovely site. I’ve used it as a resource over a dozen times and haven’t been disappointed yet. It’s a reliable source of inspiration. I ended up making some tweaks to the original recipe this time. Below is my spinoff:
Pomegranate Pear Salad
Yield: 6-8 servings
8 oz fresh mix of local baby greens
1 cup pomegranate seeds (fresh are better for the fun “pop” they give, but frozen will work if that’s all you can find)
2 ripe pears, thinly sliced or diced
1 cup chopped pecans (I use unroasted, unsalted pecans)
1/2 cup – 1 cup white cheddar shavings or Peccorino Romano, depending on how much your audience likes cheese
1/2 cup red onion, sliced paper-thin
Salad Girl Pomegranate Pear Salad Dressing (widely available at Lunds, Byerly’s, Kowalski’s, Twin Cities Food Co-ops, Whole Foods, etc.)
When ready to serve, simply add salad fixings to salad greens and toss well. I typically let each individual dress her own salad with the Pomegranate Pear Dressing, but feel free to dress the salad just before serving, if you think that will work better for your group.
