Outrageously Delicious Asian Pear Salad with Maple Dijon Dressing

I have been thinking about this making a pear salad for a while now and when I received a boatload of amazing baby salad greens from my winter share at the Medway Community Farm CSA, I new today was the day.

Look at how amazing these greens look!

Farmer Brittany tells me that the greens in this week’s harvest include: Mizuna, Red Giant (small) and Tat Soi! All new to me!  That’s why I love belonging to a community supported agriculture program.  I am exposed to foods I may never have tried, and these freshly picked greens are beyond amazing!

Today, at lunch, I enjoyed a simple salad with the greens dressed simply with fresh lemon juice and Trader Joe’s garlic flavored olive oil.  Of course, some chunks of sharp cheddar for protein and calcium and a dash of salt and pepper.  So simple and so tasty!  Here’s what the oil looks like, you may just want to pick up a bottle on your next Trader Joe’s run! But beware…it’s really garlic-y!

So…for tonight’s dinner I made a ton of roasted vegetables–just added a bit of my new garlic infused oil and some sea salt.  I have lots of veggies around the house so I roasted up kohlrabi, broccoli, cauliflower and Japanese turnip.  I also cooked up a sugar pumpkin to try because I had one of those kicking around too!  My house, seriously, looks like a farmer’s market! Of course I had some center cut pork cutlets for the carnivores in the house and also made the Outrageously Delicious Asian Pear Salad with Maple Dijon Dressing!

The secret to the pear salad, I think is in the lemon-y, mustard-y and maple syrup infused salad dressing.  It takes no time to whip up and is worth it’s weight in gold. But I also love using Asian pears because they have a nice texture and just the right amount of sweetness.  Asian pears taste a little like an apple and a pear.  Here’s the Asian pear I used for my tasty salad.

A small amount of gorgonzola cheese adds just enough punch to this salad. Gorgonzola is a creamy blue cheese. The greenish-blue penicillin mold imparts a sharp, spicy and tangy flavor.  I also tossed in a few toasted pecans but walnuts work great too.  Toasting nuts in a skillet or in the oven until they are lightly browned and fragrant really brings out the flavor!  I love adding them warm right onto the cool salad greens.

Slice up the pear with the skin intact so you get all the great nutrition and fiber and toss with the greens.  Garnish with nuts and cheese and drizzle with dressing.  Voila!

This salad tastes great with baby spinach or watercress too but use whatever salad greens you like.

Outrageously Delicious Asian Pear Salad with Maple Dijon Dressing!

Salad Ingredients:

1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced

1/3 cup gorgonzola cheese, crumbled

½ cup toasted pecans, chopped

4 cup baby salad greens (baby spinach, watercress, arugula, whatever you like!)

1 Asian pear, thinly sliced

Best EVER salad  dressing: Maple Dijon Dressing

3 TB. Lemon Juice

2TB. maple syrup

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

¼ cup olive oil

salt and pepper

Whisk all ingredients and dress salad.  You will likely use most of the dressing but may have some leftover for tomorrow!