This salad is full of so much flavor and texture Giant juicy blackberries, sweet ripe pears, salty bacon and crumbled cheese. Plus a poppy seed vinaigrette made with red wine vinegar. If you’re looking to round it out as a meal salad, it’s great with avocado and/or grilled chicken or even sliced steak.
Ingredient Notes
- Romaine Lettuce
- Spring Mix or other mixed greens
- Chopped Walnuts
- Bacon
- Feta, gorgonzola, or blue cheese
- Red or Green Pears
- Blackberries
- Sugar
- Salt
- Dry Mustard
- Onion
- Red Wine Vinegar
- Neutral oil – like avocado or vegetable
- Poppyseeds
How to Make Blackberry Pear Salad
- In the jar of a blender, combine all the dressing ingredients except the oil and the poppy seeds. Blend until smooth. With the blender running, add the oil in a steady stream. Transfer the dressing to a storage or serving container and whisk in the poppy seeds.
- Combine your salad ingredients. As with all salads, you can add as little or as much of each individual ingredient that you’d like.
- Drizzle or toss with dressing and serve immediately.
Blackberry & Pear Salad with Red Wine Poppyseed Vinaigrette
Juice pears and blackberries, toasted nuts, tangy cheese, and a perfect dressing come together in this great salad!
Ingredients
For the salad
- 1 head romaine lettuce washed and chopped or torn into bite-sized pieces
- 1 package mixed greens
- ⅓ cup chopped toasted walnuts or pecans (candied/glazed, if desired)
- ⅓ cup cooked and crumbled bacon
- ½ cup crumbled gorgonzola blue, or feta cheese
- 1-2 red or green pears sliced
- 1 small package blackberries washed and dried
For the dressing
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoons dry mustard
- ¼ cup diced onion
- ½ cup red wine vinegar
- ¾ cup neutral oil like avocado or vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoons poppy seeds
Instructions
- In the jar of a blender, combine all the dressing ingredients except the oil and the poppy seeds. Blend until smooth.
- With the blender running, add the oil in a steady stream. Transfer the dressing to a storage or serving container and whisk in the poppy seeds. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- In a large bowl, toss together the salad ingredients.
- To serve, either toss the salad in the dressing immediately before serving or allow people to drizzle it on individual salads.
Did You Make This Recipe?Snap a picture, and hashtag it #ourbestbites. We love to see your creations on our Instagram @ourbestbites!
Questions & Reviews
When you add grilled chicken, would you marinate it in the red wine vineagerette dressing or another kind ornament dressing?
You could definitely use this dressing! 🙂
I made this salad for a banquet of 80+ and it rocked the house! One compliment that I was given was “this was the best thing that I have ever put in my mouth.” I have always been hesitant when it comes to bacon in salads unless it is a quality spinach salad. SHOCK MY CORE!!! It worked so in sync. I did use shallot in my dressing and chose goat cheese. I used walnuts (which I toasted–too easy; and a must). I like to IMPRESS (only with my cooking ((;) and this recipe is the one I recommend to you!
Oh, yay!!! I’m so glad it impressed! 🙂
BTW–that was a sharp WHITE cheddar. The colors of the salad are beautiful as is.
This salad was a delicious beginning to our Thanksgiving Day feast. I made the recipe with only one change–coarsely grated a good sharp cheddar to please a wider range of palates. (We have some feta and blue cheese haters in the family!) It was a great combination that I will be making again. I directed everyone who requested the recipe to your site. Thanks much!