This Pear and Blue Cheese Salad is a delicious little side salad that is a great transition from summer into cooler temperatures–you could serve it at, say, a Labor Day potluck with grilled goodies or you could serve it alongside your favorite roast beef or pork. You could also add strips of grilled chicken to make and serve larger portions as a dinner salad. It’s a versatile recipe to have in your arsenal!
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
Dressing
- Red wine vinegar
- Granulated sugar
- Course-grain mustard – Such as Creole mustard.
- Fresh garlic
- Kosher salt
- Onion – White onions can sometimes be quite strong. Yellow onion or other sweet variety may be the best choice.
- Olive oil
- Black pepper
Salad
- Romaine lettuce
- Fresh pears
- Avocado
- Granulated sugar
- Chopped pecans
- Blue cheese – Gorgonzola, Roquefort, or anything labeled “Blue Cheese” will work great here.
- Dried cherries – Optional.
How to Make a Pear & Blue Cheese Salad with Candied Pecans
Dressing
- In the jar of your blender, combine some red wine vinegar, granulated sugar, mustard, garlic, kosher salt, and onion. Blend until smooth.
- With the blender running, slowly add the Olive oil in a steady stream until completely blended. Add black pepper to taste and refrigerate until ready to dress your salad.
Salad
- Prep your candied nuts: Toss your chopped pecans in a skillet with some sugar and stir constantly over medium heat until the sugar melts and coats the nuts then spread the nuts out to cool on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.
- Assemble salads: While the nuts are cooling, toss the chopped lettuce, diced pears, and avocado. Add the crumbled blue cheese and candied nuts.
- Dress: Drizzle with desired amount of dressing and toss gently to combine then serve immediately. This will serve about 4-6 as a main dish and 8-10 as a side dish.
Storing and Other Tips
- Assembled salads are best eaten fresh! If you have leftovers or want to plan ahead, store salad components in the refrigerator (except nuts) and build your salads as needed.
- Store your finished dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 3-4 days for best results.
- This recipe will serve about 4-6 as a main dish and 8-10 as a side dish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make this ahead of time?
Like most salads, this one is best eaten fresh. You can certainly make your dressing a day ahead of time and candy the pecans to help assembly go more smoothly!
I really don’t like blue cheese. Could I use something else?
Feta would be a great substitution here!
Could I use other fruits?
You could absolutely use sliced apples in this salad.
Pear & Blue Cheese Salad with Candied Pecans
Candied walnuts, pears, avocado, and crumbled blue cheese come together in this versatile salad. Great as either a side or as a main dish if served with grilled chicken.
Servings side salads
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 head Romaine lettuce 2 two heads of Romaine hearts
- 3 pears seeded and diced
- 1 avocado pitted and diced
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- 4-5 ounces crumbled Roquefort or Gorgonzola cheese
- dried cherries optional
Dressing
- 6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon course-grain mustard such as creole mustard
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ cup roughly chopped onion
- ⅔ cup olive oil
Instructions
Dressing
- Combine the vinegar, minced onion, sugar, mustard, garlic, and salt in the jar of your blender and blend until smooth. With the blender running, add the olive oil in a steady stream until combined. Season with black pepper to taste and refrigerate.
Salad
- Spray a sheet of aluminum foil or parchment with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. In a small non-stick skillet (if possible), stir the nuts and sugar constantly over medium heat until the sugar melts and the nuts are evenly coated in the sugar syrup. Spread the nuts over the prepared sheet of foil or parchment and let them cool completely.
- While the nuts are cooling, toss together the chopped lettuce and diced pears and avocado. Add the crumbled cheese and candied nuts, and dried cherries if using, then drizzle the dressing over the salad as desired and toss gently to combine. If serving as a meal, you can add grilled chicken. Makes 4-6 main dish servings or 8-10 side dish servings.
Notes
- Note: This dressing recipe has been edited from the original version posted due to reader feedback.
- Nutrition information reflects the salad only, without dressing.
- Assembled salads are best eaten fresh! If you have leftovers or want to plan ahead, store salad components in the refrigerator (except nuts) and build your salads as needed.
- Store your finished dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 3-4 days for best results.
Nutrition
Calories: 199kcal, Carbohydrates: 20g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 13g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 6g, Cholesterol: 11mg, Sodium: 165mg, Potassium: 264mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 13g, Vitamin A: 165IU, Vitamin C: 5mg, Calcium: 89mg, Iron: 0.5mg
Calories: 199kcal
Cost: $7
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Questions & Reviews
One of my favorite restaurants makes a similar salad and I LOVE it. COuple that with me being a Our Best Bites fanatic, I couldn’t wait to try this. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much onion! Maybe I had super-strength onion??? It was overwhelmed my palate completely and it was all I could taste. I am going to make the dressing again with MUCH less onion. I think it would be really good with that change.
Also I did the calorie count on this salad and it came in at 2,000 for the whole recipe. I used a little less of the high fat ingredients and easily shaved off a lot fat and calories without sacrificing flavor. Reduced-fat blue cheese is amazing! I would never know it was reduced fat!
I would have to agree, the dressing was so pungent, as to be overwhelming. To fix it I had to sprinkle additional sugar over the salad, after I had already tossed it with dressing, to make it palatable. Maybe a sweet onion would be better. The whole family loved it though, but that dressing stays with you the rest of the day.
I made it and we loved it! Read all about it here: http://www.busyasabeeinparis.com/2011/09/pear-and-blue-cheese-salad-with-candied.html
And I took advantage to give you a nice loud shout-out!
Great job on your blog!
Bisous xoxo
Might help someone reading comments:
It’s much easier to peel a pear using a potato peeler. I used to pare them like apples and then peel them with a paring knife like apples, but that is so much more difficult than just treating them like potatoes! This recipe looks great, but I love the sweet dressing from the apple walnut salad and I might use that one instead of this one…
I made this last night. It was fantastic!
Oh my gooness YUM. So glad I found your site. I was in Costco the other day and came across your book. I was like a Mormon Mom’s Cookbook in Costco… in Los Angeles!! I bought it.. and found you on the internet. Congrats on your success.
Did not see #13 comment. Clearly, Emily’s MIL and I are on the same page o’ the cookbook.
Actively drooling.
Is it OK if I throw in some Craisins or similar, or is that totally not-done?
Yum! My mother-in-law makes this exact salad but for the cheese she buys that bleu cheese that is rolled in dried cranberries at Costco. Divine!
WARNING: this comment has nothing to do with this recipe, but I don’t know where else to put it 🙂
Hi! I’ve loved your site for a long time and I while I was living at home I loved being able to make all of your fun recipes and being able to have something a little different for dinner. The only problem is that I just moved away to college (at BYU no less!!!! :)) and I no longer have my mother’s wonderfully stalked kitchen or her ability to get some expensive ingredients. So my question is this, could you direct me to some great recipes that only require a few ingredients? I’ve got the basics, flour, sugar, milk, a few spices, etc, but that’s pretty much it. I’m just struggling to find a recipe that doesn’t make me buy a grocery kart full of new ingredients that I may never use again. ALSO do you recommend I get anything else for my primitive kitchen? I saw your list of things to stock a kitchen with, but I don’t feel like i’m to that level yet 🙂 Thank you so much! I love reading your blog and look forward to new entries all the time!
You got me at candied nuts! 😉 Looks so good, Kate! :)) I am totally diggin’ this fall-ish weather! 🙂 I actually baked pumpkin bread the other day because I just HAD to have some ‘fall’ food (even though it was like 98* out!) 🙂