Community Pick
Spinach Pear Salad from Restaurateur, Tom Douglas
photo by Geema
- Ready In:
- 35mins
- Ingredients:
- 21
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
-
Curried Cashews
- 3⁄4 cup cashews (about 3 ounces)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon dark brown sugar
- 1⁄2 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-
Honey-Sesame Vinaigrette
- 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- coarse salt
- freshly ground pepper
- 1⁄2 cup vegetable oil or 1/2 cup peanut oil
-
Salad
- 1⁄2 lb smoky thick slab bacon (about twelve 1/4" thick slices)
- 12 cups loosely packed spinach leaves, no stems,torn to bite-size
- 6 cups loosely packed frisee, torn to bite-size
- 2⁄3 cup red onion, thinly sliced
- 3 small pears, halved,cored,thinly sliced
- 6 bunches grapes, small for garnish
directions
- Curried Cashews: Preheat oven to 400°; toast cashews on baking sheet for 8-10 minutes or until golden; combine remaining ingredients; add hot cashews, toss until coated; set aside to cool.
- Honey-Sesame Vinaigrette: Combine all ingredients and whisk until emulsified.
- Salad: Cut bacon into 1/2" pieces and cook until crisp.
- Put greens, onions and sliced pears in a bowl and toss with enough vinaigrette to coat everything well.
- Place salad on six plates; sprinkle each with bacon and curried cashews; garnish with cluster of grapes placed at the side of each plate.
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Reviews
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I don't know where I found the recipe I use for this salad. Mine is the exact same except for the amounts of lettuce and fruit. This is delicious!! I took this to a friend's home for dinner and put the dressing, nuts and bacon in separate containers to mix just prior to serving. I sub apple cider vinegar, since that's usually on hand. I have substituted horseradish mustard for the Dijon with good effect as well. Think I might try adding some julienned Swiss cheese and chicken for a complete meal. This is yummy.
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WOW!! When I saw Geema's review of this salad I HAD to try it and we were not dissappointed. WE LOVED IT!!! I did use bacon and I think it's a must for an added dimension. I couldn't come up with slab bacon so I bought the thickest cut I could find. We're thinkin' this salad is getting served the next time we host our gourmet dinner club. Thanks so much for sharing.
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Tweaks
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Wow!! My family raved over this great salad!! I had to substitute a few ingredients due to the lack of availability. I used cider vinegar instead of white wine and regular mustard instead of dijon, and increased the amount of honey. It was a great salad and everyone loved it! Thanks for the recipe! It will be made often!!!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
sugarpea
Snohomish, WA
I’m a former interior designer and landscape designer. At the moment I get to enjoy being at home and working only when I want to. I like rollerblading, hiking, backpacking and trips to the ocean. I grew up on a farm in the Midwest and moved to the Northwest when I was thirty, over twenty years ago. I’m afraid they’ll have to bury me here in WA. This is God’s country and I’m never leaving.
I have a smallish collection of cookbooks, preferring to use the library and a copy machine. Among my favorites though, are: Recipes 1-2-3, by Rozanne Gold, a collection of recipes containing no more than 3 ingredients (excepting water, salt and pepper); A Treasury of Great Recipes, by Mary and Vincent Price, recipes collected from friends and chefs of great restaurants around the world; The Mediterranean Diet Cookbook, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins, about a collection of cuisines I’m convinced are the healthiest in the world and The Low-Calorie Gourmet, by Pierre Franey.
Currently my passions are our dogs, the garden, cooking, the natural world and of course, Dh. I can now add Zaar to that list of passions (translate: addiction). We have three dogs, two rescued and one adopted. They are Sugarpea, a Golden Retriever, Chickpea, a Llasa Apso and Sweetpea, a Shih Tzu; small, medium and large. We’re quite a sight out on the trail. One of the things I am most fond of about living here is the ability to vegetable garden year ‘round.