Pear Gorgonzola Salad with Plum Vinaigrette

This recipe for a pear Gorgonzola salad includes a delicious homemade plum vinaigrette for a tasty fall dish you can eat as a side or a meal.

What can you bring to a party in the fall? Why not a giant fall salad? I made this pear and blue cheese salad recently to take to my brother's house and everyone loved it.

Making a Pear Gorgonzola Salad for Fall

To start I made a plum reduction sauce with fresh black plums. This will be used to make a delicious dressing for the salad.

All you need to do is add some water, enough to cover, and simmer the fruit until it reduces. I've done this to make a peach butter sauce and a blueberry sauce before and they all turned out great.

You can add sugar and/or lemon juice to these reductions but you don't always need it.

A few plums will reduce down to a sauce as shown above. I ended up with about 1/3 cup of plum sauce.

Combine the plum sauce with light olive oil, cider vinegar, and a dash of mustard for a lightly sweet dressing that pairs really well with pears and gorgonzola.

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I chose red Anjou pears for this salad because they are so pretty. However, if you can't find red, green, or brown Bosc pears will work just as well.

Options and Subsitutions

• This salad uses a large container of washed spring mix greens but you can use any greens you like. Romaine, spinach, even iceburg would work.
• Gorgonzola cheese is a little creamy and that's why I love it but you can use Roquefort blue cheese instead. In fact, feta or goat cheese would also be good candidates.
• Pecans are a favorite however, walnuts, pistachios, or pine nuts would be good substitutes.
• I mentioned different pears would work well but I also think apple slices would be a good substitute.
• Make a standard dressing or use your favorite bottled dressing instead of making the plum vinaigrette. However, you definitely want to try it at some point because it's really delicious.
• Substitute a different fruit reduction such as blueberry, cranberry or raspberry for the plum sauce.

This pear gorgonzola salad is perfect for fall. However, it can easily be adapted to with fresh seasonal ingredients all year long.

Pear Gorgonzola Salad with Plum Vinaigrette

This delicious bed of spring mix greens comes together with pears and gorgonzola cheese, pecans, and a homemade plum dressing.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Additional Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 50 minutes mins

Course Salad Recipes

Cuisine American

Servings 10

Calories 157 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 pound baby lettuce greens
• 2 cups of thinly sliced red pears
• 1 cup of rough chopped pecans
• 4 ounces of crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 1 cup of plum vinaigrette

Plum Vinaigrette

• 1 cup fresh plums
• water to cover ~ 1 cup
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3/4 cups olive oil light
• 1/4 teaspoon dijon mustard
• salt and pepper

Instructions

 

• Heat the chopped plums and water on high until they come to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer and reduce for about 20-30 minutes. Cool.
• Combine plum sauce with vinegar, oil, mustard, salt, and pepper in a mason jar.
• Create the salad in a large bowl combining all the baby lettuces with the pears, pecans, and cheese.
• Shake up the dressing and pour 1/2 on the salad. Toss well.
• Add more if dressing if desired.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 157kcalCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 2gFat: 14gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 4mgSodium: 100mgFiber: 2gSugar: 4g

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although attempts have been made to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.

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