Scrambled Eggs, Cheese, and Avocado Tortilla Bowl Recipe
September 16, 2025
Pear Salad with blue cheese Recipe
This Pear Salad is a stellar mixture of flavours harking back to your favorite cheeseboard: juicy pear with piquant pops of blue cheese, toasty walnuts and a Honey Mustard Dressing. Peppery rocket (arugula) is a perfect refreshing distinction to make use of because the leafy base.
This is a wonderful salad choice for a starter, or as a classy facet salad!
This can be a salad that’s all about basic and pure pairings, issues we *at all times* see on cheeseboards. That’s as a result of they only work so effectively collectively, but you might not have considered combining them in a salad. Combos like:
✓ Fruit and blue cheese
✓ Fruit and honey
✓ Fruit and nuts
✓ Cheese, honey and nuts (have I lined all combos there? 😂)
Oh, plus some leafy greens. This transforms our “cheese board” right into a salad!
It’s a scrumptious manner to make use of pears after they’re in season for one thing apart from dessert (similar to this Pear Pistachio Tart or this Pear Blue Cheese Slice). It’s additionally one which blue cheese lovers can get enthusiastic about! 🙋🏻♀️
Right here’s what goes into this Pear Salad:
Pears
I really use 1 1/2 pears which for me is a pleasant quantity for an entire package deal of rocket/arugula (commonplace measurement 120g / 4oz which is round 5 packed cups). In order for you a extra pear-forward salad, be at liberty to make use of extra pears, it’s actually as much as you.
Finest sort of pears – Use any selection you need, so long as they’re ripe. I used Beurre Bosc pears (those with the cinnamon-coloured pores and skin) that are pretty widespread and good worth right here in Australia when in season. Packham, Josephine, Corella Pears, even nashi pears – all of them work.
Blue Cheese
Finest to make use of one that’s barely creamy however nonetheless agency sufficient to be crumbled, like pictured. As a key ingredient on this salad, the higher the cheese, the higher the dish! Listed here are my favourites:
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Roquefort – Made out of sheep’s milk, this well-known French cheese is creamy sufficient to be spreadable however agency sufficient to crumble. That is my favorite to make use of for many blue cheese salads. Different French blues I like to make use of: St Agur, Fourme d’Ambert, Bleu d’Auvergne. These are offered at most Harris Farms and a few Woolies as of late (Australia).
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Gorgonzola – An Italian blue that ranges in texture based mostly on selection, from extremely creamy to extra crumbly. I like gorgonzola piccante (90 days aged, creamier, most rounded flavour), adopted by the higher worth gorgonzola dolce (60 days aged, milder, and glorious worth for cash).
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British Stilton – Barely sharper than the above two, this cheese isn’t for the faint hearted! Attempt to get an aged one for a smoother flavour.
Extra choices: Danish blue cheese can also be a very good choice for a greater worth choice. And for many who are new to blue cheese, Blue Castello is an effective one to start out with (essentially the most gentle, and good worth). Australia additionally produces some glorious blues as of late that aren’t arduous to search out like these from King Island.
Keep away from blue cheese that’s like brie (ie. too creamy to crumble on salad) or actually agency and crumbly ones, that are too crumbly to stay to the salad substances (they only fall to backside of bowl).
Rocket (arugula)
I believe this peppery lettuce is right for this salad as a result of the sharp flavour contrasts properly with all the opposite tastes occurring. A extra impartial leafy inexperienced, like child spinach, wouldn’t actually deliver something to this dish in my opinion.
Walnuts
Walnuts is a basic alternative for a blue cheese salad. Although really, different nuts will work simply as effectively like almonds, pecans, hazelnuts. I wouldn’t use peanuts (bit odd, I believe?) or macadamia nuts (perhaps too wealthy with blue cheese).
I opted for a Honey Mustard Dressing right here as a result of honey with pears, walnuts and cheese is a basic pairing. Candy, savoury, nutty, creamy, juicy – it pushes all the suitable buttons!
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Honey – For the flavour, sweetness and to thicken the dressing.
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Dijon mustard – Additionally to assist thicken and emulsify the dressing whereas including a contact of tang and flavour.
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Cider vinegar – The principle tanginess within the dressing. Any gentle(ish) vinegar will work instead – white wine vinegar, champagne or sherry vinegar,
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Additional virgin olive oil (or extraordinary olive oil) – The higher the oil, the higher the dressing! When you have flavoured nut oils like hazelnut or walnut oil, they’d even be great to make use of as a substitute right here.
As a starter
This can be a salad that’s preferrred for serving as a starter. By no means underestimate the ability of a very good salad as a starter! If it’s attention-grabbing sufficient like this and has a little bit of wow issue, it units a fantastic tone for the remainder of the meal.
Meal
As a meal, serve it with a facet of home-made bread if you need to a lightweight however satisfying meal:
As a facet salad
As a facet salad, as a result of the blue cheese makes it fairly wealthy (although every serving solely as a bit of crumble) attempt to serve it with one thing that doesn’t have an overwhelmingly sturdy sauce. In any other case, you’ll simply have too many flavours competing in your plate – and we would like this salad to shine!
Listed here are some strategies:
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Roast chicken – A gorgeous basic roast chicken served with the herb-garlic-butter pan juices
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Crispy Herb Roast Chicken items – This can be a household favorite to make in large batches
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Prime Rib (Standing Rib Roast), Marinated Roast Beef or Marinated Beef Steak – Large beefy flavours are a superb pairing with blue cheese typically.
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Pork! Both a roast pork (with crackling, after all!), pork chops with a savoury rub or Lemon Garlic marinated pork chops.
Get pleasure from!
