Pear Salad with Creamy Walnut Vinaigrette

My Pear Salad with Creamy Walnut Vinaigrette is just about the first thing I make when gorgeous pears show up in my grocery store.   The star of this fall salad is a whole pear that’s been thinly sliced and stacked so you can still see the shape of the fruit; it’s beautiful enough for the holidays.

I love to serve pears this way in a salad because it retains their pretty shape, and makes such an elegant presentation. You can slice the pears with a very sharp knife and a steady hand, or you can do it the easy way, on a mandolin slicer.  What’s fun about the mandolin is that it will slice through the pear and the stem, so you get a great look to your salad.

An earthy walnut vinaigrette is a perfect match for creamy, mild pears.

Walnuts and blue cheese are classic pairings with pears, but I took it a step further with my creamy walnut vinaigrette.  I used walnut oil, which is so aromatic, and provides a nice change from the ubiquitous olive oil dressings.  This recipe becomes ‘creamy’ because the oil emulsifies with the mustard and vinegar in a small food processor.  I drizzle the oil in slowly while the machine is running which fuses everything together into a creamy dressing that will not separate.

This pear and arugula salad is so easy to make, but really makes an impression on the table.  I served it on individual salad plates, but you could also arrange it a large platter, family style, with multiple pears.  I can’t imagine a more elegant way to showcase this wonderful fall fruit.

What type of pear work best for this salad?

I used Bartlett pears, one of the most common grocery store varieties.  Bartletts start out a pretty shade of medium green, and turn yellow as they ripen.  They become super juicy as they ripen, so it’s best to catch them when they are ripe, but still firm enough to slice.  Once they get to the yellow stage they’ll be too soft and juicy to slice thinly and neatly.

If you want to make this salad and your pears are ripening too quickly, just store them in the refrigerator, this will slow down the ripening process.

How to keep sliced pears from turning brown ~

Pears, like apples, will turn brown soon after you’ve sliced them, it happens because of a chemical reaction between the cut flesh and the air, called oxidation.  Luckily you can slow that process way down and keep your sliced pears looking fresh by tossing them in lemon juice, or a solution of lemon juice and water.

Another one of my favorite autumnal salads is this Kale and Fall Fruit Salad with Cider Poppy Seed Dressing ~ it’s another example of how I always try to include a unique dressing with any of my salad recipes.  The cider poppy seed is another creamy dressing.

This gorgeous Harvest Salad comes with one of my favorite dressings, Pomegranate Allspice ~ you’re going to want to file that recipe away for other salads, too, the flavor is totally unexpected and so good.