This Pear Pecan Autumn Salad is a perfect side dish for steaks, chicken or a comforting pasta.
A monumentous moment happened last weekend: we picked up our Big Green Egg from Breed and Co. we were gifted for our wedding.
What I love about registries now is you can create funds for people to collectively give to big ticket items. I'm here for crowdsourcing anything! We're all in this together, people.
Since Reagan and I prefer to live minimally, with less posessions, it is nice to have the option to add expensive items to our registry we know we will cherish, like the Big Green Egg, that we are likely never going to buy for ourselves.
And now, everytime we fire up the Big Green Egg, we will think of those who helped us by this incredible grill and smile. And they will be with us in spirit as we gather around the table.
Anyway, back to the salad... kind of. Since we now have this new toy, Reagan has been eager to grill every night and wanted to test out ribeyes. And, immediately remembered Camille Styles blogged about a yummy fall salad that might pair well with the steaks.
Upon further investigation, I decided I wanted to make some changes to the salad to better partner with steaks -- and voilà! The Pear Pecan Autumn Salad was born.
So really now -- onto the salad. This salad was super easy to throw together and I had all of the ingredients on hand for the dressing - which was taken exactly from Camille's salad recipe here.
I now will throw this recipe into the mix our fall side salads to have in my back pocket for a quick and super-satisfying meal. It also helps that the ingredient list is so simple it will be easy for me to remember what I need to make this again.
Pro-tip: Add blueberrries to add a little more color and pop of sweetness and toast the pecans to add even more depth to the flavors.
Pear Pecan Autumn Salad
Serves
Prep
15 minutes
Categories
gluten-free
Ingredients
for the salad:
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1 5 oz box of arugula
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1 pear, thinly sliced
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3/4 cup pecans, chopped
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1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
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1 avocado, sliced
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1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
for the maple cider vinaigrette:
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1/4 cup olive oil
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2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
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1 minced garlic clove
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1 tablespoon maple syrup
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2 tsp dijon mustard
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1 tsp salt
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1 tsp pepper
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Add arugula, sliced pear, red onion, chopped pecans, avocado and blue cheese to a large bowl.
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To make the apple cider vinaigrette, combine the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until creamy.
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Drizzle maple cider vinaigrette over the salad and toss until the dressing is spread evenly throughout.
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Taste to make sure salt/pepper ratio is adequate -- add more to your liking.
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Enjoy!
