This salad has a flavor that evokes the feeling of winter. The pears, goat cheese and balsamic dressing does something to your taste buds that makes you feel comfortable in the dead cold of winter. Of at least that’s what it does to me. This salad is a winter version of a strawberry goat cheese salad that is served in the summer.
This salad is very easy to assemble and can be eaten as a side salad or with chicken for a complete lunch or dinner.
This serves 4 side salads or two entree salads
Ingredients
1/2 onion, cut into rounds
1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
1 pear, diced
8 ounces organic baby spinach
Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing (recipe below)
Directions
- Prepare and chop the salad ingredients as stated above
- In a large bowl add the spinach to the bottom
- Layer the onion, walnuts, goat cheese and pear slices on the top of the spinach
- Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette dressing and toss if serving immediately
- Option: add sliced cooked chicken on top for a complete meal (we all need to make sure we get our protein)
Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon prepared organic mustard
1 clove garlic, grated
dash of stevia
salt and pepper
1/2 cup organic olive oil
- Pour the balsamic vinegar in the bottom of a bowl or mason jar. There are a couple of techniques you can use for making this dressing. You can use a mason jar, add all of the ingredients at once and shake it up to combine. The other way is using a bowl. Below is the exact way on how to make the dressing in a bowl.
- Put the balsamic vinegar in a bowl
- Add the mustard, garlic, stevia and freshly ground pepper and a high quality healthy salt. (I always choose Himalayan salt). The easiest way to prepare garlic for the dressing is to grate it with a microplane or fine cheese grater. Nobody wants to find big chunks of garlic in their dressing. The fine grating will cause it to completely mix and flavor the whole dressing.
- To combine, drizzle the 1/2 cup of olive oil in the bowl while you are whisking it all together. Once all of the olive oil is in the bowl, continue to whisk until the oil has emulsified with the vinegar. You may have to repeat this last step if you don’t use it immediately
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