Salad Win

When Snark passed on a recipe for salad for this Tuesday's assignment, I was actually really thrilled. Most people would be like... "You don't win friend's with salad!" and while that's true in some circumstances, in this case  - it's the total opposite. 

My friends and I pride ourselves on the creative and delicious things we can do with some greens, veggies and homemade dressing. There is always at least one, if not two, large salads at our weekly potluck gatherings, and it's always exciting to see what toppings/dressings accompany it. 

I hosted a Rosh Hashannah dinner last week, and it was the perfect opportunity to test out Snark's recipe. As I looked it over, I made a few edits of my own, omitting the green onions (not huge raw onion fans over here) and substituting goat cheese for the Roquefort. Everything else stayed the same.

Ingredients

• 1 head leaf lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
• 3 pears - peeled, cored and chopped
• 5 ounces Roquefort cheese, crumbled
• 1 avocado - peeled, pitted, and diced
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons prepared mustard
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a skillet over medium heat, stir 1/4 cup of sugar together with the pecans. Continue stirring gently until sugar has melted and caramelized the pecans. Carefully transfer nuts onto waxed paper. Allow to cool, and break into pieces.
2. For the dressing, blend oil, vinegar, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, mustard, chopped garlic, salt, and pepper.
3. In a large serving bowl, layer lettuce, pears, blue cheese, avocado, and green onions. Pour dressing over salad, sprinkle with pecans, and serve.

Luckily, The previous weekend I had some good friends visit me and bring with them a gift of salad greens. It was huge...I'm talking pillowcase huge.

 

The greens looked positively scrumptious and I couldn't wait to use them in this salad. I just needed to get the rest of the ingredients. A trip to our local farmer's market provided me with the goat cheese and pears, both local products. I love when I'm able to use the bounty of the area in my meal...you know, the whole farm to table movement is pretty awesome and I'm lucky to live in an area that really promotes it. 

I may have bought some nectarines as well. nom.

On the day of our big dinner, I assembled all the ingredients and plunged ahead in the long standing tradition of salad making. I made the dressing first, and I have to say that this dressing was fantastic. The garlic added a bite of spice to it, which complemented the sweeter aspects to the salad and it wasn't too oily. I'll definitely be using this dressing on future salads.

 

I'm not sure why more people don't make their own dressing. Easy & delicious!

My next step was sugaring the pecans. I followed the directions and added the sugar and nuts to a pan over medium heat. Then I waited...and waited...and waited. My nuts weren't getting all sticky. The sugar remained a solid and I wondered if I was doing something wrong. I double checked the recpe to see if I had accidentally omitted something and I even sent a text to Snark wondering what was wrong. Snark had chosen that day to leave her phone uncharged, so with no answer from her, I had to figure it out on my own. 

I thought I smelled the nuts burning, so I shut the heat off. I figured I could just have salty nuts without the caramel. Then, because I had nothing better to do, I put the heat back on and waited...and waited...and waited. Finally after almost thirty minutes the sugar began melting and coating the nuts. I was overjoyed! Maybe my organic hippie sugar takes longer to hat up, who knows. But it would have been helpful if the original recipe had some sort of time description for this part. 

I'm glad I saw it through because the candied nuts were perfection on the salad. Sweet, and with a delicious crunch, they added another level of flavor and texture to the salad.

Once the nuts were out of the way, the actual salad itself was easy peasy to assemble. When I served it to my friends later that evening I was blown away at how much everyone seemed to love it. I even received the accolade of "this is your best salad yet!" - which among my friends is high praise indeed. I absolutely loved this salad, and it will definitely enter the rotation of dinnertime starters at our house. Perhaps the best show of appreciation came from my husband, who is not really known for his love of salad: he had two helpings!