Spinach Pear Salad with Cranberries and Blue Cheese
In the fall and winter, this Spinach Pear Salad with Cranberries and Blue Cheese will make you forget that you’ve been longing for garden tomatoes and summer produce. It’s both delicious and memorable!
This delicious Spinach Salad Recipe is perfect for fall featuring autumn fruit, pears, and cranberries.
Why You Should Make this Simple Spinach Salad
- This salad hits all the marks. My ideal green salad must have fresh fruit, dried fruit, cheese, and nuts.
- The irresistible salad dressing doesn’t hurt either!
- For this autumn salad, I went with Bartlett pears, dried cranberries, a creamy blue cheese, and toasted almonds. But you can definitely substitute your favorite greens, cheese, etc.
- Fall salads can be just as amazing as the peak of the season summer salads!
Spinach Salad Recipe
By the time my dinner club could agree on a date, it was early December. My Oktoberfest theme was out, so I just went with an autumnal vibe.
This spinach pear salad would make a lovely light lunch, a terrific addition to a big family meal, and is even elegant enough for special company. If you’re not into pears and blue cheese, try the lovely poppy seed dressing on your favorite spinach salad!
More Seasonal Salad Recipes You’ll Love:
- Fall Harvest Salad from A Beautiful Plate
- Winter Salad with Apples, Pecans, Blue Cheese and Dried Cherries from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Fall Salad with Maple Candied Pecans, Bacon, Apples, and Shaved Brussels Sprouts from Bless This Mess
- Roasted Fall Vegetable Salad with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
- Fall Quinoa Salad from Amanada’s Cookin’
Pear Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing
In the fall and winter, this Spinach Pear Salad with Cranberries and Blue Cheese will make you forget that you’ve been longing for garden tomatoes and summer produce. It’s both delicious and memorable!
Ingredients
Salad:
- 5 ounces of baby spinach
- 2 Bartlett pears, cored, cut into quarters, then thinly sliced*
- 4 ounces blue cheese, cut or broken into small chunks
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries (Craisins)
- 1/4 of a small red onion, sliced thinly and soaked in ice water for 15 minutes
Salad Dressing:
- 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
- 1/8 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
Instructions
Divide spinach onto 4 plates or salad bowls. Arrange the rest of the ingredients over spinach.*
Soaking the onion in ice water mellows the bite.
Make the dressing by whisking together the vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper in a Pyrex measuring cup or mixing bowl. Whisk in the honey.** Slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the mixture emulsifies. Whisk in the poppy seeds.
Pour dressing over salad, making sure to lightly coat the pears to prevent oxidation.
Notes
*To prevent the pears from oxidizing (turning brown), you may want to cut them right before serving. Alternatively, toss the pear slices in some the salad dressing up to an hour before serving to prevent browning.
**Originally, I added the honey and poppy seeds at the same time. That made a mixture that was tough to emulsify. It still worked but took a little more muscle.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 516Total Fat: 40gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 29gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 624mgCarbohydrates: 35gFiber: 5gSugar: 25gProtein: 9g
15 Comments on “Spinach Pear Salad with Cranberries and Blue Cheese”
Wow, certainly didn’t expect the pear & spinach to go together, Liz! Love the combination! Check out our latest Giveaway to Win USD 50 Open to All Worldwide! xoxo
Yummy salad! Nice vinaigrette as well that would work on a variety of salads.
Perfect salad for the season. Recently, I started adding fruits to my salads and now know what I’ve been missing. The Mr even liked them. You certainly did hit all the marks on this one. No extra protein needed.
I love pears and think they are an underused fruit. You’ve certainly created a tasty salad.
Beautiful winter salad, I love the pears and cranberries!
Why do I not put more pears in my salads!? This is genius!! I might swap the blue cheese for goat 😉
Pear salads are some of my favorites! Love this combination of flavors too.
What a pretty winter salad, I just love the variety of textures and flavours. I usually poach my pears this time of year because they are usually so hard here. JT would love this combo.
What a gorgeous salad. I love how you’ve composed it. I happen to have a little extra blue cheese in the fridge1
Seasonal produce at its best, this is a sensational salad, I love everything about it, thank you for the recipe 🙂
we are on the same thought process. I love pears this is awesome, I will try it. Have everything to get it set for my lunch today! thanks
Ah! I must try this. I have never added pear to salad before. But I’ll leave out the blue cheese 🙂
I could eat a salad like this every day of the week! The dresing sounds wonderful. And just the thought of spinach makes me feel healthier!
Sounds great! All of the salads in your ‘you might also like’ photos look great too:@)
Definitely my kind of salad! Fresh and so good for us too. Thanks for sharing, Liz.