Pear, Pomegranate and Pecan Salad

July 28, 2015

[x_section style=”margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px; padding: 30px 0px 0px 0px; “][x_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” bg_color=”” style=”margin: 0px auto 0px auto; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; “][x_column bg_color=”” type=”1/4″ style=”padding: 20px 20px 0px 20px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 1px; “][x_text class=”center-text “]by Jaime James, London Food Editor

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[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s a gloriously sunny day in London, with perfect blue skies and white puffy cotton candy clouds. I am sitting here at my work desk with every intention of writing this post, but my eyes are stealing glances out the window. It’s the kind of day that would be perfect for a picnic out at the park with friends and family.

I love picnics. Long before shopping malls were popping up everywhere in my old hometown, it was what families did on weekends. My parents, uncles and aunts bundled all us kids into their cars, with blankets in tow, and lunch boxes and drinks packed into the boot of the car. Some days we even had a barbecue pit strapped to the back of a pickup truck! With everything set, we left our city worries behind and rendezvoused to a beach called Tanjung Aru.

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We are miles from a beach in London, and having lived in flats for the past eight years I find myself longing for wide open spaces more and more. Luckily for me, there are parks and gardens in abundance all around the city. Also perfect for picnics.

Something else also perfect for picnics are salads, and I found this recipe whilst going through my archives a couple of weeks back. It’s made simply with baby leaf lettuce, pomegranate seeds, thinly sliced pears, pecan halves, and shaved mature cheddar; tossed lightly in a honey mustard dressing. It’s delicious as a side salad, but you can also add slices of grilled chicken breasts to turn it into a satisfying main.I’m really looking forward to spending more of this summer outdoors, but first there’s also something else that needs a lot of time and attention; my home-based pâtisserie and my hope to grow it into a high street store someday. When I think of all the sacrifices my husband and family made for me to make the transition from corporate employee, to pastry student, chef, and business owner, I owe it to them to really make it work. And so that’s what I must focus on going forward, which means that this post will be the last I write as one of the editors for VRAI Magazine. I’m so thankful to the team and all our wonderful readers for it’s been a brilliant experience and I’ve met such lovely people through the VRAI Magazine community, all who made me feel so welcome. I know I’ll still be following their stories closely and as always, am excited to see what adventures the team will embark on in the future.

With best wishes and lots of love, Jaime x[/x_text][x_share title=”Share this recipe with friends ” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” google_plus=”true” linkedin=”false” pinterest=”true” reddit=”true” email=”false”]

Pear, Pomegranate and Pecan Salad with Honey Dijon Mustard Dressing

Recipe Type: Salad

Author: Jaime James

Ingredients

[b]For the Salad[/b]
1 Packham pear (firm and the skin should still be green)
1 ripe pomegranate
½ cup whole pecans (to be roughly broken to serve)
125g block of mature cheddar cheese (to thinly slice)
Bunch of baby leaf lettuce, roughly chopped
Small handful of roughly chopped fresh coriander[br]
[b]For the Dressing[/b]
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp orange blossom honey
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper

Instructions

Toss all the salad ingredients together in a large serving bowl.
In a separate bowl whisk together all the dressing ingredients and set aside.
Lightly toss the salad and dressing just before serving. This salad is best served chilled.

Notes

This is a wonderfully versatile salad and there’s so many ingredients you can add to bulk it up as a main or to create variations. Here are some ideas:[br][br]• Serve with slices of chicken breast simply roasted with sea salt, and black pepper. Make twice amount the salad dressing and drizzle half over the chicken breast.[br]• Jazz up this lovely salad by adding a combination of salad leaves. Some of my favourites that would work brilliantly in this recipe are lamb’s lettuce, rocket (arugula), and baby spinach.[br]• Other hard cheeses like pecorino romano, or parmigiano-reggiano are great substitutes for this recipe.[br]• Also delicious additions are figs and walnuts.

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