Pear and Blue Cheese Salad with Saffron Vinaigrette

Serves 4

This recipe makes plenty of vinaigrette, so if you have extra, toss it with cooked whole grains and serve the combination with grilled or poached fish. The local blue cheeses that fit nicely into this salad are Winter Hill Farm Bradbury Mountain Blue, Hahn’s End Blue Velvet, Lakin’s Gorges Cheese Cascadilla Bleu or Spring Day Creamery’s Spring Day Blues.

2 tablespoons minced shallots

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

¼ cup saffron poaching liquid (see recipe, page XX)

½ cup neutral oil such as canola, grapeseed, or sunflower

¼ teaspoon salt

2 cups spring greens

4 ounces aged blue cheese, crumbled

¼ cup toasted nuts (pictured here are Marcona almonds)

2 saffron poached pears, sliced in half

In a medium bowl, combine the shallots, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, poaching liquid and salt. Let sit 10 minutes to mellow the shallots. Slowly whisk the oil into the vinegar mixture so that the vinaigrette emulsifies.

Divide the greens, cheese, nuts, and pears among four plates. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and serve immediately.

From Issue

No. 12 / Spring 2020