Lunch To Go – Spinach and Pear Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

One cheese. Two cheese. You cheese. Blue cheese.



I know blue cheese isn’t everyone’s favourite flavour, but I personally love it. The taste is a lot more interesting than some other cheeses you can find in a supermarket. It also goes really well with the other flavours in this recipe – it’s contrasted by the sweetness of the pear and tanginess of the dressing, and sort-of backed by the neutral flavours of the spinach and the nuts. If, however, blue is absolutely not your style, you could probably swap it for some dry feta in this recipe (… but in my opinion, I don’t think it would taste as good).

Also, when your picking your pears for this recipe, it’s really important that it’s at its right stage of “ripeness”. If it’s too young, the pear will be too hard and not as juicy, but if it’s too old, it will taste soggy and grainy. When you’re picking up a pear, try to look for ones that have a firm, but not hard consistency – those will be the ones you want to use.

Salad

Spinach leaves
One pear
Crushed pecans/walnuts
Blue cheese – crumbled

Mustard Vinaigrette

1/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 ½ tsp prepared mustard
½ tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
black pepper to taste (or none if you don’t want any – I actually forgot to put this ingredient in. haha)


Directions:
Mix dressing ingredients. The dressing recipe will actually make enough for 5 or 6 servings, but you can easily store any extra in the fridge.

Make as much salad as you like and pour dressing on top. Simple and fast :)